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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On Saturday on the way back from visiting a friend in Baltimore, our GPS took Embry and me through the heart of what used to be strong working class neighborhoods in the city. My career was in the field of developing affordable housing and seniors housing, and years ago I did a lot of work in Baltimore. My, how things have changed from what I remember!

I was stunned. We drove though block after block of boarded up, dilapidated town homes and apartments, giving the feel of a war zone. I had no idea of how challenging the situation must be in Baltimore today. I checked with AI and learned that in 2022, Baltimore had 16,000 vacant buildings. There are probably more today. In many low income neighborhoods, particularly in West and East Baltimore, vacancy rates are over 30%. In other words, in these “tough neighborhoods,” one out of every three townhomes is vacant and boarded up. Some apartment buildings are totally empty and abandoned. Add to that graffiti on the doors and walls, broken windows, trash on the street, and crime in the neighborhood and you wonder how anyone could be happy living on these troubled blocks and in these neighborhoods.

There is nothing like this in Washington, not even close.

When I started in the housing development field fifty years ago, the Washington and Baltimore metro areas were about the same size, around 3.5 million people in the early 1970s. In 2026, the Washington metropolitan population is more than twice the size of the Baltimore metropolitan area population. The Washington metro area today has a population exceeding 6.3 million, while the Baltimore metro area has lost population, which is estimated to be around 2.4 million in 2026. The median income in Washington is almost $110,000. In Baltimore it is about $60,000. Try living on that if you part of a family of four or more people.

In my thinking the decline of Baltimore is due mainly to three factors–loss of jobs, loss of jobs, and loss of jobs. The union, blue collar jobs have almost vanished in Baltimore, which fifty years ago was driven by a manufacturing economy. The city lost about 75% of its industrial employment between 1950 and 1995. By 1998, Baltimore had lost 90,000 manufacturing jobs compared to 1970 levels. A major factor was Bethlehem Steel, which shrank from 30,000 workers in the 1970s to just 8,000 by the late 1980s before closing entirely. What was left were mainly service jobs, paying much less and with fewer benefits. One could argue whether Baltimore could have done a better job in keeping these jobs, but the loss of higher paying, blue collar jobs affected most older, industrial cities in the United States.

Washington on the other hand has an information-based economy aided by the high growth in federal employment. And over the last 50 years, the Washington metropolitan area has transitioned from a government-centric workforce to a diversified, private-sector-led economy, nearly tripling its total employment. Employment in the metro area grew from roughly 1.2 million jobs in the mid-1970s to over 3.3 million by 2025. The private sector now accounts for approximately 78% of total employment, up from being a minority share 50 years ago. And the region has historically outperformed the nation during recessions, often returning to pre-recession employment levels within five years.

This does not mean that all is well in Washington. The city currently has a substantially larger homeless population than Baltimore, more than twice as many–5,138 in Washington versus 2,024 in Baltimore. And homeless encampments have been prolific in Washington until recently. Trump’s threats to the mayor have resulted in their mysterious disappearance, out of sight out of mind.

Housing affordability is also a huge problem in Washington, but not in Baltimore. In Washington, D.C. average rents are over 50% higher and home listing prices more than double what they are in Baltimore. The median rent in D.C. is $2,600 , compared to Baltimore with a median rent of under $1,500. The median sales price of a home in Baltimore is $210,000 compared to $650,00 in DC. If you want a good deal and are willing to commute a long way for work in Washington, Baltimore is appealing. We know people who have done that.

The experience prompted me to see what I could find on the internet about Baltimore. I was surprised to find a lot of positive initiatives and reasons for optimism.

Baltimore achieved a significant decline in violent crime in 2025, recording its lowest homicide count in nearly 50 years. A lot of progress has been made since the filming of “The Wire.” The city attributes this progress to a “comprehensive, public health-centered” strategy led by the mayor and the police department.

