Now I realize that most readers do not think that worms can talk. But bear with me when you read the imagined conversation I had yesterday with the tiny creature whom I saw crawling across our patio again today and who was the inspiration for that original blog post. The tiny creature somehow managed to work his way up to the table where I was seated and in a faint voice began a conversation that went like this:

Worm: Mr. Howell, I have read your recent blog post and am not pleased nor are my friends and relatives. You have no right to put down my species or to call us “lowly.” We are better than you humans in many ways.

Me: Excuse me?

Worm: You heard me. First, there are so many more of us than there are of you, and this is true not only for my species but for so many other species. For example, there are about 400 of you humans who live in the senior living community where you now live, which sits on 125 acres of mostly open space and woods. Do you know how many of us worms live here?

Me: Not exactly but maybe several thousand?

Worm: There are 25 of us per square foot or about a million per acre. So do the math. It comes to over 100 million, considering the buildings on the property. If you don’t believe me, ask AI.

Me: This does not prove anything.

Worm: Maybe not. But if we are so lowly in your view, why did God make so many of us?

Me: Probably because you are food for birds.

Worm: I am not amused. But if you want to know what really disturbs us worms is your arrogance. You humans think you are so great. Carly Simon must have your species in mind when she wrote “You’re So Vain.” You are not great at all.

Me: Oh yeah? Just think about it. We humans have composed great symphonies, wrote great novels and poetry, and created fabulous paintings. We are fabulous artists, musicians, writers, and thinkers. We run huge companies, factories, and governments. We can run 100 yards in under ten seconds, finish marathons in under two hours, hit home runs and pitch no hitters. We have invented all sorts of things—like writing, math, calculus, cars, trucks, airplanes, rockets, and drones and extended the average life expectancy of our species by over 10 years since the time I was born. We have put humans on the moon and gotten them home safely. Were it not for us, there would be no high-def, wide screen televisions, no great movies and films, and no computers.

Worm: Yes, but you are so cruel to one another. You form armies that attack perceived enemies. You kill members of your species for reasons that make no sense to us worms. You murder one another for no reason and you constantly cheat, lie and steal. Other animals don’t do anywhere as many of these bad things as you do.

Plus, you think you are so different from the rest of us creatures. You aren’t. All of us are trying to survive and we all fight back when threatened. We tend to band together for protection and are very much aware that we all are part of the food chain, which you humans for the time being sit at the top of. Like you, we are struggling to survive and believe me, it is a lot harder for us than it is for you.

However, what bothers us worms most is your arrogance and thinking that you are so much different from the rest of us. And you think that you humans who behave yourselves will have eternal life in a heaven where there will be no worms. What you need is a little humility.

Me: Well?

Worm: And what really makes us worms even more angry is that you have been trashing the planet for so many years that all life as we know it is at risk. You are destroying the habitats where so many of us worms and other species live and are doing things that are causing the temperatures on the planet to soar, melting the ice caps and causing sea levels to rise. And even more troubling is that you have weapons which if used could destroy most life on the planet, including us worms. Thousands of nuclear weapons are at your disposal. One world war or even one mistake could trigger a nuclear holocaust that would destroy life on the planet. Shame on you! All this has happened on your watch– the time you were sitting at the top of the food chain! In our view you have blown it, and you—and all living creatures—will pay the price.

Me: So, if you are so smart, how do we avoid the catastrophe you are envisioning?

Worm: You are asking me, a lowly worm? You humans got us into all this. It is your job to get us out.

Me: That’s it? No more advice?

Worm: It is in your court.

And that ended our conversation. I watched as he inched his way back, thinking I noticed a slight smile on what I thought was his face and at the same time noting the wisdom of this tiny creature. I could not help concluding that if we do not figure out how to address his concerns that our time at the top of the food chain may soon be coming to an end.

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Yesterday on a sunny spring afternoon I was sitting outside on our patio when I noticed a lowly earthworm slowly inching his way across. For some bizarre reason a bunch of questions surfaced. I wondered, how old is this creature? What must his life be like? Is he happy? How much time does he have left before he dies? Why is he taking this risk since I could stomp on him and it would all be over or a robin could swoop down and pick him off?

Perhaps silly questions but answers immediately popped up in my mind. Well, worms probably do not have long lives, and he (or she) is probably thinking about one of two things—sex or food. And then another question: What do we humans have in common with a lowly worm? And the answer to that is –a lot more than you might think. What we humans have in common with all animal (and plant) life on the planet Earth is that we all have a beginning and an end. We all are  born and we all die. And yes, we think a lot about food and sex. Plus, we are all programmed. The fate of all living creatures is determined in part by our DNA. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the molecule containing the genetic instructions for the development, function, and reproduction of all known living organisms. And the first task of every living creature and plant is survival. The second is to reproduce.

Yet most of us humans think that we are not just another animal, that we are special. Certainly, that is the Biblical message of creation. We are made “in the image of God.” Most religions place the human species as being qualitatively different, not merely quantitatively different. I would argue the opposite. We have constructed the idea of God in our image, not the other way around. And yes, of course, we are different from the lowly worm and other animal species, but we humans are different in degree, not in kind. We are different because our brains are the largest of any species on the planet compared to the size of our bodies. This has happened over millions of years as our species has evolved due to the principle of survival of the fittest. That Charles Darwin figured this out is certainly one of the greatest discoveries in history. And this discovery could be considered breaking news. Our planet is two billion years old. The Origen of the Species was published in 1859, less than 200 years ago.

