Enjoying Moral Superiority

It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.

-- Thomas Sowell

The range of where such applies is both wide and varied. Here might be two places it is involved: 

DOGE Is Courting Catastrophic Risk

A pandemic plan was in place. Trump abandoned it — and science — in the face of Covid-19

Life Owes Me?

It's probably time for a new coffee-maker.

I would describe the temperature of a fresh pot of coffee from my coffee-maker as...warm.  Does anyone really like warm coffee?  I don't.  So I've added the additional step in my morning coffee routine of microwaving my coffee before pouring it into my thermo-mug.  I've thought, it's just one more little thing, so I do it.

But, there are more steps involved than I'm admitting to myself (which probably simply makes my opening comment even more true).  I have to pour the coffee pot coffee into a glass mug (so that I can microwave it — you know what happens when you microwave metal) and then pour that into my thermo-mug.  This all seems to create an ever-increasing trail of items that need to be cleaned, so I also wash the glass mug (another step).  If this is getting a bit tedious even to read, imagine what it feels like to do it.  But, I digress....

This morning, while cleaning the glass mug, I dropped it in the sink.  Before I could even stop myself, I blurted out, "How does this even happen?!?".

Wait, what?

It's easy to see how it happened; I dropped it.

Besides the relatively benign significance of this (non)-event, I couldn't help but notice an unanticipated kind of echo in my unfiltered blurt — because I'm mumbling something like that more and more to myself..."how does that even happen?".  

Among other things, the mood reflected in my question is that whatever is happening, shouldn't be. So, it's not really a question after all. It’s really a statement — a statement of frustration — and that's the part worth noting.  There's an assumption in there somewhere and it appears to be growing.  Now I'm suspecting the question is not my real question anyway.  As I've pondered the dynamic a bit, I'm detecting something else the question might be revealing — a growing spirit that believes life owes me something that it isn't delivering.

I am becoming increasingly aware how much I expect life largely to work, especially if I make conscious efforts to the likelihood of it doing so. For example, have you ever noticed the primary emotion you sometimes feel when you’ve consciously tried to keep something from happening ahead of time and it happens anyway?  Anger, for me, is a common indicator of this. So, it is useful for me to at least notice it.

It is likely the case that we all have desires, if not expectations, that life will increasingly cooperate with us. We are even willing to invest in that possibility.  But, the often undetected feature of these desires or expectations is that we are owed this possibility, especially when we’ve put forth effort to realize it.

When you stop and think about it, it's actually surprisingly true how often, in fact, that it does work out this way (at least for some people — but, that's a whole other story). But, too often, that simply reinforces our notion that the more we do along these lines, the more we can expect the benefits of doing so.  And, this is most exposed when it doesn’t happen. 

It is a faulty assumption that life owes us anything. While it is amazingly true that there are many benevolences in life, that still doesn’t translate to mean that it owes them to us. When we get this wrong, we set ourselves up for many unfortunate dynamics and, therefore, conclusions.

In spite of the stupidity of doing so, it would not be too hard for me to conclude that life is somehow conspiring against me…that a coffee mug falling out of my hand is somehow proof of that.  But, conflating these two particular things is not only a bit weird, it also points out some of my basic working assumptions right now.

After all, it is probably more likely true that I exist for the benefit of life m, rather than that life exists for the benefit of me. When a perspective about such things is more in tune with reality, it is also more likely that the benefits involved are mutual.

Life really doesn’t owe me anything.

So, now that that’s settled, it’s still likely just time for a new coffee-maker.

Not Forgetting

Only by not forgetting the past, can we be the master of the future.

-- Ba Jin

Content and Context

I think it may be easier to see solutions if you can distinguish between context and content. If you can place a problem within the framework of the larger universe, its dimensions are put into perspective and automatically diminished.

-- Peter Cundill, on the power of perspective

Odds In My Favor

I've noticed...that the odds are in my favor in some things, and not so much in others.

Assuming the same is true for you, it's probably worth considering more what the implications of that really are...not only for ourselves, but perhaps more importantly for others.

Year of Favor

The Spirit of God has been given to me,   YHWH has anointed me.   He has sent me to bring good news to the poor,   To bind up hearts that are broken,   To proclaim liberty to captives,   Freedom to those in prison,   To proclaim the Year of Favor from the Lord.   