As for housing and urban development, Baltimore is currently undertaking the largest housing redevelopment program in the nation, centered on a massive $6 billion community reinvestment plan. This 15-year initiative, formally coordinated through “Reinvest Baltimore,” aims to revitalize over 65,000 vacant or at-risk properties across the city. The next five years the goal is to demolish 5,000 units. That is a start but still about 60,000 vacant units would remain. Renewal efforts now focus on “whole blocks, and whole neighborhoods.” Small parks will fill in some of the vacant sites. The strategy is to encourage large-scale, private investment rather than scattered rehabilitation. These efforts are targeted to the distressed neighborhoods like the ones we drove through. So, there is hope that in a few years the drive we took would be very different, though it seems to me to be a heavy lift.

My reaction in driving through the Baltimore neighborhoods was similar to my attitude about the homeless encampments in DC– both disbelief and shame that in a country as rich as ours, these stark disparities still exist and in many cities poor and working class people are worse off because the federal government under Trump has retreated in supporting affordable housing and supportive services. In a word, it is outrageous. Will the situation change? Unlikely in my lifetime, but the course we are on now is unsustainable. We have to do better.

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The same cast of characters is assembled to discuss the Iran War and next steps. It is March 3, 2026, four days after the bombings began. Present are Trump, Miller, Hegseth, Rubio, and Vance. Here is the conversation:

Trump: Welcome all and congratulate me. I am kicking the hell out of the Iranians, and any time now they will surrender and I will be acknowledged as the greatest President in the history of America or anywhere else for that matter. It will only be a matter of time before the idiots in Greenland give me the Nobel Peace Prize I so richly deserve.
Miller: “Norway.” Mr. President.
Trump: That is what I meant. “Norway.”
Miller: Mr. President, things are going well and we are destroying Iran, but I am afraid there is some bad news as well. The generals tell us that for us to win, a ground invasion will be necessary and that will cost American Lives.
Hegseth: Kill kill, kill, kill!
Miller: Mr. Secretary. Please. Control yourself.
Trump: What do you mean, Stephen?
Miller: I will let the Secretary of State explain.
Rubio: The generals say that a ground invasion is the only way we will bring these infidels to their knees. American lives will be lost. Perhaps thousands, maybe more. The invasion would take months perhaps longer. At least that is what the generals are telling us. This could get messy.
Hegseth: Kill, kill, kill, kill!
Miller: Please, Mr. Secretary, for God’s sake. But fear not, Mr. President. We have a solution that won’t cost any American lives.
Trump: Tell me more.
Hegseth: I will jump in here. We will use our nuclear weapons. Look, we have the nukes, why not use them? They don’t have them and we do. There is no Mutually Assured Destruction. It does not apply here. There is no “mutual.” We strike, they die. Lots of them and there is not a damn thing they can do about it. So, if you have them like we do, put them to use against an opponent who does not have them. Iran is nuke-less. Plus, this is a chance in a lifetime to get our money’s worth from all we have spent on nuclear weapons up to now and to show Iran and the world who is boss. The bombs are just sitting there gathering dust. Our country has paid a fortune for this arsenal and yet we never use them. What is the point? It is a no-brainer. Not to use them would be a derelict of duty.
Trump: I am all ears. Tell me more.
Miller: I will jump in here. Look, this is exactly the same situation which occurred when we won World War II. Japan did not have an atomic bomb, but we did. We nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki and that was the end of that. Truman ordered the bombing and became a hero. Everyone respected him. He saved countless American lives and probably Japanese lives since the bombing put an end to the war. You can do the same. You will be a hero!
Vance: You already are a hero, Mr. President.
Rubio: I would just say that I am not in agreement on this. Iran might not have nuclear weapons, but a lot of other countries do. An action like this could unleash forces beyond anyone’s control and could result in a nuclear catastrophe beyond anything we can imagine.
Hegseth: Wimp. Forget Marco, Mr. President, he does not know what he is talking about. Go for it. This is your big chance. MAGA will love you for it. You are killing infidels. Remember the Crusades. Wipe out the infidels!
Trump: Just so I understand this. Since we have the nukes and Iran doesn’t, that means that we should use what we have to save American lives and I will be a hero. No country will dare come to the aid of Iran. And this will make me a hero?
Vance: You already are a hero, Mr. President.
Trump: Then I think Stephen has a point. Why would I waste American lives if I could end the whole thing with tapping in the nuclear code and giving an order? This is what Truman did and he got high marks for it. So, Pete, how many nukes will it take and how many Iranian lives will be lost?
Hegseth: 65-70 nukes and perhaps a few more. We plan to hit every city with a population of 100,000 or more and there are 61 cities that meet this threshold. Our military is poised and ready, Mr. President. All you need to do is give the ok. A lot of people will die and that is the way it is. Better them than us. You will make the world a safer place.
Rubio: Don’t do it, Mr. President. You are talking causalities in the millions. There are over 90 million people who live in Iran. Over 70 million would likely not survive. This is morally abhorrent. It could lead to all out nuclear war between the major powers.
Hegseth: You are no one to talk about morals, Marco. And would you prefer that Americans die in a land invasion? Try getting votes in the midterms for this. This is a chance of a lifetime, Mr. President! Besides no one likes Iran. No country will risk nuclear war and come to their aid. This is about as risk free as you can get.
Miller: Agree fully.
Trump: Something to think about. Vance, what do you think?
Vance: I think you are the greatest President of all time and will do the right thing. Plus, you can be sure that the Epstein stuff will pass.
And so the meeting ends.