So, when you get down to it, as hard as it is to admit, we really are not all that different from the lowly worm. All animals are motivated fundamentally by survival and reproduction, and all animals are programmed by their DNA. And if you have ever been close to a pet dog or even a cat, or another animal you love, you probably feel like I do that these wonderful creatures must have a soul.

But what does this all mean? How can you accept that we may have more in common with other species than we might have acknowledged? And how does this jibe with religious beliefs and practices of us humans? If you accept that we are just another animal, does this make you an atheist? And where does God fit into the picture?

If you have been following my blog you will observe that these are not new questions. In fact you could argue that I probably am obsessed with this question. But you also must admit, I have tried my best to understand. I earned a Master of Divinity from a top notch seminary and at one point was in line to be an ordained an Episcopal priest. And perhaps most baffling of all, I have stuck with the Episcopal church all these years and still (with Embry) attend services regularly. I have paid my dues. Hey, I am now in my 85th year, hobbling along on the last lap as best as I can using my hiking stick or a rollator. The questions of life’s meaning and purpose are real and existential. That I do not have all the answers is not that unusual for folks my age—or for most people of any age.

But let’s be clear: I am not an atheist. To be an atheist requires as much “faith” as to be a believer. “Faith” that there is no inherent meaning to our existence and that genuine spirituality is a mirage–is a big jump. The indisputable fact is that we humans do not have all the answers and that we never will. Above our pay grade, as they say in Washington. All we can do is hobble along, trying to live the best lives we can and to take seriously the best teachings of religion –to love your neighbor is at the top of my list—and to pay attention to the wisdom of holy people. And as to what happens next, the Apostle Paul got it right when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “”For now, we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

 

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You have received no recent posts from me because I have been struggling with a nasty raspatory virus, which thankfully is not Covid, which now appears to be on the mend, and which leads to the current topic: “Do the Golden Years Suck?”. This is not an abstract question. In fact a number of years ago in one of my senior living assignments at Howell Associates, I remember entering one of the premier continuing care retirement communities in the greater Boston area where staring me in the face as I entered the community was a large, framed needlepoint created by one of the residents on which was inscribed in  large letters the sentence: “The Golden Years Suck!” When I asked the marketing director what she thought the resident’s artwork had on prospects, she smiled and replied, “No problem. Joe, every prospect entering the front door of this community knows exactly what the needlepoint means. They were not born yesterday.”

AI has this to say about “The “Golden Years of Life”:

“The Golden Years of Life” refers to a period of maximum happiness, prosperity, and achievement, often associated with the later years (roughly 50s-60s onward) characterized by contentment, wisdom, and fulfilling leisure. It is frequently viewed as a time for realizing long-held dreams and enjoying the fruits of a lifetime’s labor. 

Key Aspects of the “Golden Years” in Life:

• The later, post-middle-age stage of life. It is viewed as a time for enjoying increased, high-quality leisure time, often following retirement.
• A “New Beginning”: Many view the 60s and beyond as a “golden jubilee” era, using it to begin new hobbies, passions, or careers.
• Deepened Connections: This stage is often defined by strong, long-lasting friendships and deeper, more meaningful social connections.
• Reflection and Contentment: A time to look back on accomplishments with pride and live with a sense of peace. 

Really? Truth or fiction?

Of course, this definition is true to a certain extent, but for some people more than others. And you could add to the  pluses that you don’t have deadlines or bosses to report to, you don’t have to prove yourself to anyone, and you don’t have to care all that much about what other people think of you.

And whether you agree or not that The Golden Years are a good time in life depends on a lot of things, especially your health, your attitude about life, your place in the world, and your relationships. The Golden Years are a mixed bag, and some get dealt very tough hands to play.

I prefer to think of these years as the last lap in a life-long race that has lots of steep hills, streams and rivers to cross, and dangerous cliffs to scale. Such is our fate as Homo sapiens on the planet Earth. Darwin figured out that life is a struggle for every living creature and plant. Survival of the fittest. And just think of all the suffering that is happening on the Planet Earth right now—in Iran, the Sudan, Lebanon, Gaza, and the eastern Congo, in other impoverished and struggling countries all over the world, and in the poor neighborhoods in our own country. Racial prejudice, mental illness, addiction, broken families, poverty, despair, violence and failed dreams persist. None of this comes to a halt on the last lap. No one gets a free ride.

Nowhere is this more evident than in a senior living community. We have seen how The Golden Years play out in the continuing care retirement community where we now live. The average age in here is in the mid-eighties. Most residents have lost a spouse. And everyone living here has experienced a significant loss.  Afterall, it is highly unlikely that anyone has a living parent. We are orphans, and many like Embry and me have lost a child. I lost my only brother, four years younger than me, who died in his sixties. Embry has lost both of her older brothers. We both have lost close friends. Everyone living here with us in this senior living community would have similar stories. We all are aware that our limited time on the planet Earth is coming to an end, that this is indeed our last lap. This is just the way it is, not only at senior living communities but for everyone who is in the final states of life.