 -- Luke 4:18–19 (quoting Isaiah 61:1– 2)

Consider how well we love others, especially the stranger

Once you see it, it is very hard to miss this as a pervasive theme throughout the Christian scriptures (we've just been enculturated, by political powers, not to see it):

Welcoming Strangers in Scripture

Fall Into Barbarism

The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.

-- Hannah Arendt

3 Observations & A Question

Sustainable strength is almost always based on respect.

Greatness and power are not necessarily synonymous — one wields power, while the other shares it.

If it’s only good for some, it’s probably not good.

At the end of the day, isn't it significance that we're all after?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

Inhabit My Body

To inhabit my body in all its grace and its flaws appears as a gift for the new/mundane bodily territory I’m on in midlife. Aging is the ultimate slow motion loss, inevitable for us all, and yet somehow for me and everyone I know, it’s come as a surprise. You hit a point where it’s no longer so incremental, and no longer amenable to cover up. The original dance between order and chaos takes over our bodies inside and out—even with lots of yoga. As I watched my children move through the primal metamorphosis of adolescence, I made a decision to be fascinated rather than terrified. I’m trying to impose the same discipline on my reaction to myself on this end of aging’s metamorphosis.   

There is grief to be had, to be sure, and fear, and lots of simple dismay. But settling into this as best I am able, I experience a wholly unexpected gift of contentment. Contentment is not something I’ve known much in my life and not something I ever really knew I wanted. This, too, is the body’s grace—a gift of physiology, right there alongside my fading hair and skin. At younger ages, our brains are tuned to learn by novelty. At this stage in life, they incline to greater satisfaction in what is routine. Slowing down is accompanied by space for noticing. I am embodied with an awareness that eluded me when my skin was so much more glowy. I become attentive to beauty in ordinary, everyday aspects of my life. There is nothing more delicious than my first cup of tea in the morning; no experience more pleasurable than when my son, now much taller than me, wraps me in a hug; no view I find more breathtaking, over and over again, than the white pine that stands day in and day out behind my backyard.   

-- Krista Tippett

Delete It (Them)

Trump's desire to remake America by simply deleting it continues:

Black Medal of Honor recipient removed from US Department of Defense website (mistake? or...not)

Trump terminates program tracking mass abductions of Ukrainian children

He's betting that most of us just won't notice or, worse, won't care enough to do anything about it because it doesn't affect us directly...yet.

But, it isn't simply that valuable information is being systematically removed.  The implication, of course, is that the people the information describes are being removed, too.  Message:  you, too...if you're not one of us. 

And, he is daring the courts to try and stop him, because he’s betting there, too, that they won’t.

Will we?  

In case you’re still wondering, he's not doing this for us....

Empowered by Justice

 

Words, empowered by justice can never be silenced.

-- Isabel Ibañez

Is Never

The time to make up your mind about people, is never.

-- Philip Barry

Rarely Condemned

Ever noticed...that we are rarely condemned to the degree that we think we will be?

What (Who) To Defend

Jesus never called his followers to defend Christianity, a "Christian nation", or even their Christian churches.

Jesus called them to defend the poor, the oppressed, and the hurting.

Stop manipulating Jesus for the benefit of a few.  Get to feeding, healing, and peacemaking.

-- Carlos A. Rodriguez

3 Observations & A Question

Energy creates energy.

Violence changes nothing for the better.

Grief isn’t as much something you have to go through, as it is a way to deal with what you have already gone through.

If challenged by health, how hard would you fight to live? Perhaps more importantly, why?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

Way Things Are Going

GALLUP - Front Page

This day is not the first time such a question was being asked. How about some history of March 15th?

Ways to Measure Trees

'Poem for the week' -- "Ways to Measure Trees":   

        Level II: Basic Assessment

All my life I was a hammer:     
I struck at everything I touched.   

Then I commit a few Thursdays     
to trees. I am not gentle but I could be.    

Around one tree, I try my basic circling     
steps, tap the tree’s bark with my mallet     

and listen for the difference: alive?     
dead? alive? dead? alive? still alive?     

I muscle coils of clay and learn     
the same lesson again and again–   

could be clay trees family trees     
literal trees: I hear the precarious things.     

