Don't Bogart My Blog: Sunday Best: How fast can things change?

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Sunday Best: How fast can things change?

SEPTEMBER 22, 2019

"Things take longer to happen than you think they will, but then they happen much faster than you thought they could," Al Gore notes in the cover feature in the Sunday Review. His essay coincided with a day of global protest by young people angered about inaction on climate change — if you took part, we are interested in hearing about your experience. Another big challenge for teenagers and their families these days: paying for college. See what readers have shared about the daunting cost of higher education. And keep reading for more highlights from this week. — Kathleen O'Brien, filling in for the vacationing Alexandra March

The Beauty of the Ordinary

Angie Wang

From the writer Pico Iyer: "The story of every marriage, perhaps, is the story of what happens after the endless summer ends."

The Crisis for Birds Is a Crisis for Us All

A flock of red-winged blackbirds over Long Island, N.Y.Vicki Jauron, Babylon and Beyond Photography/Moment, via Getty Images

"Birds are indicator species, serving as acutely sensitive barometers of environmental health, and their mass declines signal that the earth's biological systems are in trouble."

Does Anyone Really 'Love' Their Private Health Insurance?

Annelise Capossela

A Ph.D. student with diabetes writes: "On top of the full-time job of monitoring blood sugar, American diabetics and their families have to work a second shift fighting insurance companies to cover their care."

What Does It Mean to 'Look Like Me'?

Jun Cen

Members of minorities can find it gratifying to see people who resemble them onscreen. But resemblance is a tricky thing, the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah says.

Something Special Is Happening in Rural America

Sabetha, Kan.Feifei Cui-Paoluzzo/Moment, via Getty Images

There "is an exodus afoot that suggests a national homecoming, across generations, to less bustling spaces," Sarah Smarsh writes. "Last year, Gallup found that while roughly 80 percent of us live in urban areas, rural life was the most wished for."

Read the full Opinion report here.

Join food journalists and cooking experts for the first-ever New York Times Food Festival on Oct. 5-6 in New York City. You'll find tastings, live cooking demos and more in Bryant Park, panel discussions with food-world favorites at TheTimesCenter and extraordinary meals at 10 New York City restaurants. Come celebrate what it means to eat, drink and cook in the heart of New York City. Get your ticket here.