What do you think the odds are that discussions like this are happening right now in the White House? What are the odds that Trump would follow the advice of Miller and Hegseth?

If there are discussions like this happening right now, we are perilously close to a catastrophe beyond anything we can even comprehend. The planet has already had five mass extinctions each of which knocked out 90% or more of the plant and animal life on the planet. But the Earth rebounded and came back each time. However, the recoveries took millions of years. We have about a billion years left before our sun turns into a red giant, making the planet uninhabitable. Certainly, more mass extinctions and recoveries will happen between now and then. The point is right here, right now we have the capacity to unleash the Sixth Mass Extinction. And we are getting close to our time. The last mass extinction was 66 million years ago when the dinosaurs were wiped out. Mass extinctions tend to happen every 50-100 million years.

Pray that it does not happen to us right now.

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It is Thursday evening, February 25, 2026. In the oval office are President Trump, JD Vance, Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio and Stephen Miller.

Stephen Miller, Trump’s most trusted and influential advisor, gives Trump the bad news: the Epstein files are now starting to implicate Trump, and his popularity is reaching historic lows. Something must be done. He recommends starting a war to deflect attention from Epstein. Here is the conversation:

Trump: A War? Never thought of that.
Miller: All you have to do is decide whom you want to attack.
Hegseth: Yes, a war, a war! Show the world who is Number One!
Trump: How about Canada? They don’t like us anyway, and besides it would be a great opportunity to take over the country and expand our boundaries. Plus, it would be a pushover. Their army sucks.
Vance: Great idea, Mr. President!
Hegseth: Yes, yes!
Rubio: No, not a great idea. They are our allies and our friends. This would lose votes for us in the midterms.
Trump: Ok, what about Norway? That way we could pick up Greenland, and they don’t have much of an army, do they?
Vance: Terrific idea, Mr. President!
Hegseth: Wipe ‘em out, the bastards!
Rubio: No, it is not a great idea! Norway is part of the European Union. It would mean a war with Europe.
Trump: Well, what about North Korea?
Vance: Terrific idea , Mr. President!
Rubio: They have nukes. This could start a nuclear holocaust that could mean the end of life on the planet.
Trump: Is there no country that we could attack to show how tough I am and get people to stop talking about Epstein?
Hegseth: What about Iraq?
Miller: Been there done that.
Vance: Cuba?
Miller: Too small. You have got to show the world how powerful you are. Think big. Plus, Putin might object.
Vance: China?
Hegseth: Yes, great idea.
Miller: They also have nukes and a powerful military.
Hegseth: California?
Miller: That is a state, Mr. Secretary. Yes, there is a country, Mr. President– Iran. Most of the world would go along with you, and this would make Bibi happy. Israel might even join us. The Iranians are a bunch of scoundrels, and everyone knows it. You would be a hero!
Trump: Ok, then it is Iran. Get ‘em before they get us.
Rubio: But we are getting close to another agreement on limiting their nuclear capability even further.
Trump: Well then, you tell me what country might be better.