I go phone-my-forester asking     
about sounding trees, about my ears?     

How I want to save a few trees     
but don’t understand what I hear.     

All my life I swung the wrong things.     
I put down mallet and muscle,     

circle the tree’s girdling roots     
and ask, “Where does it hurt?”     

The forester returns my call.     
He’s glad he caught me this evening.   

He heard what I asked about trees     
and ears. “It’s subtle, takes practice.”

-- MaKshya Tolbert

When Many People Walk It

Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.

-- Lin Yutang

Where the real fight is

Where the real fight is....

Oh, tell me more.  You want details, right?

I'm going to skip most of those (for now) and go for the net-out:

I have learned the most about relationships
from my closest ones.  

That's it?  That's a little disappointing (I know) and not particularly newsworthy (maybe it is a confession, though).

We all are prone to assumptions (often the start of most fights, too, by the way).  Assumptions, after all, are how we get by.  But, sometimes they are quite wrong.  We do tend to craft our view of things around what makes sense to us.  The problem is that, too often, what makes sense to us is exclusive in nature...it often doesn't consider what makes sense to someone else.

At the very least, it is often confined to the particularities of our experience, which we control far more of than we tend to think.

Countless times, I've discovered (sometimes painfully) that what I'm thinking is not what someone else is thinking, even when they are close to me and I think I know them well.  This has borne itself out in my relationship with my wife, my kids, my friends, my neighbors, my co-workers, etc.  In fact, the list is conspicuously large.  That should indicate something.

There are often significant compatibilities, to be sure, with those around us.  But, those are really never all-encompassing or absolute.

I want to zero in.  But, I need to open myself up.  What I need (or want) vs what is good for the other person.  This is where the real fight (battle) is.  

A basic ingredient of living with understanding of what another person is working with is believing that they are doing so — not trying to change them or speed anything up.   Our disposition has to be invitational in nature, primarily, by the way you live and give to them, to the work they are doing (without complicating the process by making them take care of me first).  

None of this may be easy, especially at certain times (it may, in fact, take a lifetime).  It comes down to what you are willing to trust in — to what you are willing to entrust yourself to.

Love is a long-term thing and, therefore, requires this kind of faith — trusting that something is true, even when you don't see the truth of it in a particular moment or circumstance.  Love has faith.  It trusts.

Yes, there is a religious version of faith, too.  Sadly, religion too often seems to contribute more to the doubt about it, as it is often only lives up to inconsistency (if even that much).  And, this is, I suspect, because much of it isn't really love-based faith.  It doesn't really trust.

Essentially, you have to stare down the question:  what does it really mean and take to truly trust another person?

In other words, what do I really have to assume (believe)?

Most of that answer will come from your personal experience of love.  Most of that experience will be with those closest to you…where the real fight is, with yourself.

Attention Isn’t Free

Attention isn't free. It's the most valuable thing you spend. Action creates inspiration. 

-- Shane Parrish

Frame of Reality

I’m wondering…when you realize how much your frame of reality has changed, what happens internally?

Do you feel lost?  Homeless?  Freed?  Excited?

Worship…of Power

It's not just that they're wrong on politics. They are evil. 

-- Dan Bongino

Beware those who invoke the rhetoric of evil.  Other Americans are evil because…?

Leveraging language from the new deputy director of the FBI (although, Bongino’s been saying that kind of stuff for a long time now on his shows).  What we say, how we say it, what terminology we use — all are significant…and revealing.  

Perhaps, such political language tries to leverage such terminology because it tends to work the religious side of things.  But:

Cremer is not the first one to make this observation:

What can we do? 

Here’s some ideas:  Take Heart

3 Observations & A Question

We all are trying so hard…to cope.

Too many people don’t really care about things that don’t affect them directly.

The only healthy way forward now is through grief (more here).

Why do we so often feel compelled to cast other people in terms of evil?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

On The Lighter Side: Just Explain How Your Mom Did It

On the Lighter Side:

Prayers of an Early Morning

A peer at work sent me an email this week that she was leaving early to cry...because her brother had just died.

Among other things, I told her I would pray for her. I didn't then, but the next morning I did.

