MLK Day: Leaders Not In Love With Money

We need leaders not in love with money, but in love with justice.  Not in love with publicity, but in love with humanity.

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Stand and I Will Be With You

Momentous Revelation

We have made the Bible into a bunch of ideas—about which we can be right or wrong—rather than an invitation to a new set of eyes.

Even worse, many of those ideas are the same old, tired ones, mirroring the reward-and-punishment system of the dominant culture, so that most people don’t even expect anything good or new from the momentous revelation that we call the Bible.

-- Richard Rohr

3 Observations & A Question

Good is not simply a personal thing.

Personal and collective responsibility meet somewhere — ‘minding my own business’ is not enough.

There’s always a political game going on — but when it’s no longer a game, everybody (just about) hates it.

What does solidarity mean to you — when does it warrant protest?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question…

National Elk Refuge

I want to leave it right there so badly....

But, the contrasts, especially with regard to money, are unavoidable (without just sticking-our-head-in-the-sand):

Billionaire Rams owner Stan Kroenke becomes America’s biggest private landowner

The U.S. is securing about 30% higher prices for Venezuelan crude

...even worse:

US is keeping the money in Qatar rather than in U.S. banks

And, just to top it off:

President Donald Trump is keeping Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize after she presented it to him during their meeting

...if only we could have just enjoyed the implications of Wyoming's National Elk Refuge for just one more minute.

This is helpful:

The question is how to stay engaged without losing ourselves in the process

Storytelling

Of all the skills that I have developed in my life, storytelling may be one of my least developed (although, this one isn't terrible). This is, at the very least, unfortunate because storytelling may be among the most influential of skills.

Of the skills I have developed, a common theme throughout them is my interest in impacting people with what is true…especially about them. So, to have collected a variety of insights about the human condition, the inability to more effectively use them is a kind of sadness to me. Not to say that nothing is essentially there in that regard (ideas can be substantive), but the skill of translating truth in story-form may be near the top regarding impact opportunity for it. In fact, story has been far more utilized throughout the ages, than the more written versions we are so accustomed to now. I wish then I had taken more time to develop this craft, not as much for my sake as for my part (as a fellow human being) in transmitting the nature of human truth which, of course, involves the sublime and the spiritual as well.

As I reflect back on both the trajectory and course of my life and interests, I see a thru-line that could be described as an interest, if not gravitation, to the essence of truth, wherever it may be found. And, one of the more significant discoveries I’ve made is that for most people, their respective relationship with truth is not highly rational. It is experiential. It is emotional. It is psychological.

Many might contend with this assertion, especially those coming from the rational western-philosophical approach to such things. And, even those who would want to distance themselves from some of those domains, largely believe that the basis of their particular embrace of truth is what they think they know…in other words, rational. In fact, many in this subset would side-eye these other dimensions, as being inferior.

But, that is not my experience with or observation of many people. Many, if not all of us, believe what we believe because of the stories that surround what we believe. And, those stories makes sense to us because of our experiences those stories resonate with.

Stories have profoundly impacted me over the course of my life (in some cases even more than the truth they reflect). They are powerful, in large part, because they are so personal. They make the abstract relevant. Stories can both destroy ideas and concepts and, like nearly nothing else, legitimize and perpetuate them.  As we read each day, they can also accelerate them.

So, I'm left a bit with this: what stories am I telling (besides those I'm essentially telling with this blog)?  Which ones do I need to tell?

Permanent Joy

The only way to find permanent joy is by embracing the fact that nothing is permanent.

-- Martha Beck

In other words, holding on to the past and happiness are often incompatible.

What Counts

What counts is not the things that happen, but what we do with them.

-- Annie Ernaux

How We Know

I'm wondering...about how we know who we are.

Do we, for example, know this ontologically? 

Or, do we know this much more practically, like through our experience (family, socially, work, etc.)?

Do we know it spiritually — through the trifecta of scripture, tradition, personal experience (arrange these in whatever order you like)?

Perhaps more significantly, what are the kinds of things that challenge our working understanding of who we are — particularly, the things that disrupt that understanding?

For example, how much of how we think about ourselves is based on what we think others think of us?  Do they like us?  Even more potently, do they enjoy us (…because, what if they don’t?)?  Where do the answers effectively leave us?