And yet my fellow residents here soldier on without complaining—the aches and pains, the mobility and balance issues and the infirmities waiting in the wings to nab you.  People take all this in stride and move on. They remain positive about life, fully engaged, and are an inspiration to me.

Whether you are religious or not there is a spiritual aspect about running the last lap. You can’t avoid the constant reminder of your own mortality. In the senior living community where we live photos are posted every week of those who have passed away, and an average of three people die every month. One resident told me he checks the photos every week just to be sure there is no photo of him. Yet that does not keep you from appreciating what you have and trying to make the most out of the time you have left.

One of the retirement communities I did consulting for was a Catholic community in New England where the executive director told me of one resident who after being lukewarm about church attendance suddenly started attending every mass that was offered. When he asked her what had changed in her life she replied, “I am cramming for finals.”

Which leads back to the   question as to whether The Golden Years suck. Yes, they do and no, they don’t. They do because of aches, pains, serious illnesses and loses. They don’t because it is a gift to be able to cherish what you have and to try to get the most out of the time you have left. 

For those who have been reading my blog, it will come as no surprise that I do not have all the answers regarding what happens next. No, I do not believe that I will wake up and find myself sitting at a heavenly banquet table between God on one side and Jesus on the other. Yes, I am hopeful that the universal spirituality among humans will continue in some way.
 
Old age is a time for spiritual reflection, cherishing what you have, squeezing those last drops out of the lemon, and perhaps most important giving thanks for your short time on the stage.

 

 

 

 

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I would like to thank all those who sent cards and happy birthday wishes for my April Fools birthday last week.

This blog post is about the changes that have happened since I was born in 1942.

In 1942 there were no vaccines to protect people from polio (which I had and which kept me at home for two years convalescing) and a bunch of other horrid diseases like measles, smallpox, rubella and malaria. Medical technology is now vastly better. And we are living a lot longer. My life expectancy was 62.6 years when I was born. (For African American men it was 55.) I am still kicking at 84 and hopefully have a few more years left to squeeze the last drops out of the lemon. A male born in the United States today has a life expectancy of 76.5 years though if Kennedy’s anti vac policies stay around long, that is likely to go down.
And there are a lot more of us Homo sapiens living on the planet. The population of the United States was 135 million in 1942. In 2026 it is just under 350 million. In 1942 the population of the world was 2.3 billion. In 2026 the estimate is 8.3 billion. (All numbers are from AI.) For many years population experts warned that the maximum number of humans that the planet could accommodate was about where we are now. Now that we have reached over 8 billion people the experts have increased the maximum, supportable world population to around 10 billion people.

So much has happened in technology over the past 84 years that was never envisioned. In 1942 there were no jet planes, no television sets, no digital phones, and most people with telephones had party lines. My family did. There was no internet, no WIFI, no Facebook or other social media, no electric cars, no high-speed trains, no giant screen high-definition television with hundreds of channels, and there was very limited air-conditioning—at least not in Nashville where I was born. We sweltered every summer until the mid 50s when air conditioning became more affordable. For relief, people went to swimming pools or to movie theaters where air conditioning had been in use since the late 1930s.

There was nothing called “artificial intelligence.” There were no Tech Bro billionaires, no satellites, and no idea that humans could ever land on the moon. And in 1942 no one had ever heard of Chuck Barry, the Drifters, Fats Domino, Elvis, the Kingston Trio, Joan Baez or Simon and Garfunkel. The R&B and folk revolutions did not begin until the early 50s.

And ironically, although household incomes were much lower then—only about $2,500 compared to about $80,000 today (adjusted for inflation the 1942 median income would amount to around $50,000 today), the disparity between those with high incomes and the very poor was less pronounced when I was born than it is now. The ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay has expanded from around 20-to-1 in the 1940s through the 1960s to nearly 300-to-1 now. There were no billionaires in the United States in 1942 even adjusting for inflation. There are almost 1,000 today. Plus, the cost of living has greatly outpaced incomes. Although nominal incomes have increased more than 40-fold since 1942, the median home price in 2025 is roughly 5 times the median household annual income, compared to roughly two times income in the late 1940s and 1950s. Another huge factor is that today both husband and wife tend to have full time jobs. That was the case for only 10 percent of the households in 1942. It is over 50 percent today.

And how society has changed in other ways! Racism was very much alive in the United States. In the South where I grew up in Nashville Jim Crow ruled the land in 1942. Public schools were segregated as were restaurants, hotels, public facilities, most churches, swimming pools and social clubs. The Civil Rights Movement and Civil Rights legislation began to level the playing field starting in the 1960s, and many people of color now have good jobs and leadership roles in the government and the private sector. Disparities in incomes between White and Black people have lowered although they still prevail. Black families in the U.S. have incomes approximately 36% lower than White households, with median incomes of $56,000 and $92, 000 respectively. This income disparity is accompanied by a severe wealth gap, with White households holding over six times more wealth than Black households in 2025.

And in 1942 such words as “feminism,” “political correctness,” “DEI,” “Black Lives Matter” and “woke” were not yet in anyone’s vocabulary.

(One of the things I am most proud of is organizing and leading a civil rights march in Charlotte in 1964, my senior year at Davidson, and working with Embry and fellow Union Seminarians in SNCC–the most radical civil rights organization at the time–in 1966 registering voters in Southwest Georgia.)

