Envy, the Happiness Killer: “As the essayist Joseph Epstein has written, ‘Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.'”

Good News, the World Is Getting Better: “The fact is that while problems remain, the world is, in fact, getting better. We just rarely hear it.”

Letters to Jeb Bush: “I had never e-mailed Jeb Bush before, but, earlier that week, he’d told the residents of New Hampshire to contact him if they had problems that they felt he could help with—a generous invitation that I had read about online.”