At 8:30 A.M. on February 24 in Cable, Wisconsin, we find ourselves sprinting through a sea of Spandex and ski poles. The American Birkebeiner 50K cross-country ski race starts in 10 minutes. We meant to be here half an hour ago, but a rookie timing miscalculation—and one missing pair of skis—left us scrambling.

It’s never a good sign when a coworker handpicks you for an assignment about achieving a shorter workday, adding: “It’s because you’re the most stressed-out person I know.” But there was some truth to the superlative, and I knew I wasn’t alone.

The Chaco tan is a badge of honor

[ Print Essay ] ... At my age, everything—jobs, friends, homes, even my identity—felt like it was shifting. In the absence of physical roots, cast iron was something I could invest in, and in doing so preserve a bit of who I was at that moment in time.