Very few women worked full time and even fewer had management positions in 1942. Today the work force is 47% female compared to 37% in 1942. More women than men now graduate from college. A much higher percentage of women now have good paying jobs in 2026 compared to 1942 and many have high level positions in government and in the private sector.

In 1942 the United States was engaged fully in World War II joining with the Allies led by the United Kingdom. Without our involvement, today we could all be speaking German. Our main enemies then were Germany, Spain, Italy and Japan. These countries are now our friends. Russia, an alley in 1942, is now an adversary as is China, which was still in turmoil in 1942.

The United States was the champion of the free world in 1942. Today, we are on the precipice of another world war. Our president is threatening actions against Iran which constitute war crimes and which could lead to global destabilization.

There were no nuclear weapons in 1942 but there were two in 1945, both dropped by us on Japan. We are also now sitting on over 5,000 nuclear weapons, about the same number that Russia has. And there are now seven other countries with these weapons including China and North Korea. The number of total nukes has gone way down from what it was during the Cold War following the collapse of the Soviet Union and arms negotiations in the 1980s and 90s, but it only takes one nuke to ruin your day; and in the event of a world-wide nuclear holocaust, there are enough nukes in the world to end civilization as we know it along with human life on the planet.

The biggest difference may be what we humans have done and are doing to our planet. From the late 1970s, temperatures have risen sharply. The ten warmest years on record have all occurred in the most recent decades and the average temperature is now over two degrees Fahrenheit higher than in the early 1940s. Total global sea level has risen about 8–9 inches (21–24 cm) since 1880, with a major portion occurring since 1950, and current rates reaching nearly 4 mm per year. That may not sound like a lot but if the trends continue, there won’t be many beach houses left.

We Homo sapiens have trashed the planet, destroyed animal and plant species and vast forests and have polluted lakes and rivers. The number of animal and plant species that have been lost since 1942 number into the thousands including 500 vertebrate species.

And finally, the President of the United States in 1942 was Franklin D. Roosevelt, one of the best that we have had. In 2026 we have Donald J. Trump, without question the worst we have ever had, and we have had some bad ones.

Does it sound to you like we may now be in an existential age where the margin for error has shrunk vastly since 1942? It sure sounds that way to me. Our planet as we know it cannot survive another 84 years if the past trends continue unabated.

 

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We Democrats are continuing to struggle to figure out how we lost the support of the white working class in the 2016, 2020 and the 2024 presidential elections. I think that part of the reason rests with their perception that in general we libs look down on them and part rests with “political correctness”, including our emphasis on “diversity, equity and inclusion” or DEI, which naturally I am in favor of and guilty as charged.

I now understand why. I confess: I am one of casualties of DEI orthodoxy! In the early 2000s I was fired by the University of Maryland for being “a sexist and a racist” and was warned by the Department of Public Policy where I was a lecturer never to set foot on, or even come close to, the University of Maryland campus again.

Here is my story, which I have told before but it is probably even more prescient today with the high stakes midterm elections coming up this year and the need for us Democrats to try to reach some of those who voted for him because they felt dissed by people like me.

When I sold Howell Associates in 1998 (which provided technical assistance to developers of affordable housing and seniors housing), I began to slow down and was looking for some ways that I might contribute. I had done some college level teaching before (when in 1981 I was the Benjamin Banneker Professor of Washington Studies at GW, a one-semester, temporary assignment, and enjoyed the experience) and thought I might be able to somehow get back into academia. Someone suggested the University of Maryland where I was able to land a position as lecturer in the School of Public Policy where my class was on affordable housing finance as part of a larger course on housing. I only lectured a few times a semester but enjoyed the experience and liked the students, many of whom were already working and taking the course as part of their required continuing education.

In my fifth or sixth year of lecturing, I got a voicemail message from the administrator overseeing the program, which stated the following: “Mr. Howell, there is no place at the University of Maryland for racists or sexists like you. You are fired! Do not come to class and do not set foot on university property again.”

I immediately dialed the callback number and was put into her voicemail. I said that I enjoyed the classes and was sorry hear I had been fired but could she please explain why I am a racist and a sexist.

The next day I received another voicemail message from her stating simply that it was because of the racist and sexist story I told in class this week. Having no idea what she was talking about I immediately got her voice mailbox again and said, “What story are you talking about?”

The following day I received another voicemail message from her stating, “I am not sure but think it was the racist thing you said about the Chinese people.”

I immediately returned the call and got her voicemailbox again. “Why was the story racist and sexist?”

The next day I received her reply in my voicemailbox, “I don’t know, but call the student that complained about you and do not bother me again. You must apologize to her, and do not come on campus again. Ever! And do not call me again!” She gave me the name and telephone number of the student, whom I called immediately. Her name was Elmeda. She answered the phone immediately. What a relief, I thought, at least I am getting a chance to actually talk to a real, live human being. I started off by saying that I understood that I had upset her about something I had said in my class and would like to apologize and then asked her to tell me exactly what I said that offended her. She replied that she would not accept my apology and that what upset her was the racist and sexist story that I had told in class.