We wonder about these kinds of things from time to time, usually as time permits and often only theoretically. But, at other times, we wonder about such things when we discover something that feels like risks something about our self-understanding, especially in a personal way.  Then, the question takes on all kinds of dimensions (some good, some not).  So, what do we, in fact, use to answer it? 

This happened to me this last weekend; which is why, this week, I’m wondering…about who I really am and how I know that.


And, then, there's Mel:

All You Have To Do

All my life, I have been enamored of the God-intoxicated ones. Those rarified souls who slip into ecstatic states and spontaneously utter poetry. The ones who exude deep stillness, embody equanimity, listen more than they speak. The initiated and the ordained, the monastics…. 

I wanted to be one of them. Until I didn't. 

I want you not to want that as well…. I want you to want to be exactly who you are: a true human person doing their best to show up for this fleeting life with a measure of grace, with kindness and a sense of humor, with curiosity and a willingness to not have all the answers, with reverence for life.  

You do not need to chant all night in a temple in the Himalayas. You don't have to be the newest incarnation of Mary Magdalene. It is not necessary to read or write spiritual books. You are not required to know the difference between Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism or memorize the Beatitudes. All you have to do to walk the path of the ordinary mystic is to cultivate a gaze of wonder and step onto the road. Keep walking. Rest up, and walk again. Fall down, get up, walk on. Pay attention to the landscape. To the ways it changes and the ways it stays the same. Be alert to surprises and turn with the turning of the seasons. Honor your body, train your mind, and keep your heart open against all odds. Say yes to what is, even when it is uncomfortable or embarrassing or heartbreaking. Hurl your handful of yes into the treetops and then lift your face as the rain of yes drops its grace all over you, all around you, and settles deep inside you.

-- Mirabai Starr

3 Observations & A Question

You can only outrun yourself for so long.

 

We use medication to address our symptoms (of our stress), when the whole while we could be addressing what’s causing our stress in the first place.

Change happens most when stories animate lived experience.

So, will we help the poor, the sick, those in prison…or not?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question…

On The Lighter Side: People Can Do Stuff

On the Lighter Side:

Power

We've got a staggering relationship with power these days.

Perhaps this is nothing new....

But culturally, right now, we seem quite disconnected from a healthy perspective on where real (good) power comes from.  Our headlines continue to overflow with examples.  

During a conversation with the New York Times that was reported today, Trump said “the only thing that can stop me” is “my own morality. My own mind.”

Trump was responding to a question about checks on his power to attack nations around the world. But his response is increasingly relevant to his power domestically.

-- Robert Reich

Besides the banality represented by Trump, many of our leaders are forfeiting the opportunity to help us; both by neglect and by intention — both by what isn't said and by what is.   

Power is often motivated by some kind of end-game.  We will use it to get what we want and we will come up with nearly endless justifications for its use, to the point that we no longer recognize that it, in and of itself, becomes the driver (rather than whatever it is we are trying to secure).

Fear is usually at the core of power, but greed is right behind it.  And, this form of driver is grotesque from nearly any perspective of distance.

Real power, however, is manifest in the opposite direction.  It is not motivated by things like fear and greed.  It operates from something far deeper; the thing that we no longer even recognize in the lust that power inflames within us. 

Love.

Love is what we both lack and want more than anything else.  It is no strange irony that we will even resort to misuse of power to get it (even though that very misuse effectively forfeits it).  Somehow, though, we've ended up concluding things like our side must eradicate the other side to secure that love.  

We have, as a result, not eradicated the barrier to what we want as we had hoped, but the very ability to know what it is.  Power, in this state of things, is no longer liberating, but enslaving.  It not only damages those impacted by its implementations, but it renders us unable to even consider its ramifications on ourselves. 

While we can legitimately blame our leaders for this, this ultimately is on us.  Too often, they are no better than we are (even if they should be).  If we don't understand these things, how can we require them to?  We have to understand, and live from, real (good) power, collectively and individually — the power of love.

You Want To Live With

You build your mind, so make it into something you want to live with.

-- Marilynne Robinson

Let Others

It's better to endure the discomfort of the truth now, than to suffer the discomfort of the lie later.