It is early in the morning and today my 84-year-old mother is having open heart surgery. I visit her knowing the possibility of the same fate as my co-worker's brother. So, I am praying for her this morning. Doing so, leads me to pray for my dad, too. Which brings my brother to mind and how he, too, is impacted by the situation. My prayers then wander to all of our collective children and their relationship with my mother.

I couldn’t bring myself to watch a presidential address to the nation the other night (normally, I force myself to do so, for what I used to think was the greater good of civic responsibility). And, I'm finding that one of my few remaining choices, regarding the anxiety I sometimes feel about the impacts of our current political system, is to pray.

I’m surprised at times how prayer can still feel like a last resort and yet while doing it, one of my best options.

As do many things, including my better desires, I’ve noticed more recently that prayers come more easily for me in the morning (perhaps, the two are not actually different things — one rather simply being the expression of the other). It seems the prayers of an early morning often pull me back out of the rabbit-holes of despair over the environment many days impose on my psyche.

Perhaps this is because our purest prayers help us articulate our desires (even when our desires are not all that good). Prayers can be one of the most raw and authentic things we can do, especially as we discover that their whole essence has very little to do with things like duty after all. Rather, they are the expression of yearning we have for what is good and the acknowledgment that significant portions of our ability to embody the goodness of those things (our desires) is dependent on additional resources beyond what we can provide for ourselves.

Prayers serve to remind us that our desires are not autonomous. There is a latent dependency in what we want. In other words, our desires involve other things, often other beings…like God, or people (or even animals). In both times of peace and calamity, our prayers acknowledge this dependency, our need, our desire for what is good in life. And, in that way, prayers migrate us from the simply transactional nature of asking for things that we want and toward the things that we all want — expanding our desire from self-satisfaction toward collective harmony.

Prayers can also be the catalyst to move us from our contemplation of what is good for ourselves (and others) to the actions that contribute to the realization of this goodness. Something must bridge what we think we want to what we do about it. There are likely many things that can serve this function.

In my experience, prayer is often one of those...particularly the prayers of an early morning.

Compassion

Compassion is one of the purest springs of love.

-- Anne Truitt

Short Straws In Life

Take care of the many who, for no fault of their own, get the short straws in life. They deserve better.

-- Warren Buffett, (from his annual shareholder letter on Saturday morning, including a not-entirely-indirect message for President Donald Trump and other elected leaders about his $26.8 billion record tax payment)

What Is Good

I've noticed...I have to focus on how to promote what is good…not in theory, but in action.

Trying to keep up with what is wrong is, in the end, demoralizing and hopeless…it saps both my energy and strength.  It is also easy.  It is harder to direct my attention away from that and on to what I can actually do for the sake of someone else’s good.  

I've also noticed that how I start my day affects my focus the rest of my day.  

What you give your attention to fills your mind. And, what you fills your mind with impacts your whole being. Your being is where the action is because it is from your being that you love.

Knowing what is good is one thing; acting on it is another.  It seems like I have to consciously focus and choose what I want to do about what I know...and act accordingly.

The Story

A healthy psyche lives within at least four containers of meaning. Imagine four nested domes. The first is called MY story, the second is OUR story, the third is OTHER stories, and the fourth is THE story. This is what I call the cosmic egg. 

Biblical revelation is saying that the only way we dare move up to THE story and understand it with any depth is by moving through and taking responsibility for our personal story, our group story, and other stories. 

True transcendence frees us from the tyranny of I AM, the idolatry of WE ARE, and the scapegoating of THEY ARE. When all four stories are taken seriously, as the Bible shows us very well, we have a full life — fully human and fully divine. 

-- Richard Rohr

WTF

Anyone who has ever been gaslit by a narcissist can relate to Zelenskyy.

Imagine witnessing what happened in the White House and still somehow believing that this is what will make America great.

Bezos Orders Washington Post Opinion Section to Embrace ‘Personal Liberties and Free Markets’

"I was nauseated..."

-- David Brooks

4 Observations (from Others)

There is nothing more dangerous than someone with a 14th century worldview and 21st century technology.

-- Phyllis Tickle 

Grief and resilience live together.

-- Michelle Obama 

The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.

-- Eldridge Cleaver

People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.

-- Blaise Pascal

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

Tyranny

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the ‘tragic spirit of despair’ overcome us when our country needs us the most.

-- J.B. Pritzker

Of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth. 