This story is the story I had told:

I was at a board meeting of one of my clients, the Chinese American Retirement Elderly Nonprofit or CAREN Inc. There were six or seven people at the meeting, all Chinese Americans, all young, in their late 20s and 30s, and very enthusiastic and very smart. After I explained to them what one of the obscure HUD regulations was attempting to say, I added, “I know it may sound confusing, but it is not all that complicated. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure this one out.”

One of the women, smiled, blushed and replied, “Mr. Howell, don’t worry. We get it. We actually are rocket scientists, all of us. We work at NASA.”

I could not help asking Elmeda what about the story made me a racist. She replied that it is a racial stereotype that the Chinese are smart. “Ok,” I replied, “I guess I understand why I am a racist but why am I a sexist?”

“You are a sexist because you said a young woman asked the question. You should have said young person. And you can apologize all you want to, but I will never accept your apology.”

I tried calling the Maryland administrator back to assure her I had done my duty and understood why someone as racist and sexist as me should never be allowed on the Maryland campus but of course only got her voicemail. We had never talked in person or over the phone during the entire ordeal.

But as luck would have it, a couple of years later I got a desperate call, not from the administrator but from her assistant, saying that the person who had replaced me had quit and they were having trouble finding someone to lecture about affordable housing finance. She was pleased to report that they had concluded that by now I must be rehabilitated enough to come back. Could I be there for the class next week?

I chuckled, accepted, and soldiered on for several more years. Eventually the administrator and I reconciled though neither of us ever brought up the unpleasant ordeal and I have been careful not to tell that racist and sexist story again.

Until now.

But does anyone not understand how we libs might have taken the DEI stuff a little too far and the price we have paid is called Donald J Trump?

 

 

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These are the words of President Donald J Trump regarding the passing on Saturday of James Mueller, revered former head of the FBI and a Trump adversary. This morning (Monday) I have been searching the web to see what the response has been from clergy and church leaders and looking for mention of it in The Washington Post and The New York Times. I would hope many Chrisitan leaders would weigh in informing Trump that one of the fundamental beliefs of Christianity is not to delight in the death of someone you don’t like.

Many of Trump’s MAGA supporters we are told believe Trump is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and our first “truly Christian president.” For the life of me I am not able to understand this. Good heavens, the dude does not even regularly attend church. And his best friend was Jeffrey Epstein! If Trump’s evangelical followers allow his hateful comment to pass as “Trump just being Trump,” and other Christian leaders of Mainline Protestant and Catholic churches do not speak out forcefully, I declare the situation hopeless. I checked for reactions this morning but nothing is in either the Washington Post or The New York Times or online though I have to believe that this incident was used as a teaching moment in many congregations.

This Trump episode illustrates both the complex nature of religious belief and its dark side. The dark side is that religious belief can lead people who call themselves Christian to do terrible things. You can point to the obvious –the Crusades, the “Wars of Religion,” the New England witch hunts, the tacit church support of slavery by Mainline Protestant churches in the South during the Civil War and the silence of many church leaders in Nazi Germany. Good heavens, the Ku Klux Klan claims to be a “Christian” organization. So do some of the groups who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. There are lots of everyday examples of Christians not standing up and doing the right thing. Shame on those in Christian leadership positions if they do not speak out now.

But you could also point out that there is also much good about Christianity– the message of “love your neighbor,” the redemptive power of love and nonjudgemental acceptance of others, even those who are not like us, the command to help the poor, and the call for social justice. Over its history there have been and are many admirable and inspiring Christian church leaders–as there are in other religions. So no, I am not writing off Christianity or religious faith. You could even argue that “being religious” is also part of being human. The Pew surveys of world religion consistently show that around 24 precent of the population in the world label themselves as “atheists or non-believers.” The rest are “believers.” Believing in a “higher power” seems to be part of our DNA.

My message here is that it is time for people of goodwill who call themselves Christians to say to Trump: Stop this madness! Stop the ICE atrocities, the bombing in Iran, the cruel domestic policies, and the meanness of the Trump Administration.

Enough is enough.

This Saturday, March 28, is a chance to let your voice be heard on “No Kings Day.” There are massive demonstrations happening all over the country. Be there.

 

 

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A Spiritual Reflection

We have a president who is out of control and obsessed with power. Similar personalities govern our two greatest adversaries, Russia and China. Both the U.S. and Russia each have about 5,500 nuclear weapons. While China is behind, they are trying to catch up. India and Pakistan also have nuclear weapons and hate each other. Then there is the rogue nation state of North Korea, and, of course, Israel, who under Netanyahu will do what it takes to take out hostile adversaries. Rounding out the Nuclear Nine are France and the UK, for now low risks to do really bad things but still….

What are the odds that we will never have a nuclear war on the planet Earth? What happens when other nations like Iran join the nuclear club? And what other weapons are on the drawing boards or under development, biological or chemical? And what about AI and where that fits into the picture? And the warming of the planet due to our misuse and abuse of the environment? If you were a highly intelligent creature from another world visiting our troubled planet and were given the task of writing up an assessment of the prospects for the planet Earth’s survival, what would you say to your superiors? As the story goes, “Beam me up, Charlie, no intelligent life on this planet. Only a matter of time.”

Pretty scary time, if you ask me.

