I am glad that I didn't publicize my New Year's resolution: to blog more frequently. This first month has seen an embarrassing scarcity of posts.

I'll blame it on my work. I had to leave the leisure of my winter break for grueling days in parent conferences. Then I was back in the classroom, my most fruitful hours spent explaining the genitive case and the ablative of time to 7th graders. And in the evening, after work, I want to spend time with my wife and my daughters, good books and the cast of The Office on DVD. Blogging falls by the wayside when I'm working.

I'm fortunate, though, because my work brings with it reminders of why I blog (when I do) and why I should (when I don't). My seniors and I are reading Montaigne's Essays, and Montaigne, as I noted last year, is an inspiration and a model for my blogs. His learning and judgment flow through his essays with ease and charming grace. They are perfect instances of culture: a human mind enriched by reading the best books and that has made those books its own.

How does a book become mine, though? What does that mean? Montaigne helps me here: it means that I must judge it. Is the book helpful and insightful when it comes to living life, or is it silly and pedantic? Making a cultivated judgment involves learning and studying (what people call "book smarts"), but it also requires an honest assessment of the way things - and our selves - really are.

That encounter with reality is what distinguishes culture from effete and ineffectual erudition. The books and old ideas found in them give our gaze a depth and breadth that is often lacking in those endeavoring to simply "tell it like it is." The cultivated mind is balanced by the weight of a great, humane tradition as it engages with the contemporary scene. Because our time (like most other times in history) is shifting and unstable, culture is not just a frivolous extra for those who can afford it. Culture is an urgent need for everyone.