The group huddles together and tries unsuccessfully  to come up with a better alternative. They all agree that Iran is probably the only country that the Unites States could unleash its vast military arsenal on, demonstrate how powerful the United States is, and not suffer serious consequences.

Miller: Don’t worry, Mr. President. This Epstein thing will be a thing of the past.

On Friday, February 26, 2026, the bombing began.

No one knows how the movie will end.

 

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The Last Post in the Lenten Series 2026

I have described religion and religious beliefs as an attempt by us humans to make sense out of the world and our experience in it. Philosophy could also be described this way. We have been at this for some 300,000 years; and as our species has evolved, religious beliefs have become more nuanced and more complex. The fundamental fact that we humans are stuck with is that all life has a beginning and an end. What is that all about? Is there life after death? What is the meaning of the vast universe and our place in it? Why do bad things happen to good people? Are we human beings fundamentally good or bad creatures?

There are more questions than there are answers. The first question is this: if there is a God or a Divine Being, how can this Being be all powerful and all good. Considering the pain and suffering humans endure from time to time, there is a disconnect. What about wars, famine, floods, storms, sickness and the bad things we humans do to one another that happen routinely on this troubled planet? Conclusion: God can’t be all powerful and all good. We have no choice but to live our lives the best we can and to die not knowing the answer.

Various religions have developed over the centuries to try to make sense of understanding and connecting with a spiritual reality. There are a half dozen or so major religions–Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Taoism plus Christianity and Islam, the last two of which now account for the religion of about half the population on the planet. But is Christianity Absolute Truth as many Christians argue? What about the other religions?

I was raised an Episcopalian, received a Master of Divinity degree from Union Seminary in New York City in 1968, and for a time was in line to become a priest in the Episcopal church, though never got ordained (for reasons that are obvious as you read this post). But despite my doubts Embry and I have not given up on church and from the mid 1980s have attended a smallish Episcopal church in Washington near where we used to live. There is something good about being part of a loving and diverse community focused on spiritual concerns that is appealing, and despite its faults, the Episcopal Church worships under a pretty big tent. As the saying goes, Episcopalians tend to check their hat at the door before entering church, not their brain.

The fundamental belief of Christianity is that the Divine became human in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, a devout Jew, who lived 2,000 years ago and performed miracles, healed the sick and preached a message of love of God and neighbor. For His beliefs and His message, he was considered a threat to the Roman rule of law in Palestine and executed when he was in his early thirties by the leaders of the Roman Empire responsible for governing that area. What made Jesus “God” was that after being crucified, His disciples believed He rose again from the dead to be with God. His disciples and others testified they witnessed the several appearances of Jesus after his death and two or three years later the Apostle Paul, after seeing a vision of the Risen Christ, became an early convert, wrote numerous letters to other early converts in the Roman Empire focusing on the meaning of the resurrection, and made three long missionary journeys to countries in the region to spread the word as to what the resurrection meant and how followers of Jesus, initially called Nazarenes, and later “Christians,” were supposed to live their lives. Paul’s central interpretation of the resurrection was that Jesus was God’s “Son” and his death was a sacrifice by God to “save” the human race, though salvation would be available only to those who accepted the Chrisitan message. A generation later the four Gospels were written over a period of half a century telling the story of the life, crucifixion and resurrection of “Christ,” the name given to Jesus after his resurrection and which is the Greek term for the Hebrew “Messiah.”

From AI:
The original meaning of “Messiah” comes from the Hebrew word Mashiach, meaning “the anointed one,” referring to someone ritually consecrated with oil for a special purpose, like a king, priest, or prophet, as seen in the Old Testament. In Judaism, the Messiah is a future human leader from David’s line who will bring redemption, while in Christianity, Jesus is the promised Messiah, the ultimate anointed one who fulfills these roles and brings spiritual salvation, a concept echoed in the Greek Christos (Christ).

