Antonin Scalia didn’t get into Princeton University. That’s one of the many things I didn’t necessarily expect to learn reading On Faith: Lessons from an American Believer, a new collection of reflections and speeches by and about the late Supreme Court justice.

He brought it up during a 1998 talk to a group of students at his alma mater, Georgetown University. He used it as an example of trusting the hand of Providence and not being stubborn about your own will. He trusted he was a “better” man than he might have been had his own will — going to Princeton — been done. For every disappointment in life, not just college admissions, it’s something worth keeping in mind. It’s important if you’re a person “who believes in the transcendental.”

And if you say you do, and can’t quite keep that perspective, it’s probably long past time you get yourself on a retreat. “If you don’t have a weekend to spare once a year to think exclusively about the things that really matter — well, then you haven’t planned your life correctly,” Scalia insisted, perhaps knowing what most of us would be thinking right about now.

That was Scalia’s pitch back on campus. And thanks to this new volume, which is full of discourses on the law, courage, vocation, and moments of grave moral concerns (such as the Holocaust), it’s his pitch to us, too.

“Maybe now more than ever” may be an overused phrase, but it applies here, for a time-out is needed in many of our lives. How many of us can even get through a traditional newspaper column without being tempted, or simply unable to resist, the urge to go check our phone for something — anything — potentially new? Everyone knows about “fake news”; how about the needless, repetitious information that we voluntarily submit ourselves to daily and that we even form what sound to be strong, emotional opinions about? Some of it is no better than gossip. Most of it not only has no positive effect on our lives, it also takes us away from the people and needs around us that should demand our attention. It’s a never-ending reality-television show that keeps trumping itself (and no, it’s not only the president!) for new plot lines.

Retreat may sound like an escape, but it’s actually more like a reboot. The culture could use one right about now. So the least we could each do is consider giving it a try.