-- Simon Sinek

Donald Trump Wants You to Forget This Happened

Donald Trump Wants You to Forget This Happened — stories of actual people involved.

“You gotta win the midterms. Because if we don’t win the midterms, it’s just gonna be—I mean, they’ll find a reason to impeach me. I’ll get impeached.” 

-- Donald Trump, to Republican lawmakers

A broader telling...here.  

You really can't 'un-see' it, even when they try to re-write it (not kidding).

Unbelievably, this was only the beginning of a take-over that has been being put in place for some time...every day makes it more and more where this is heading.

Conscious Effort

I’ve noticed…that sometimes it takes conscious effort for me to notice what is happening inside myself.

More Available to God

A Rule of Life is not a rigid checklist or a spiritual productivity plan. It’s not about doing more for God. It’s about ordering our lives so we can be more available to God. 

-- Rich Villodas

 
That is about as succinct as it can get, but this seems quite pertinent as well:

Losing My Religion

Rich and Powerful

An Economist/YouGov poll released on December 30 showed that 80% of Americans believe that “political institutions have been captured by the rich and powerful,” 82% believe that “elites are out of touch with the realities of everyday life,” and 74% believe that “leaders who come from ordinary backgrounds better represent people like me.”

-- Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American 

You don't even need to be the suspicious type to see this...

We all (most of us anyway) know why; which makes this all the more interesting:

‘I Was Just So Naïve’: Inside Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Break With Trump

So:

Why Does Trump Get Away With It? 

A couple of excerpts:

Trump really believes that his strategy of chaos and distraction will allow him to 'get away with it' — given the above, he's probably right (at least in the short-term...which is all he really cares about).

4 Observations (from Others)

What can I do in the next three to five years, that I will respect looking back from my deathbed?

-- Ron Shaich

 

 

The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline.

-- David Foster Wallace, This Is Water

 

The patience you need for big things, is developed by your patience with the little things.

-- Kevin Kelly

 

 

Learning how to live a quiet life is an important art, especially in a world that carelessly assaults us with noise.

 

-- Thomas Moore, The Eloquence of Silence

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

We look with uncertainty

'Poem for the week' -- "We look with uncertainty":   

Let Everything Happen To You

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.

-- Rainer Maria Rilke

Such a recommendation may be really be a lot about things like RELEASE.

This perspective might enable us to embrace these recommendations:

Living in the Light of God’s Love

How about a question, then, for the new year?

To explore this further:

Ask Yourself These 7 Questions

As We Leave Another Year

Leave the year behind the way you leave a ridge — look back once with gratitude, then turn toward the next climb with steady breath and a lighter heart.

-- Anonymous

What a year it's been — here are some perspectives: 

The year in video

The Law Is Catching Up 

Thank You

Letters from an American

Prisoner of Other People's Expectations

When your primary goal is to be liked, you can't take risks. You can't disagree. You can't push boundaries. You become a prisoner of other people's expectations. 

-- Shane Parrish

Being Right

Ever noticed...that being right doesn’t really get you very much of what you really want?

What if, as we approach a new year, we resolve to be less committed to being right and discover what that can give us?

Sacred

Whether it be the experience of the sublime in the Christmas season on one end or the trauma of our cultural chaos in 2025 on the other end, I suspect we all are now negotiating something within ourselves. Whether that be culturally, environmentally, physically, mentally, psychologically, or spiritually, we have a shared sense that something is being infused in a way that is compromising us and that a deeper awareness of sacredness is the only real way forward.

Here are two observations that grab my attention on this last Sunday of 2025:

I define “sacred” as that which pulls us beyond the bounds of our individual selves, envelops us within mystery, and gives us a glimpse into the vast, entwined, eternal network of living beings that we are in relationship with.

-- Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder

Sacramental vision means not only that we grow in our love of God’s ways in the world, but also that we grow in our sense of kinship with creation. 

-- Christine Valters Paintner

3 Observations & A Question

We change most when it hurts bad enough…not to.

 

You receive and then you give and then you receive — thus is the cycle of life. 

We need indulgence; but paucity, too — some would say the order, though, should be the opposite.

