My NYT Oped on the Rise of New Rituals! See Me On Book Tour!

I’m deeply emotional and profoundly grateful to share the first public unveiling of A TIME TO GATHER: My New York Times Opinion essay today on how Americans are pushing back against loneliness, hate, and division with a renaissance of new rituals that allow us to connect and make meaning together.

This entirely grassroots effort may be the greatest untold story in the world today; it’s absolutely the story of how hope can prevail over fear. I hope you enjoy A TIME TO GATHER. Even more, I hope it inspires you to create meaningful gatherings of your own that help soften the harsh edges of daily life and restitch our fraying world.

A few years ago, after my wife, Linda, and I dropped our twin daughters off at college, I walked through our front door and felt homesick in my own home. It wasn’t just my children: All my relationships felt asunder. I had just lost my dad, was losing my mom, my marriage needed to be renegotiated, my friendships remade.

I was hardly the only one. All around me, people were leaving relationships, losing jobs; googling strange, unknown diseases; feeling guilty that we’ve abdicated our loved ones for our phones. Everyone was experiencing a kind of existential homesickness.

I needed something to anchor me, and went looking for solutions. What I found was a startling story hiding in plain sight: the renaissance of ritual.

A generation into the loneliness epidemic, Americans are devising astonishing new ways to gather in real life. Fed up with isolation, polarization and digital saturation, an organic resistance of grass roots gatherers is reimagining rituals around life, love, health and family — and forging thriving communities in the process.

This groundswell of collective meaning-making may be our best shot to counter the divisive algorithms and artificial intimacies of big tech. And every person, regardless of background, can join in.

The essay concludes: “Increasingly, we face a choice: It’s virtual or ritual, URL or IRL. Ritual may not be our last hope, but it may be our best hope — one gathering at a time.”

Here’s a gift link to the entire article. Plus a link to buy the book—in hardcover or audio read by me. Nothing matters more than orders in this first week!

Also: Now is the last chance to order a personalized signed copy from a great independent bookstore. THIS DEAL MUST END ON TUESDAY, MAY 19!

We have a lot of momentum building. Next week I’ll be on CBS Mornings, NPR Morning Edition, CNN, CSPAN, and more. Also, starting this Sunday on Long Island, I’m heading out on my first book tour in a decade! Please come say hi in one of these cities—details below. And if I’m not coming your way, please invite me!

Sunday, May 17, 12:00-1:00PM. Gold Coast Book Festival panelist with Isaac Fitzgerald Oyster Bay Brewing Co. Covered by CSPAN BookTV. Info here.

Tuesday, May 26, 7PM. Conversation with bestselling author Adriana Trigiani at Barnes & Noble UWS. Info here.

Wednesday, May 27, 6:30-7:30PM. Main Point Books in Wayne, PA. Info here.

Thursday, May 28, 6PM. Barnes & Noble Philadelphia. Info here.

Tuesday, June 9, 7PM. Sidney Isenberg Lecture Series of the Atlanta History Center. Info here.

Thursday, June 11, 6:30-8:30PM. E. Shaver Booksellers in Savannah, GA, Starland location. Info here.

Finally, check out this video on my favorite books about rituals and the people who taught me so much while I was working on A TIME TO GATHER!

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Meanwhile, help us grow our community by subscribing, sharing, and commenting below. And you might enjoy reading these posts:

How Rituals Can Save Your Family — and the First Review of A TIME TO GATHER!

The Stories That Bind Us: My Most Popular Piece Ever

A Sudden Loss, A Missed Goodbye, A Lesson on How to Gather in Crisis

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