Jonathan Haidt has an article for the Atlantic out this week in which argues for a perilous trajectory of American society. In Haidt’s view, that trajectory as been largely plotted the in the last decade and a half by the advent of viral social media culture. Fueled by the seemingly innocuous innovations of like and share buttons on social platforms, Haidt argues that digital culture now has become performative rather than expressive.

This week, the Hovaters made our way to Fresno to visit Kelly’s family. Their home is just over an hour away from one of our world’s treasures—the groves of giant sequoia trees nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

It’s about halfway through advent this year—the season commemorating God’s arrival in the incarnation of Christ and which also points towards his impending return as the king of the cosmos.