Yet  on this early Saturday morning I look out my window from our cottage at Collington, the senior living community where we now live, and see green sprouts popping up everywhere on this beautiful green campus surrounded by a forest. Today is one of the first that really feels like spring–warming temperatures, Carolina-blue sky, white cloud puffs, green buds on the trees, birds chirping away, and daffodils popping up everywhere. I am reminded what an extraordinary, precious planet this is and how rare such a place appears to be in what we now know of the vast universe containing trillions of galaxies. Its beauty is beyond description. Why here? Why us? These are the questions that are the heart of most religions in our feeble effort to make sense out of our lives. There has to be some greater power behind this, right? How could all this just happen by chance?

Even if you are a person of faith–and I have been a loyal Episcopalian practically all my life–you have to admit that “Ultimate Meaning” is beyond our ability to fully comprehend, above our pay grade, as they say in Washington. It remains and will remain The Great Mystery. Afterall, we are mere humans, admittedly at the top of the food chain but still part of the animal kingdom. There is only so much we can understand.

Which get us back to the existential question. For the first time in the two billion year history of our planet, we Homo sapiens have the power to destroy virtually all life on the planet. And we also know that as a flawed species we humans do terrible things to one another. We know that based on past history if the weapon is available, we will use it on our enemies. In other words, it is only a matter of time, not “if,” but “when.” Whether this is immediate or in the distant future, unless we can change our behavior, something very bad is likely to happen.

Just think about the Big Picture. Our solar system including our planet has been in existence for about two billion years. There are another billion years left before our sun turns into a red giant and engulfs our planet. Does anyone think that life as we know it now is going to last for another billion years? Surely the end of life as we know it now will come to an end to be replaced by the next phase. We also know that there have been five mass extinctions on the planet Earth where 95% of all plant and animal life have been wiped out, only to be replaced by new life forms. Our time in the sun began 66 million years ago when a meteor wiped out the dinosaurs giving room for us mammals to evolve. And here we are today. And what about the next billion years?

So the question is not if life as we know it will radically change on the planet Earth, but when the change will happen and what happens next. Given the weapons we now have at our disposal, one mistake or miscalculation could spell doom at any time, or we could muddle through for several centuries or more, but unless human nature changes, eventually we are likely to do ourselves in. Then the Sixth Mass Extension will happen and life on Earth will evolve, welcoming the next phase.

So what is the answer? How do we deal with the existential moment we are facing? For now, I will look out my window in awe, watching the birds flutter in the warmth of spring and feeling the rebirth of gardens, greenness, and all the life reappearing after a winter’s rest. This is the miracle I am now experiencing. I give thanks to the “Life Force,” what most religions call “God,” for my short time on this miraculous, lonely planet and offer prayers that life as we know it on Earth will muddle through a while longer, that we will avert catastrophe by becoming a kinder and gentler species, giving us more time to squeeze the last drops out of the lemon before our time as humans on the planet Earth comes to an end to be followed by new life forms.

What else can I do?

 

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I treated myself to watching Morning Joe on Friday, always the best source of reliable, unbiased reporting. The 7:00 AM segment began with Trump’s numerous proclamations that the “excursion” into Iran has been extraordinarily successful, far beyond his wildest dreams, that it will soon be over, that Iran will cave, and that plummeting gas prices are just around the corner along with lower food prices, housing costs, and lower costs for everyone.

Except for the diehard MAGAs very few Americans are buying that. Donny-boy, we are not idiots.

The mess in Iran is not going to be good for Republicans when the midterm elections happen in about eight months. The cost of living will be a huge issue as will the loss of American lives, if this drags on for much longer. And Democrats seem to be fielding some strong centrist candidates for Congress. Trump right now is the least popular of any U.S. president post World War II at this stage of his presidency. Republicans certainly realize this and are bracing for the worst. If the Democrats were to win back the House, now considered likely, the Trump agenda would hit a brick wall, and his out-of-control second term would be severely constrained. If Trump support in the Senate also were to cave, game over, though this is considered a long shot. Certainly, Trump must realize this, and his constant talk of a successful “excursion” in Iran is Exhibit A that he gets it.

By the way, the definition of an “excursion” according to The Oxford Language Dictionary is “a short journey or trip, especially one engaged in as a leisure activity.” Not exactly accurate for a situation that is likely to make George W.’s Iraq War fiasco seem like a picnic. Some commentators explain he got the word “excursion” confused with “incursion.” I tell you, the dude is not playing with a full deck.

All hopeful for Democrats, except that the Republican majorities might hold because of dirty tricks. It is clear that Trump and his team of sycophants have given up on winning in fair competition and are hard at work on a game plan to steal the election. The initial strategy is to severely limit who can vote. The “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act” in a 218-213 vote passed the House in February but stalled in the Senate due to arguments from Democrats that it would violate voting rights. It would require Americans to show proof of citizenship to be able to register to vote and to have a valid ID in order to cast a ballot. In other words, people would have to show up with a valid U.S. passport or a birth certificate and a government issued ID. Can you imagine the chaos this would cause? How many people who are legitimate U.S. citizens can easily get their hands on their birth certificate? And a lot of legitimate citizens do not have passports.

The act would also ban mail-in voting and restrict voting from transgender people. The Republican thinking I suppose is that people without official passports or U.S. birth certificates or who are transgender are more likely to vote for a Democrat. If they are denied the right to vote, then the Republicans have a better shot at winning. My guess is that constraining the voting lists is just the beginning, the tip of the iceberg.

