Comment on Belva Plain Dies: Acclaimed Novelist Dead At 95

Lily Brown hears the same thing over and over again from her patients. They’ll say, “‘All day, I’m so busy. I’ve got deadline after deadline, responsibility after responsibility. And finally, I’m exhausted, I’m so excited to get to bed—and I lie down, and that’s when my brain turns on,’” says Brown, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety.

“Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?” When Robert Eggers’ debut feature The Witch was released in 2016, this quote quickly became the film’s most popular tagline. Uttered by Satan (in the form of the goat known as Black Phillip) to Anya Taylor-Joy’s Puritan teenager Thomasin, the question is posed as an invitation for Thomasin to sign away her soul in exchange for freedom from the religious and sexual repression thrust upon her by 17th-century New England society.

Homelessness is the most glaring, visible, and unacceptable health injustice of our time. Research suggests that being homeless increases a person’s risk of death 10-fold. When a disaster like Hurricane Helene or Hurricane Milton renders people stranded without shelter, sustenance, or safety, we (rightfully) come together to help those who are displaced.

AI tools rapidly infiltrated peoples’ lives in 2024, but AI lawmaking in the U. S. moved much more slowly. While dozens of AI-related bills were introduced this Congress—either to fund its research or mitigate its harms—most got stuck in partisan gridlock or buried under other priorities. In California, a bill aiming to hold AI companies liable for harms easily passed the state legislature, but was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom.

In today’s hyperconnected world, silence and moments of quiet have become rare and precious commodities. From the moment we wake up to the instant we close our eyes, most of us are inundated by a barrage of notifications, alerts, and the endless scroll of social media. It’s not just a matter of convenience or novelty anymore—fixation on screens has become a habit, a necessity, an addiction as many users freely admit. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But rarely do we ask ourselves: at what cost? Constant engagement not only drains our time, but also robs us of something far more important: peace of mind. Silence is as critical to mental health as vitamins are to physical well–being.

There are some life lessons that can only be learned from living on a ranch—like the fact that keeping livestock fed means there’s no difference between weekdays and weekends, or how to create a budget when there’s only one payday a year. Or, in Albert Wilde’s case, that when a sheep takes a swim in a river, she comes out twice as heavy as she is when she’s dry.