With one violent motion he yanked the table cloth all the way off the square table. The full setting for four, once resting elegantly on the white table cloth was now, incredibly, perched just as elegantly on the flawless surface of the mahogany table. The magician bowed as he received the audience’s appreciative applause. It was an astonishing feat. One that has been performed many many times, but still is remarkable to see in person.

Even though the performer is called a ‘magician’—implying magic is involved— it is pure physics. Newton’s first law of motion states that an object at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by an outside force; which was the crux of our situation.

We intended to stay over; one more night is all we wanted. To stay at rest. The view out our door of the magnificent Ponderosa forest enticing us to stay, explore, bask in the scented air, and gape at the forest outside our door.

Our intention was to reserve this forested campsite for one more eensy weensy night. But then we were acted upon by an outside force. Walking to the host’s site with the intention of paying for the night, we were informed he had accepted payment from those savages in the RV parked twenty feet from our site with their motor running. He had been about to come over to our site and tell us he had yanked our campsite right out from under our wheels (This is what I heard. He may have used some different words).

The unplanned departure stepped with a dirty shoe into the middle our peaceful morning.

GO TIME

F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, it is a sign of a first-rate intelligence when a person demonstrates the ability to hold two opposed ideas in their mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

This idea took up residence in my non-first-rate mind as conflicting feelings swirled around it. I watched the Kaibab Ponderosas in the rear view, bending with the wind (or were they waving goodbye?) even as the pastel rainbow of Utah canyon country was spilling across our windshield.

TURNING A PAGE

“Are you looking for a campsite? I’m leaving in the morning. Been here long enough. We can share it tonight. I’ll be gone in the morning. Going to try out Panguitch Lake.” She said. Fresh off an eviction ourselves, we hesitated— for a second only.

Marveling at the view of Powell Point, I said, “I’ll get the camper.”

The ladies conversed as I fetched the camper and maneuvered between the sagebrush and Limber pines into our overnight nest.

Camped so close, we naturally eased into conversation. “From here we’ll go to Escalante.” I said, answering her question. “We backpacked from Escalante. My husband and me. Thirty days at a time we would go. Bought two goats—one for carrying supplies—one for giving us milk. He’s been gone a year.” She said as I noticed the electric wheelchair hoist still mounted in the bed of her truck.

“Backpacked the Appalachian trail…Rode bicycles across the country. Twice.” She reminisced.

In an age that encourages the passive consumption of all manner of entertaining but ultimately corrosive content; she and her husband had chiseled a wildly adventurous life out of the no-man’s-land, far away from the well-trodden paths deeply embedded in modern American life.

They had lived an awesomely simple and ruggedly autonomous life of their own choosing and design. Unspoken, but floating in the air like the scent of the forest after a storm was that it had been full of uncertainty, hardships, and sublime satisfaction; because those three amigos are committed traveling companions. The understanding of this passed tacitly between us.

The conversation brought to mind the passage from Edward Abbey:

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poet’s towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes, and pinnacles, and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you—beyond that next turning of the canyon walls.

From “Desert Solitaire”

All of this brings a smile as I imagine myself asking with a naive expression—this comes easily as I am, in fact, quite naive— “Do you wish you had spent more time watching television and doomscrolling?”

What is Value?

“I feel so bad for her.” Charmaine told me later. “She has nobody. She’s alone in the world.”

“You don’t need to feel bad.” I said. “She has lived an incredible life. Intentionally chosen, to fill her soul rather than her bank account. A life of adventure, experiences, hardships faced and overcome in harsh and lonely landscapes, explored intimately on foot and bicycle. What is a life fully and adventurously lived worth?” I asked.

She replied, “More than money.”

We thought we knew what was waiting for us. We were wrong.

We came to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to see for ourselves the devastation from last year’s Dragon Bravo wildfire. And hopefully to hike anywhere that was still open.

Tucked into a small clearing on the edge of a peculiar forest of crooked Aspen trees sprinkled with wildflowers on the massive Kaibab Plateau, almost in Utah, but not quite. The Native American word for this place is Kai-Vav-Wi. It means “a mountain lying down”. At 9,100’ of elevation our remote aerie is a refuge from the Summer raging far below us. We regularly see deer, hear owls in the night, and witness the occasional pair of wild turkeys wandering through camp with a mess of baby chicks scattered in their back-trail like the dust when we drive down a dirt road.

This video is accompanied by music turn your sound down if necessary.

Wresting ourselves from this Summer idyll, first light finds us hurtling down the black-top from the Kaibab toward the red rocks of Utah canyon country. Specifically St. George. A city large enough to have two Costcos is adequate for our needs…if we survive the encounter.

I know it’s on the same planet as the sky island we temporarily occupy, but as we breach the city’s limit, it feels like a different universe.

Only two kinds of people venture into the desert during the desperate Summer months; people that live there and fools. We don’t live there, or anywhere else in particular.

This is the kind of place where the devil can go outside for a stroll without wearing a Winter coat. In fact, I saw him. He was sweating. He wasn’t the only one. After more than a decade together, I hadn’t even realized our trusty truck came equipped with sweat glands…or maybe those were tears.

Geologists insist the copper color of the cliffs, visible all around the city, get their rich pigmentation from iron deposits within the abundant sandstone. I know the truth; it’s because they are sunburned.

Walking across the parking lot it feels like my skin is boiling right off my bones. Looking down to check, I see steam, but no bubbles yet.

Having already purchased the necessities for sustaining our off-grid life for the next few weeks; we have to take care of our one final task, before waving the white flag, and making a rapid retreat… before the tires melt off the truck.