There probably also are plans to intimidate voters who manage to meet all the requirements and to get to the polls–a heavy police presence, mobs of Proud Boys or other vigilantes surrounding voting lines and shouting threats. Who knows about how they might be tinkering with the voting machines and the vote counting? I am assuming there are people at work here as well–whatever it takes to alter the results.

However, if the Iran War continues unabated and if costs of gas and food continue to rise, the American people will revolt, even many in the Trump base living paycheck to paycheck. The Republicans will pay the price–as indeed they should. The only hope they have to win is to cheat or as some have predicted for Trump to call off the midterms because of a “national emergency.”

Any thoughts about how this movie will end?

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Our Fragile Mortality

How many close calls have you had? I am defining a close call as a situation that if it had turned out differently could have had grave consequences. Another way of putting it is a near death experience. I have certainly had my share if not more. The most recent, which I have already blogged about, was a couple of months ago when my sodium count was 111 when 135-145 is normal and anything under 125 is considered extremely dangerous. It was the cause of my passing out twice, slamming my head on very hard surfaces. Fortunately, I fell backwards both times hitting the back of my head rather than the front, which if that had happened would probably have resulted in brain damage. And there was the incident in the ER at Holy Cross Hospital when the doctors were ready to discharge me after they had determined I had not suffered “brain bleed.” If Embry had not reminded them to check my sodium level, I surely would not have survived. Several doctor friends to whom I have told my story shake their heads in disbelief. Their reaction: “Joe, it is a miracle you are still alive.”

I think back over my life and can recall several other instances when close calls happened. One was in 1981 when I was riding shotgun in a tiny Toyota, speeding along on a crowded Cross Bronx Expressway en route to LaGuardia Airport in a blinding thunderstorm. Suddenly the car began to hydroplane. We did three complete 360s, crossing six lanes, as cars whizzed past us on both sides at 70 miles an hour, before ending up in a ditch on the far side of the expressway. By some miracle we did not hit another car. I still have a vivid memory of what the driver looked like, a 30-something woman who was a staffer for my client, a nonprofit affordable housing company. As the world twirled around me in a moment of vertigo I remember thinking, “So this is where it all ends.” The driver was so shaken by the experience she immediately turned off the expressway and dumped me and the two passengers in the backseat at the closest subway station to get to the airport on our own.

Then there was the airline experience when the landing gear in a US Airways jet did not come down as the plane approached the San Diego airport. The pilot came on the loudspeaker, announced the predicament, and told us that his plan was to circle the airport until the plane ran out of fuel and then coast in. From that point on, very few passengers said a word as the plane circled the city for about 30 minutes. The lady next to me was a retired realtor who nervously pointed out the roofs of a dozen or so homes she had sold in her long career. When we completed the final circle and were close to using up all the fuel, the pilot came on again. The good news was that the landing gear had finally come down as it was supposed to. The bad news was that the control panel in the cockpit indicated that the landing gear was not locked. He made one more circle flying very low by the control tower hoping they might be able to determine if the wheels were locked. I counted over a dozen ambulances, six or seven fire engines and a bunch of local TV and news vehicles. We coasted in and slammed hard on the runway. The wheels held and the cabin erupted in applause. I recall thinking the same thing I did on the Cross Bronx Expressway in a blinding rain: “So this is how it all ends.”

I have been in cars that came within inches of head on collisions at very fast speeds, once on a fishing trip with my father, who was driving, when a car was headed toward us in our lane after passing another car on the opposite side of the hill. We ended up in a ditch on the side of the road but were able to get out of it and back on the road. We were silent most of the rest of the way home. The other was on a canoe trip with high school friends when I was driving and made a right turn onto what I thought was a deserted highway only to see another car barreling towards us going very fast in our lane. Both cars swerved and averted disaster. It was several minutes before anyone in my car said a word.

I have had more close calls sailing than I can count. When a huge freighter or container ship blows its horn five times, it means it can’t change course. If you do not get out of the way, you will be hit. I can remember three of those incidents, all in the Chesapeake Bay. The closest was in the mid 1980s at three in the morning when I was cruising with our son and best friend enroute to New England when in the fog what I thought was a bridge over the canal leading to the Delaware Bay turned out to be a freighter. We heard the five horn blasts as it glided by only a sailboat length way. Then there was the gale that hit when Embry and I were cruising with friends on a chartered sailboat in the Adriatic. We were racing down huge waves at 14 knots when we encountered a freighter in the dense fog aiming straight for us and missing us by only a few boat lengths. All were close calls that if they had gone the other way, I probably would not be writing this blog post.

And of course there are the medical close calls. Most people have had them. My most serious besides the low sodium incident was curvature of the spine (“scoliosis”) caused by paralyzed stomach muscles as a result of polio when I was ten. I was “saved” in 1954 when I was twelve by a brand new operation called a “spinal fusion.” Had I been born several years earlier I would not have had access to the procedure and would not have survived past my eighteenth birthday because my organs would have been out of whack. Then there are the routine infections that years earlier would have been killers. I have had several melanomas, all caught early enough not to be a killer, but what if they hadn’t? The advances in medicine over my lifetime have kept a lot of my generation alive. Several of my friends have had more serious health incidents than me but most of my friends are still kicking.