What would effort not borne out of insecurity look like?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question…

AmericaFest

From earlier this week:

Speaking today at Turning Point USA’s annual “AmericaFest” conference, Vice President J.D. Vance said, to great applause: “The only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been, and by the grace of God we always will be, a Christian nation.”

Actually, we haven’t.

Vance’s statement flies in the face of our Constitution, whose First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….” James Madison of Virginia, the key thinker behind the Constitution, had quite a lot to say about why it was fundamentally important to make sure the government kept away from religion.

In 1772, when he was 21, Madison watched as Virginia arrested itinerant preachers for attacking the established church in the state. He was no foe of religion, but by the next year, he had begun to question whether established religion, which was common in the colonies, was good for society.  Continue here....

-- Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American

Family

So much to be thankful for:

Christmas Greetings from a Fairy to a Child

'Poem for the week' -- "Christmas Greetings from a Fairy to a Child":   

Lady dear, if Fairies may 
For a moment lay aside 
Cunning tricks and elfish play, 
’Tis at happy Christmas-tide.

We have heard the children say— 
Gentle children, whom we love— 
Long ago, on Christmas Day, 
Came a message from above.

Still, as Christmas-tide comes round, 
They remember it again— 
Echo still the joyful sound 
“Peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Yet the hearts must childlike be 
Where such heavenly guests abide: 
Unto children, in their glee, 
All the year is Christmas-tide!

Thus, forgetting tricks and play 
For a moment, Lady dear, 
We would wish you, if we may, 
Merry Christmas, glad New Year!

-- Lewis Carroll

To Bear Christ As Well

To bear the Word, to enter the kingdom, we must indeed be born from the Spirit, not for the second time in the womb of our natural mothers, but continually in the love of the Mother of God that brought forth her son, and like her, in the same movement, to bear Christ as well. 

-- Maggie Ross

The Coming of Wonders

Human beings must always be on the watch for the coming of wonders.

-- Charles Kettering

Allow Your Wonder to Wander

I'm wondering...: 

In simple and unexpected moments of epiphany, you will sense that you are connected to creation in ways that bypass your self-protective, preoccupied, rational mind. Your task? Be attentive. Allow your wonder to wander. 

-- Wesley Granberg-Michaelson

Don't Try to Explain

Don’t try to explain the Incarnation to me! It is further from being explainable than the furthest star in the furthest galaxy. It is love, God’s limitless love enfleshing that love into the form of a human being, Jesus, the Christ, fully human and fully divine.

-- Madeleine L’Engle

3 Observations & A Question

We are only vaguely aware of most of what deep money systems are really about.

Something about Christmas and nostalgia seem inextricably linked — fortunately Christmas also exceeds it.

"Do you hear what I hear?" … may be one of the better questions of the Christmas season.  

Why don’t we ask more questions?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question…

So Little Respect (for anyone else)

Letters from an American

 

For the last couple of months, Senator Rumson has suggested that being president of this country was to a certain extent about character. And although I have not been willing to engage in his attacks on me, I’ve been here three years and three days. And I can tell you, without hesitation, being president of this country is entirely about character.

-- Andrew Shepherd, The American President (a Rob Reiner film)

But, it's worse than respect. It is hate.

Be Jolly

This morning, I saw this t-shirt my wife laid out for herself as she readied for her school day.

And, it hit me, my disposition yesterday had some stuff baked into it.  One, that things like feeling the spirit of Christmas is something that should happen to me.  In other words, it is somebody else's job.

The reality, though, is that such things are really within me.  When I'm not feeling it, it is more likely because of things I am doing which prevent me from accessing them.

Christmas is more of a state of being than anything else, isn't it? So, it's really more my choice (than someone else's) to...BE, among other things, jolly.

This probably wouldn't hurt the process:

Altadena’s Christmas Tree Lane: 105-Year-Old Tradition Is Symbol of Resilience Nearly 1 Year Post-Wildfire

Am I Missing It?

It’s happening again this year…I’m right up against Christmas and I feel nearly nothing about it.  It's like I’ve missed the spirit of it…again (not even the best eggnog seems to be working!).

Most years now it still sneaks up on me — it finds a way in.  But, until it does, I find myself wondering, will it this year?

You Can't (Allow Yourself) Not See This

Click to watch:

Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other.