-- Theodore Roosevelt

Routines

We all develop routines. 

I guess we like, at least, a few things in our lives that are predictable. 

Disruption (even chaos, at times) has its place.  But mostly, uncontained and for too long, it is unsustainable and counter-productive.  Even what it reveals, largely serves the purpose of re-establishing a modified attempt to control for order.  While some like chaos, more people like predictability.

Routines are one of the more simplistic ways we, as human beings, tend to use to achieve that.  And, if you really stop and notice, the precision we end up introducing to establish and maintain them is really kind of…intoxicating.  Once we really get going on them, we often, in fact, are pretty in love with what we’ve come up to make our lives get easier and easier.

I’m in on it, too. As a relatively minor, behavioral example, I always put my car keys in one particular pocket of my coat (even if I change coats).  It helps me always know where my keys are, without having to think about it.  I do this with my wallet, too.  In fact, I do such things much more than I realize.  It reduces the stress having to use energy to re-discover things that really don’t need to be re-discovered.

Ok, so what?

Drivers of our habits like predictability, efficiencies, stress-reduction can also not only be addictive, but reduce our capacity to remain open to things that may not make our personal routines list.  When we become so committed to the outcomes they often produce, we can also easily become things like inflexible, narrow-minded, threatened, judgmental, and unaccepting (not only of different ways of doing things, but also of the people who do them…differently). 

Our routines often end up reflecting our values.  And, our values often translate to how we see people (not to mention how we treat them).  Why do they have to be so different? A sentence often thought, if not heard. Heck, I’ve even thought such thoughts from time to time.  But, invariably, a deeper concern often lurks underneath.  I can too easily conclude that my routines are not just helpful for me; they are also…right.

It doesn’t take much to spot how problematic this can be.

For example, whenever my venue changes, I almost immediately have to start crafting the routines that would work best in that different context.  It may be as simple as the weather and everything I’ve subconsciously organized to help my relationship with it adapt.  When I’m in warm climates, I don’t keep track much of things like gloves or hats.  In cold climates, I know right where they are…and my jackets are towards the front of where I keep them.  But, for me to say that I locate things I use more because it is right to do so doesn’t necessarily follow.

And, yet, we do this quite a bit, don’t we?

“We always do this.  Or, we always do this…that way.  And, by the way, others should, too, because it is the right way to do it.”  We want to feel this extra feature; that we do what we do, because it is right.  It’s hard for us to stop even there, though.  Not only should others do things the way we think they should, they should also think the right way.  Oh, and, they should believe what we believe, too.  And because they don’t, we somehow find a way to use that as justification for our view of what is right. 

But, it is still rather conspicuous how quickly we are willing to change something, if our circumstances change.  We adapt pretty quickly to our surroundings.  To view it as right or wrong is a little arbitrary (if not downright silly).  The ones who don’t easily recognize this are, more often than not, those whose situation really hasn’t changed very much.

Live in another country for a while and watch what happens to you — to your routines, to what you think.  Maybe, even, to what you believe.

But, you really don’t have go that far; even a different part of this country, for a while, where all kinds of things are a little (or a lot) different.

At the very least, allow yourself to acknowledge that way more than you think you need to.

We often are a product of our routines, which we have developed because of the circumstances and environments we live in. So, stay mindful of them — what they are and what they are not.

Imagination

 Imagination, not intelligence, made as human.

-- Terry Pratchett

People Who Can Help You?

Things happen in life that you don’t want to happen—whether you lose a game, things don’t go well at work, or something happens with your child. There are many moments in our personal and professional lives that don’t go the way we want. How do you deal with them? Do you handle them with class and integrity, with courage and resilience? Are you able to share your emotions with others?

Do you have people in your life who can help you through those challenges? I’m blessed to have had people walk through those moments with me. They always say, “Double the pleasure and divide the pain,” and that’s what relationships are all about. When you care for and love those around you, they give back—and that’s where the reward comes.

-- Tom Brady

Personality

Ever noticed...that our personalities are really just the thing that we’ve ended up going with — fostering and developing — to maintain the narrative we think we need to exist and prosper in our world?

I suspect what we think of as personalities are pre-seeded by certain chromosomal leanings, which facilitate and enhance the narratives that we prefer.  But, either way, our personalities are the way that we present ourselves to the world.

