In his opinion column today, NYTimes writer David Brooks muses about his lifelong affection for the New York Mets baseball team. As he usually does, Brooks expands from particular to universal and winds up making an observation about what makes people truly happy. In his analysis he uses two American works of art to symbolize the choices one might make: “On the Road” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” His framing of this is a little too neat and simple, but he’s feeling nostalgic today. That he would make Kerouac’s book and story an illustration of “a core American debate” reinforces the position of that classic novel in our national culture. Something to note in the Lowell journal. Read David Brooks here, and get the NYT on your porch or online if you want more.