If you end up listening to this advice and doing away with the "like Ruby/Rails" requirement, but find that a random pair of functional languages is a bit too e

If you end up listening to this advice and doing away with the "like Ruby/Rails" requirement, but find that a random pair of functional languages is a bit too esoteric, I'd recommend checking out Elixir and Phoenix. Lot's of interesting ideas that can give you that monk-like enlightenment again, but you won't struggle with as many of the problems that are endemic to small ecosystems. Plus Elixir/Phoenix have been designed web-development first, and won't leave you to reinvent the wheel (or all of Rails), as you often have to when using a more spartan framework.