Not news per se, but a reminder…that we are presenting more often than we think we are.

Real Media

There's more going on than we sometimes conclude from our man-made media.  Perhaps we should stop and look at what real media may be telling us:

3 Observations & A Question

Information and truth are not automatically the same thing.

Most of us tend to see, what we think we’ve already seen.

We are integrated beings — so, when we become disintegrated, we aren't fully who we really are.

What needs to be healed in me?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

39

What would you say defines a successful marriage?  

Is it longevity, happiness, friendship, depth of relationship?  How does time bear on that definition — does it mitigate it or enhance it?

Whatever it is, one thing that seems obvious is that it’s way more than simply someone’s (or, even a group's) idea of what it is.  It’s an actual relationship — not a conceptual one, an actual one.

Having now been married for 39 years (as of today), I can say that — like long-term relationships of many kinds — it covers a lot terrain.  There are many highs and lows (not just one or two).  The terrain is vast and nuanced, including many patterns — some are highly perceived, some are not.  There is both something constant and something evolving.  Some familiar and something imminently new.

So, what makes the relationship of marriage persist?

If nothing else, I would say commitment.  Many things, of course, impact that.  Sure, what I get out of it is always in play.  But, in the end, it is my willingness to stay committed to Tami's full well-being that keeps me in my relationship with her.

As she and I reflect on it, we feel very aware of what that commitment has yielded.  Sure, we still get into skirmishes with each other.  They are uncomfortable; we don't like them.  But, something has grown strong enough, because of the length and depth of our commitment, that we aren't ultimately threatened by them (even when sometimes, in the moment, we still feel like we are).

We are very grateful for these yields — the many things we do together (see below) and enjoy together, the things we have discovered together, the things we respect and and admire about each other, the friendships we've built (and lost), the beauty of our children (and now their children) and our relationships with them.  The list goes on and on.

In many ways, we each feel like our lives are continuing to expand and grow, both independently and together.  With even just a little distance (for perspective), we marvel at that, are grateful for it, and want to keep on...staying committed to loving each other.

Before this all begins to sound a little too self-congratulatory, I should add the distinct likelihood that effort (commitment) alone may not always provide such outcomes.  I know of many who have been committed to their marriages (well beyond how I am to mine) who may feel they have ended up with few or none of the things I've mentioned above.  I don't fully know what to do with that (besides feel the sadness I have for them).

So, perhaps more than anything else, I should also acknowledge the reality (and need) of a lot of grace — something we all need to extend as much as we need to receive — to make a marriage successful.

 
Frozen shores of PJ Hoffmaster State Park, MI

More pics...here.

Collective Illusions

What Is Happening In America

I've told myself, I'm going to stop adding this kind of stuff (something about my and our collective can't-look-away interest just keeps this beast alive).  

But, I can't just sit here and watch it happen (even if that is exactly what I am doing).  Am I sliding down the slippery slope of paranoia?  Maybe. I wouldn’t be the first one.

Despite its name, the Department of Government Efficiency is not, so far, primarily interested in efficiency. DOGE and its boss, Elon Musk, have instead focused their activity on the eradication of the federal civil service, along with its culture and values, and its replacement with something different. In other words: regime change.

No one should be surprised or insulted by this phrase, because this is exactly what Trump and many who support him have long desired. During his 2024 campaign, Trump spoke of Election Day as “Liberation Day,” a moment when, in his words, “vermin” and “radical left lunatics” would be eliminated from public life. J. D. Vance has said that Trump should “fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people.” Steve Bannon prefers to talk about the “deconstruction of the administrative state,” but that amounts to the same thing.  Continue...here.

-- Anne Applebaun

...or, a coup.

Trump knows the fastest way to dismantle America is to just delete it

He thinks it's working, too:

Trump's split screen: Orchestration amid chaos

Might as well go for it, then — the press is next:

Why Trump targets AP

Don't act so shocked (I don’t think we know the half of it) — he told us a hundred times (actually, more like a 1000) what he was going to do:

How Trump’s Directives Echo Project 2025

Really makes you wonder what the end-game really is...seems pretty clear, though, doesn't it?

