Ptolemy’s writing has appeared in Harper’s Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, and several volumes of The Best Spiritual Writing and The Best American Spiritual Writing.
I’ve always been suspicious of machines. Unlike my father, who was always ready to look beneath the hood of a car or try his hand (with varying degrees of success) at plumbing, wiring, and all those other traditionally masculine aspects of home maintenance, I was always content, as a child and teenager, to make use of machines when they worked, and seek immediate outside assistance when they didn’t…