-- John Steinbeck

LT: Get The Job Done

Leaders are the ones who, in spite of all the obstacles, find a way to get the job done — good leaders are the ones who do that respectfully.

Defying Any Sense of Human Decency

Defying, even more (if that's still possible), any sense of human decency:

Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace.

-- Donald Trump

Nauseating even by his own standards, we can't just rage back, though. Fighting fake-fire with fact-fire requires an, "OK, can someone please remind us of how this kind of thing should be done?"

Our now nearly endless cultural familiarity might yet still yield to a more constructive example of how to do it: 

Remembering Rob Reiner

Evaluate

I’ve noticed…that I tend to evaluate myself…a lot. 

I often catch myself doing this through a grid of consistency, as if consistency would prove (secure) something or, at the very least, inconsistency would (right?).  What if, though, not really?

Us do-gooders often fear observations like, "that guy is pretty inconsistent".  But, when you hear someone say something like, "Well, at least he's consistent"...what does that really get us?  

Obsessive evaluation in nearly any context is often unhealthy.  Some basic self-evaluation is...well, necessary at times, isn't it?

So, what would be a better way (than consistency) to 'evaluate' ourselves?  Self-awareness, emotional intelligence are among the options because self-protection isn't really our primary goal in life after all.

Incarnation

The Incarnation always brings good news, but it never minimizes the realness of our pain. Advent declares the hope that a light is coming, but first it declares the truth that the world right now is so very dark. 

-- Stephanie Duncan Smith

3 Observations & A Question

A lot of the way we are living living our lives culturally is not sustainable.

Chaos as a management strategy rarely works out well for those involved or for those impacted by it.

Most good observations come from experience (as opposed to theoretical ideas).

What most catalyzes change?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question…

Pretty Much Says It All

Don’t the sayings go, “live by the sword, die by the sword” or “you reap what you sow”?

I was proud of the Indiana senators who finally stood up against this kind of self-serving power.

Besides, aren’t we all just a little done with the simplistic (if not condescending) ‘Socialism!’ trope as a cover for this level of greed and power?  He knows too many of us aren’t paying very close attention, but we’re also not as dumb as he likes to think.  Just because he doesn't have a conscience, doesn't mean we don't...we do.  

...so much about the conflation above is wrong.

Meaningfulness

“That was really meaningful”.

We almost long for such sentiment, especially when it isn’t…sentiment.  We want something that feels real, authentic.  When something is like that, it reaches far down to something deep inside us.

Why is that?

Perhaps this feels enhanced for so many of us because there is so much of our lives that feels little more than contrived.  We know about the real thing, but rarely actually experience it ourselves.  If anything, we watch depictions of it.  We consume things that portray it, thinking that must be all we can do — not really experience it ourselves, but substituting that by just entertaining ourselves with it.

But, knowing about something or even understanding it doesn’t really measure up to what we ultimately want, the experience of it.

Meaningfulness is often more a function of participating in something, than it is in simply understanding it.

We can know about Selma, but there is nothing quite like walking over that bridge.  Seeing a picture of beautiful mountains is nice, but nothing like actually hiking in them.  Listening to a great song is rarely as good as being at the concert where it is performed ‘live’.  And, then there’s Christmas — all of the ambiance, music, sweetness, softness, and nostalgia year after year seems to actually create the opposite effect when it isn’t shared with real friends and loved ones.  

We want the real thing — to experience it ourselves.  Because, that’s what makes it meaningful.

Does Not Depend On What Happens

Joy is that kind of happiness that does not depend on what happens.

-- David Steindl-Rast

Enlarge The Box

Every problem, every dilemma, every dead end we find ourselves facing in life, only appears unsolvable inside a particular frame or point of view. Enlarge the box, or create another frame around the data, and problems vanish, while new opportunities appear. 

-- Rosamund and Benjamin Zander

Though perhaps a bit too reductionist, the essential concept is an important one to consider. What frame inhibits the way I view problems?

Sexuality

Ever noticed...that we all have some degree of sexual insecurity?

Maybe that’s part of why we seem so obsessed with it culturally.

I am a Christian because of women who said yes.

I am a Christian because of women who said yes.