So, what are we to make of these close calls? If you have been following my blog, it will come as no surprise when I proclaim that life is both a mystery and a blessing. It is a “miracle” that we Homo sapiens are here in the first place. With Hubble and the other new telescopes, we are looking hard but still have not found advanced life on other planets. Why here and not on other planets? Certainly, there has got to be life–including “advanced life”– in a universe that we now know contains trillions of galaxies, but we won’t know–at least not likely any time soon.

And why are some spared an early exit–as I and most of my friends have been–and others whose lives are tragically cut short? Where does a Divine Deity fit into the picture?

In a couple of weeks, I will turn 84. That is a long life and much longer than my life expectancy when I was born when the average age at death was in the mid 60s. As the saying goes, I have been blessed. For this and for surviving the various close calls, I am profoundly grateful. And, yes, I also believe that there is much we don’t know. Above the paygrade of us Homo sapiens to figure out though that does not keep us from trying. What is “luck” and what is something more?

I love the line in Amore Towles’ book, A Gentleman in Moscow: “A coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

I have nothing more to add.

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Yes, I admit this is an exaggeration. We are not a fascist police state, at least not yet. But try convincing an undocumented immigrant who was beaten and arrested by masked ICE police on his way to work and then ends up in one of the 225 so-called “detention camps” holding some 70,000 immigrants and operated by private, for-profit prison companies mostly in remote locations. Many more are in the pipeline including massive warehouses. According to the Washington Post, 80 percent of the detainees in these detention camps do not have a criminal record. The detainee’s only “crime’ is living and working in the United States without proper papers. Chances are most of the immigrants were doing work Americans did not want to do.

A story appeared yesterday in many newspapers about “Camp East Montana” located in a remote part of Texas.

Here is the description of the camp from Wikipedia:
Camp East Montana is an ICE detention facility located at Fort Blis, Texas. The camp is a tent encampment, reported to be run by a company called Acquisition Logistics LLC, with a contract value of around $1.2 billion. The facility has a planned capacity of up to 5,000 detainees.[3] The ACLU has described it as the largest internment facility in the United States.
Camp East Montana was opened on August 17, 2025. During its first 50 days, conditions at the camp violated at least 60 federal standards, according to ICE’s own detention oversight unit. The ACLU and other human-rights organizations called for its closure after interviewed detainees reported “physical and sexual abuse, medical neglect, and intimidation to self-deport”.

Two inmates have reported having their testicles crushed by guards as a form of punishment.

As of January 2026, three detainees have died there in a period of 44 days.] An autopsy ruled the death of a 55-year old Cuban as a homicide caused by asphyxia. ICE officials stated that his death was a suicide, but witnesses told the press that he had been handcuffed and choked by guards before his death. Campos had previously been arrested for sexual contact with an 11-year-old minor and illegal possession of a weapon leading to his detention by ICE. After the El Paso medical examiner ruled Lunas Campos’ death a homicide, El Paso mayor Renard Johnson called for an independent investigation. Individuals attempting to visit detainees from Minneapolis where Lunas Campos had been detained, were told those inmates were no longer allowed to have visitors.

On January 14, another immigrant, Victor Manuel Diaz, died while detained at Camp East Montana, said by ICE to be due to “presumed suicide.”

At the end of January 2026, Victor Manuel Diaz’s family questioned the information provided by ICE, pointing out that the agency had not sent them detailed information about Victor’s death and describing the procedures as “suspicious” and irregular, leading them to launch an independent investigation to clarify the case.

Widespread disease occurred within the facilities, including two cases of tuberculosis and 18 cases of COVID-19. Alarms about poor healthcare for immigrants were raised by Democrat Veronica Escobar, who said that one-third of detainees have a chronic illness and around 200 to 300 need daily insulin, citing that conditions at Camp East Montana are deteriorating to the point of violating basic human rights.

Escobar pointed out that Camp East Montana had many immigrants in poor health, citing cases of pregnant women who had lost a lot of weight due to malnutrition while in ICE custody. She also noted that some immigrants had collapsed during her visit on January 29. On March 3, 2026, Camp East Montana was closed to visitors due to a measles outbreak with the center reporting 14 active measles cases.

Another notorious camp is “Alligator Alcatraz” near the swamps in South Florida.

Also from Wikipedia:
In the report “Torture and Enforced Disappearances in the Sunshine State: Human Rights Violations at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ and Krome in Florida” published by Amnesty International concluded that the camp’s conditions, including routine and prolonged use of shackles and retention in a “box” described as a 2×2 foot cage-like structure “constitutes torture”.

While these two camps are probably the most notorious, it is probable that similar conditions are prevalent in most if not all of these prisons. Good heavens! Think about what if this happened to you or to a loved one. No one without a criminal record should be arrested, let alone tortured. Period. And yet that this is happening right now is bad enough, but it is just the beginning. There are 14 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. How many does Trump plan to arrest and lock up? And think of the cost to the taxpayer and the impact on the deficit if this madness continues. This is cruel and insane.

So, I will concede that it is an exaggeration to label us a fascist police state. And it is perhaps too early to panic. We American are not evil people. When it becomes obvious that we are on the wrong path, maybe there will be an outcry and these camps will quietly disappear.

But don’t bet on it. And reform will not happen if we don’t speak out.

 

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