This June, I had the opportunity to spend just over a week at the Matthew Strother Center for the Examined Life in Catskill, New York. How can I explain the experience? “I just got back from a lovely trip along the Milky Way” is a lyric from “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” but it feels relevant after the time spent at this unique space. We were on a lovely property in the country, and I was part of a small cohort with five students. We practiced deep reading alongside an instructor and a teaching assistant. In addition to the seminars, we did chores around the farm, ate delicious meals together (prepared by a personal chef), enjoyed the scenery of upstate New York, and entertained each other in the evening during “salons.”

The Matthew Strother Center is “dedicated to the pursuit of learning and intellectual inquiry, without expectation for an end product.” The students need not be “students” anywhere else. The Center is built on the values held by Matthew Strother: intellectual rigor, humanistic study, self-reliance, practical labor, contemplation, and presence. People who affirm those values are a good fit, regardless of age, background, and occupation. Everything happens under the hospitality and guidance of Berta Willisch, the founder and president of the foundation, which is a 501(c)(3).