Key components of Paul’s message included:

Humanity is made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ, not by works.
Salvation is a free gift (grace), liberating believers from sin and the curse of the law.
The resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone of Christian faith and proof of victory over death.
Believers are transferred from a state of being “in Adam” (sin) to being “in Christ,” making them new creations.
The church is the body of Christ, bringing together all believers regardless of background.

The message took hold and the fledging religion started to grow, though not as quickly as is often thought but a couple of centuries later when Constantine converted to Christianity and Christianity became the defacto religion of the Roman Empire.

And the rest is history. I have posted about this in the Advent series so if you have read those this will sound familiar. However, questions remain. Is the Christian story true? Did Jesus really rise from the dead? And why has the Christian Church had such a rocky past and why are there so many views within Christianity about what the religion means? I would argue that there is not one Christianity but many, often at war with each other. The Thirty Years War in central Europe, for example, from 1618-1648 between Catholics and Protestants, resulted in some five million deaths though historians point out that there were many other political and social causes of the conflict besides religion. And think about the different types of Christianity–Roman Catholic, Eastern and Russian Orthodox, Mainline Protestants, Evangelicals, Pentecostal and “praise churches.” And what about the MAGA movement among evangelical, fundamentalist Protestants in the United States today where Donald J Tump has been heralded by some as the new Jesus Christ?

But despite its mixed history, according to the Pew Research Center today the number of Christians in the world account for about 25 percent of the world’s population though Muslims are expected to overtake Christians soon.

Why is Christianity so popular on the planet Earth?

There must be something here, right? Certainly, religious belief and faith have meant a lot to the human race in getting us through tough times. But is Christianity the only “true religion”? Certainly not in my thinking. And in terms of values, I feel much closer to people of other faiths than I do to some fundamentalist and evangelical in-your-face Christians. More times than I want to remember, I have been reminded by “true believers” that I and people like me are going to burn in hell. At the same time, I can’t deny that Christianity has had a profound impact on believers and on me. So, I agree that there is a legitimacy to spirituality for the human race.

And there is no question that many human beings in all religions have glimpses of what they believe is the Divine. In my own life I have been touched by what I perceive is a Divine Power, admittedly not all that frequently, but nevertheless experiences that I believe are genuine and real. I can also point to some very close calls that I survived and that I now describe as a miracle that I am still alive and kicking at the ripe old age of 84 (almost). And finally, do not count on human reason or science to figure out the answers to the questions of the meaning of the universe and of life on Earth. Above our pay grade, as they say. And as to an afterlife I have no idea as to what life in eternity would be like or if I would be happy there, having to associate with all the “true believers” and holier-than-thou types. Eternity, after all, is a very long time to spend with company you do not like.

For me, I will latch on to “love your neighbor as yourself” as the major takeaway from the Christian faith and let it go at that. Everyone has to figure this out for themselves.
And that is it for the Lenten Series. Happy Easter (in six weeks)!

From AI: Major Global Religions

• Christianity: The largest religion, based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, with significant followers in Europe, the Americas, and Africa.
• Islam: The second-largest, focusing on the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, with a vast global community, particularly in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
• Hinduism: Often considered the oldest active religion, it is a diverse tradition primarily practiced in India with followers worldwide.
• Buddhism: Originated in India 2,500 years ago, focusing on achieving enlightenment through the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama.
• Judaism: A monotheistic religion with deep historical roots as the foundational, parent religion for Christianity and Islam.
Other Significant Religious Traditions
While the top four/five are largest, several other traditions are significant globally or regionally:
• Sikhism: Founded in the Punjab region, focusing on devotion and equality.
• Shinto: The indigenous, nature-focused spirituality of Japan.
• Taoism (Daoism): A Chinese philosophy/religion emphasizing living in harmony with the Tao (the way).
• Confucianism: A Chinese ethical system focusing on social harmony, family, and morality.
• Baha’i Faith: A modern, monotheistic religion promoting the unity of all humanity and faiths.
• Jainism: An ancient Indian religion emphasizing non-violence (ahimsa) and asceticism.
• Zoroastrianism: One of the world’s oldest monotheistic faiths, originating in ancient Persia.

