As I write this, the conflict in the Middle East continues to both raise and dash our hopes. We hear optimistic declarations and see oil prices fall, then, overnight, hostilities resume, prices rise and the volume of our national whining goes up several decibels. This incessant whining is a symptom of a deeper and more devastating moral cancer that has reached epidemic proportions in our nation. We’ve lost our ability to suffer well in the right way for the right reason.  

In one of the most beautiful yet poignant TV series available today, Taylor Sheridan’s “The Madison” confronts the reality that progressive urbanization, with its modern advances and technological benefits, has led too many of us to believe life should be comfortable, convenient and easy. Kurt Russell, a husband who loves spending time in his Montana fishing cabin on the Madison River, tells Michelle Pfieffer, his wife living the plush life in New York City, “You’ve allowed your conveniences to become your essentials.” While I won’t give away how Sheridan unfolds his underlying theme, suffice it to say that when New York finery meets Montana reality, the eroded character of the posh........

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