-- Rachel Held Evans, Wholehearted Faith 

Public theologian Rachel Held Evans (1981–2019) reflects on how Mary’s yes was pivotal to the Incarnation.    

I am more aware than ever of the startling and profound reality that I am a Christian not because of anything I’ve done but because a teenage girl living in occupied Palestine at one of the most dangerous moments in history said yes—yes to God, yes to a wholehearted call she could not possibly understand, yes to vulnerability in the face of societal judgment, yes to the considerable risk of pregnancy and childbirth… yes to a vision for herself and her little boy of a mission that would bring down rulers and lift up the humble, that would turn away the rich and fill the hungry with good things, that would scatter the proud and gather the lowly [see Luke 1:51–53], yes to a life that came with no guarantee of her safety or her son’s.  

By becoming human, God encourages us to honor the vulnerability of our own lives: 

It is nearly impossible to believe: God shrinking down to the size of a zygote, implanted in the soft lining of a woman’s womb…. God inching down the birth canal and entering this world covered in blood, perhaps into the steady, waiting arms of a midwife. God crying out in hunger. God reaching for his mother’s breasts. God totally relaxed, eyes closed, his chubby little arms raised over his head in a posture of complete trust. God resting in his mother’s lap…. 

I cannot entirely make sense of the storyline: God trusted God’s very self, totally and completely and in full bodily form, to the care of a woman. God needed women for survival. Before Jesus fed us with the bread and the wine, the body and the blood, Jesus himself needed to be fed, by a woman. He needed a woman to say: “This is my body, given for you.”…  

To understand Mary’s humanity and her central role in Jesus’s story is to remind ourselves of the true miracle of the Incarnation—and that is the core Christian conviction that God is with us, plain old ordinary us. God is with us in our fears and in our pain, in our morning sickness and in our ear infections, in our refugee crises and in our endurance of Empire, in smelly barns and unimpressive backwater towns, in the labor pains of a new mother and in the cries of a tiny infant. In all these things, God is with us—and God is for us. And through Mary’s example, God invites us to take the risk of love—even though it undoubtedly opens us up to the possibility of getting hurt, being scared, and feeling disappointed.

-- Rachel Held Evans

4 Observations (from Others)

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts. 

-- Charles Dickens

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.

-- Charles Kingsley

Joy is the most vulnerable emotion we feel. When we feel joy, it is a place of incredible vulnerability—its beauty and fragility and deep gratitude and impermanence all wrapped up in one experience. 

-- Brené Brown, Dare to Lead

 

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.

-- Oprah Winfrey

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

Voters Increasingly Disapprove of Trump's Handling of the Economy

New York Times

...it is still shocking (to me) how little concern there is about so many things, until it affects the economy.

On The Lighter Side: Do We Look Like…?

On the Lighter Side:

The Clearest Symptom Yet

The Clearest Symptom Yet 

Can’t say I disagree — they sure went after Biden on this topic.

The Atlantic

If only this was the worst of it.  Not even half the stuff going on right now would get anyone else fired instantly for violating protocols (if not the law).

Regarding the Substack referenced above, it has been observed that the only thing that sells more than sex is fear (that's encouraging...).  So, maybe Trump knows exactly what he’s doing and we can’t just chalk it up to being old (or dementia):

Snatching The Eternal

Snatching the eternal out of the desperately fleeting is the great magic trick of human existence.

-- Tennessee Williams

Being Human

Being human takes practice and hard work. Being inhuman, unfortunately, comes all too easy. 

-- Simon Sinek

Case in point:

I just met with the President. I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies. Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom—not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS. WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.

-- Kristi Noem

Innocence

I'm wondering...about innocence.

Among other things, how does this time of year play into it?  For the most part, we seem to want to let our guard down a little and believe in something more…innocent, for a moment.

Innocence is often referenced as something lost.  Perhaps this is why we watch for opportunities to reclaim it somehow.  Why certain situations, places, or times of year seem to enable us to suspend the things that have taken it from us.

In these ways, we often opt for things that make us feel like a child again.  The cynicism of growing older resubmits itself to the possibility that, even for a moment, things could be uncomplicated, simple, pure, good, and hopeful again.  

We all had a kind of innocence and most love a chance to feel it again.