Trump signs order to claim power over independent agencies

He wants to be the king (executive order — just the modern word for decrees).  He's trying to take over the country by ripping it apart and Republicans are just letting him do it (all nominees confirmed so far).

Aw, c'mon, it's not THAT bad, right?

You have seen this J. D. Vance video, right?  I think the intentions are pretty clear, well-documented, and highly underway.

Forget Bonhoeffer. This is the Niemöller Moment

Maybe more of this will help me (climb back out of the hole of despair)...and you:

10 Ws

What You Think About

What do you think about day and night for your character and personality.

-- Masami Saionji

Clarity

Many people think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity. It is not always obvious when and where to take action. Some people spend their entire lives waiting for the time to be right to make an improvement.

-- James Clear

Collectively

I'm wondering...if we're going to make it collectively, when we all seem so focused on self-interest that we don't really know what all is being ripped from the structures all around us.  

Unfortunately, "I wished I had known..." won't help very much when that becomes even more obvious.  They are predicting and banking on us just not paying attention.

How far we seem to have come from the simplicity of telling the truth, reflected on this Presidents Day history.

Woke

The silliness here isn’t quite as funny against this backdrop… as the other crowd that has formed appears  behind the guy in the red hat.

3 Observations & A Question

Keep your spirit clear; keep your mind clear — including what muddies your waters.

Something in us, at the surface level, seems attracted to controversy — so, we have to learn how to go below the surface.

When we speak with venom, it usually comes from a source of pain.

Are you aware of the things that strengthen you? What about the things that weaken you?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

Tenacious Adventure

Love is a tenacious adventure.

-- Alain Badiou

It requires courage and fortitude...continue here.

Annoyed

Don't you ever get tired of how annoyed you are?

OK, so maybe we should just be a little more honest — there are things about other people that are at the very least annoying, especially the more we get to know them. But, that’s hardly the point, is it?  

Because there are also many things, about other people, that are fascinating and inspiring and attractive…and worth loving. No one ever said it would be just one or the other.…just like that’s not the case with yourself.

It’s not too hard to fantasize about all the hassles that could be avoided by not having to live around other people.  But it is also true that significant parts of you would not only be underdeveloped, but also deformed without the benefits of engagement with other people (hassles included).  What, for example, would you know about love? What about the enjoyment of things that you simply can’t create exclusively from yourself?  What about the beauty and joy related to the nature of harmony?  

Being annoyed is allowed. But, despite the current popularity of righteous-indignation, just don't let things like annoyance and controversy become the primary food-groups of your daily emotional, psychological diet.

People are a hassle sometimes.  So am I (you, too, by the way...).  That's not the point.

Fiction

More fiction has been told in Microsoft Excel than in books.

-- Shane Parrish

Sometimes

Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.

-- John Maxwell

Acknowledge My Fears

I’ve noticed…that I tend to not acknowledge my fears.

…likely a strategy to protect something for me — but, if unaware, more likely empowering them.

Humility & Love

Working for justice can become a way to justify ourselves before God. If we are not careful, the good work we give ourselves to can become another idol that takes the rightful place of Jesus. We must be on guard against the temptation to establish an identity outside of the love of God in Christ.  

If we don’t live from the center of God’s love, working for justice can be just another creative way to meet the unrelenting needs of our egos. When that happens, the work for justice is no longer about the poor and mistreated but about our own unmet needs.  

We work for justice not because it justifies us; rather, because we’ve been justified, we work for justice. We are called to work with urgency, knowing that the needs are great, and also with patience, convinced that God is near. We pour ourselves out in love because this is how Christ longs to live through us, but we recognize our limitations. We seek the peace of our cities and towns because we are called to be salt and light, and we confess that only Jesus will make all things new. 

To have a good, beautiful, and kind life—one formed by love—requires us to extend our faith beyond the borders of our private emotional and spiritual concerns. We are called into a larger story, one characterized by participation in God’s kingdom. It’s the kind of participation that drives out passivity.  

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he instructed them to say, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Is that not love? Is that not justice? To pray these words is not to passively say, “Lord, there’s nothing we can do, so please fix this world.” Rather, the Lord’s Prayer calls us to say, “Lord, there’s so much we can do, but only ever in your power.”  

-- Pastor Rich Villodas

Not Funny, but…

..a little.laughter can be medicinal sometimes.