How can I find the balance between this calling for some save-the-world vigor and grandeur, and the yearning for a more muted, subdued life filled with peace and contentment? In these past few years, I have been harboring no shortage of idealistic visions for a world where all the current ugliness of reality ceases to…

I miss that day when I wanted to go to the old quarter in town, and you purposefully waited to catch me at the door, pretending that you were going there too. That trip ended up being our first date ever. On the same day we visited a clock tower and I only let you…