 

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The Third post in the Lenten Series

If the existence of human life is a blip on the screen of the two billion year history of the planet, the existence of religion on this delicate planet is a tiny fraction of a second. It began about three hundred thousand years ago, although the major religions in the world today began only a few thousand years ago. Yet we humans still tend to think that what we believe is Absolute Truth and what others might believe is rubbish if it differs from what we believe.

Anything wrong with this picture?

Here is what AI has to say when asked about the origins of religious belief:

1. Evolutionary Roots (Pre-History)

Before organized religion, there were the biological and social building blocks of faith.
• Agency Detection: Humans evolved to assume “agency” (the idea that something is acting with intent). If a bush rustles, it’s safer to assume it’s a predator than just the wind. This “Hyperactive Agency Detection Device” likely led humans to attribute natural events (thunder, rain) to invisible spirits.
• Social Cohesion: As human groups grew larger, religion acted as a “social glue.” Shared myths and rituals created trust among strangers, allowing for larger, more stable tribes.

2. The Paleolithic Era: Animism and Ritual
The earliest evidence of religious thought dates back to the Middle Paleolithic (approx. 100,000 to 50,000 years ago).
• Burial Practices: Sites like Qafzeh in Israel show intentional burials with grave goods (beads, ochre, animal bones). This suggests a concept of an afterlife or a respect for the dead that transcends biology.
• Animism: Most scholars believe the earliest form of religion was Animism—the belief that animals, plants, and even rocks possess a spiritual essence.
• Cave Art: The paintings at Lascaux and Altamira (c. 30,000 years ago) often depict “Therianthropes” (half-human, half-animal figures), suggesting shamanic practices and a connection to a spirit world.

3. The Neolithic Revolution: From Spirits to Gods
Around 10,000 BCE, humans shifted from hunting and gathering to agriculture. This changed religion fundamentally.
Göbekli Tepe: Located in modern-day Turkey, this 11,000-year-old site is considered the “world’s first temple.” It was built before settled agriculture, suggesting that the desire to worship actually drove people to settle down, rather than the other way around.
The Rise of Hierarchies: As societies became more complex, so did their gods. Local spirits were replaced by powerful Deities who controlled the weather and harvests. This mirrored the new social structures of kings and subjects.

4. The Bronze Age: Organized Mythology
By 3,000 BCE, the invention of writing allowed myths to be standardized.
• Polytheism: In Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley, complex pantheons emerged. Gods became personified (like Ra or Enlil) with specific “jobs” and human-like personalities.
• State Religion: Religion became tied to the state. Pharaohs and Kings claimed they were either gods themselves or the primary intermediaries between the heavens and Earth.

5. The Axial Age (800–200 BCE)
This was a pivotal turning point in human history where “modern” religious thought began to emerge simultaneously across the globe. In India, the Upanishads and the rise of Buddhism and Jainism focusing on karma and the enlightenment. In China, Confucianism and Taoism, focusing on social ethics and the natural order. In the Middle East the shift toward Monotheism (Zoroastrianism and Second Temple Judaism.) And in Greece a more rational philosophy, which questioned traditional myth, leading to a more abstract view of the “Divine.”

I find it particularly interesting that AI does not have anything to say about the origins of the two major faiths that now comprise the belief of about half of the population in the world–Christianity and Islam. Perhaps this has to do with AI’s ego. I remember the story told by a friend when AI answered his question “Is there a God?” with the answer “Now there is.”

The question is where we are headed. What is the next chapter going to be? Christianity in the United States is in a state of turmoil with the decline of the Mainline Protestant churches, the growth of the “spiritual but not religious,” and the rise of the MAGA Movement politicizing many fundamentalist denominations into right wing supporters of Trump. The Catholic Church has been able to hold its own but only because of the growth of the immigrant Catholic population. Will the next chapter to be written decades from now be about the demise of traditional religions or about a spiritual revival?

My hope is that there will be less emphasis on orthodoxy or “correct belief” and more on the values that religions share along with more humility, more love, and more human kindness and the recognition of the Great Mystery that we humans on the planet experience, recognizing that we will never know all the answers.

 

 

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The Second Post in the 2026 Lenten Series

The Bible says that humans were created by God in His likeness on the sixth day of creation. We now know more about how we humans actually came into being.

Here is the description from AI:

Human evolution is a complex process spanning approximately six to seven million years, beginning when the human lineage split from a common ancestor shared with modern chimpanzees in Africa. Rather than a straight line, our history is viewed as a “braided stream” or a tree with many side branches, where multiple human species lived, intermingled, and sometimes interbred.

Major Stages of Evolution

Scientific evidence generally organizes human evolution into four primary stages:

Proto-hominins 7–4 million years ago Earliest evidence of bipedalism (walking on two legs) and smaller canine teeth.

Australopithecines 4–2 million years ago Habitual bipedalism; small brains (similar to chimps); lived in Savannah environments.

Early Homo 2.5–1.4 million years ago First frequent use of stone tools; initial increase in brain size.

Advanced Homo 1.9 million years ago – Present Migration out of Africa; use of fire; significant brain expansion; development of language and art.

Key Evolutionary Milestones

• Bipedalism (c. 6–4 million years ago): Walking upright was one of the earliest defining human traits, freeing the hands for other tasks.

• Tool Use (c. 3.3–2.5 million years ago): The earliest stone tools appear in the record, with Homo habilis being one of the first species to modify stones into tools for tasks like cutting meat.

• Migration Out of Africa (c. 2–1.8 million years ago): Homo erectus was the first human ancestor to migrate in large numbers out of Africa, spreading into Eurasia.

• Brain Expansion & Fire (c. 2 million–400,000 years ago): Increased meat consumption and the invention of cooking provided the energy needed to fuel dramatic brain growth.

• Symbolic Culture (c. 100,000–50,000 years ago): Modern humans began creating art (cave paintings), using complex language, and developing elaborate cultural diversity.

The Rise of Homo sapiens

Anatomically modern humans emerged in Africa approximately 300,000 years ago. While earlier theories suggested we evolved from a single population in East Africa, current evidence suggests we descended from several different populations across the continent that occasionally mixed and swapped genes.

• Interbreeding: As Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa roughly 60,000 to 70,000 years ago, they encountered and interbred with other archaic human species, such as Neanderthals in Europe and Denisovans in Asia.

• Sole Survivors: By roughly 17,000 years ago, Homo sapiens became the only surviving species of the once-diverse human evolutionary tree after other lineages, like H. neanderthalensis and H. floresiensis, became extinct.

• Biological Variation: Modern human physical variations, such as skin color and body structure, are the result of long-range adaptations to differing environments worldwide

Hey, anything worth doing often takes a while, right?

What stands out most for me is how we Homo sapiens are a mere blip on the screen. Does anyone really think that our time in the sun will last forever? Also keep in mind that our planet has been in existence for about two billion years and has a billion more to go before our sun becomes a red giant and eliminates all life on Earth. And also remember that there have already been five mass extinctions in our history. The last one occurred 66 million years ago when the dinosaurs (except for the birds) all got wiped out making the way for us mammals to evolve and flourish.

And finally keep in mind that with nuclear weapons we now have the capacity to wipe out life on the planet as we know it and to facilitate the Sixth Great Mass Extinction. What are the chances that there will be more extinctions before the Earth is wiped out by an expanding sun a billion years from now? I would say 100%. Of course.

And the nukes will probably be the cause of the next one.

Why am I reminding readers of this history as part of the Lenten series?

Because this is where science and religion intersect, rather than collide. It is beyond our ability to comprehend. This dilemma is one of the primary reasons that religion appeared on the planet Earth and religious thought and faith have evolved over thousands of years. True understanding of the absolute meaning, however, remains a mystery. We grasp at straws. Religious faith is one straw.

We Homo sapiens are fundamentally a religious species. We ask questions. We look for answers. And the myths of creation (part of most religious traditions) are one straw we hold onto for answers. But absolute Truth? Who is to say?

A little humility is in order, if you ask me.

Along with thanksgiving that we humans are still here on this magnificent planet and have not done ourselves in yet.

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