Hell is defined as a place regarded in various religions as a spiritual realm of evil and suffering, often depicted as a place of perpetual fire. I’m not depicting St. George as hell exactly…well, yeah, I pretty much am.

Sometimes a hot day is described as “hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk”; in this case that would only be accurate if I wanted to burn the egg.

Make up my mind

Amidst the stress of trying to breathe without scorching my lungs, I need to make a decision while maintaining my full autonomy.

My goal isn’t to spend zero dollars. I am after all, an American. A citizen of the most consumeristic society ever to exist; where shopping has become one of the dominant forms of entertainment, except in December when it is elevated to full-contact bloodsport.

Rather, I aim to operate my own mind on my terms, and to come as close to doing this in all areas of my life as much as I possibly can. I call this autonomy. This is a word with many broad definitions that all center on self-determination, independence, and self-governance, agency, liberty, and free will, but I think of it in it’s purest form as power over yourself and your situation.

What doesn’t make you stronger, makes you weaker

The American way of life thrives on weakness.

The strongest, most vibrant economy in the world specializes in convincing it’s citizens they need their lives to be more comfortable, convenient, pleasurable, entertained, cushier, tastier, and more distracted. Over time, we become convinced we need more and more of these accoutrements just to be normal and that each little upgrade to one of them makes our life better.

Failing to frame this in terms of what we become, rather than what we want, leads us down a path of wanting for nothing, but constantly ‘needing’ more and becoming less.

Meanwhile, 180 degrees in the opposite direction, like the smart and attractive introvert in the corner waiting to be noticed, there is a beautiful, simple, empowered life…waiting to be noticed.

The largest most powerful and profitable companies are the most effective apex predators in the history of earth. Larger even than the dinosaurs, they have become so gargantuan because they have a proven ability to separate people from their precious resources, assimilating them, becoming even larger. Those resources are the prey. It is well known that the most dangerous place to be, in the jungle, is between a predator and it’s prey.

What does any of this have to do with the reason I am here, in this store, in this infernal desert, in the Summer?

How does buying a simple pair of sunglasses make it difficult to maintain my autonomy?

If autonomy is about having power over yourself and your situation then buying a pair of sunglasses qualifies on two levels:

Thinking for yourself

Protecting your independence

I stare at the twelve finalists. My goal is to narrow it down to a single pair of sunglasses that protect my eyes while making me look like a younger and better looking version of Cary Grant.

This isn’t going to be easy because independent thinking is not exactly valued by the corporations trying sell me…well, everything, all the time, for as much money as they can get.

Mind Control?

The stakes are high enough that in 2026 more than $500 billion will be spent for the sole purpose of controlling your thoughts. There is even a dangerous sounding research domain called ‘neuro-marketing’ where they figure out how to trigger thoughts and emotions inside your brain that you don’t even know you’re having. Researchers learn how to do this by using FMRI scanners that read the minds of their test subjects in real time— no that’s not right— sensitive instruments detect changes in blood flow in the brains of study participants to see which regions get increased activity to determine responses to images and sounds.

Businesses use this knowledge to formulate increasingly effective strategies to convince us to purchase their products—even if we don’t need them—all while believing it was actually our idea. It’s a good plan. According to a study performed at Harvard, 95% of decisions are made in the subconscious.

Based on the fact that there are more than 23 million individual storage units in the United States used to store excess purchases which can no longer fit inside people’s homes, it’s working out really well…for the companies using these Jedi mind tricks to sell us all that stuff.

Recap: they trigger thoughts and feelings in your brain that you aren’t consciously aware of, but that cause you to make decisions in such a way that you think it was your idea.

Okay, but this is a pair of sunglasses that we’re talking about. Can’t I just pick some up at the gas station? That depends on how much you trust some random factory in China (where almost 90% of our sunglasses are made) to add the proper protective coatings to the lenses that block the damaging UV rays.

When a company invests years and millions of dollars to create a brand name they have a massive incentive to protect the reputation of that brand; meaning they are likely to take the UV protection of their sunglasses seriously. But how important is that?

a method for checking the sunglasses you already have

The Downside

In humans, eyesight accounts for more than 80% of all of our sensory input. Our eyes are highly sensitive and thus very fragile. One of the most damaging effects of our environment are the UV rays of the sun. Almost anything that is exposed to the sun for an extended period of time begins to break down and degrade. In the eyes this can cause or contribute to any of the following disorders:

Cataracts: a clouding of the eyes natural lens that impairs vision over time.

Photokeratitis: a painful sunburn of the cornea caused by intense UV exposure. Repeated instances of this can cause damage to the eyes.

Pterygium and Pinguecula: Non-cancerous growths or fleshy tissue on the surface of the eye.

Macular Degeneration: A progressive disease affecting central vision due to cumulative retinal damage. Results in almost total blindness in many cases. One in eight Americans over sixty has been diagnosed with this.

Eyelid and Eye Cancers: Basal cell, Squamous cell, Melanoma on or around the eyes and eyelids.

There are other lifestyle factors that can affect some of these outcomes such as smoking and sugar consumption and diet. (I will cover this in the future)

I know what you’re thinking “thanks for the info on the sunglasses but what does this have to do with ‘autonomy’?”

“The time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining.”

John F. Kennedy

My idea of being autonomous includes protecting my health; controlling my outcome as much as possible, rather than just letting it happen and hoping for the best, the time to do this is while I still have something to protect. If I lose my sight, I become less autonomous, more reliant. At 66 I only need non-prescription reading glasses for…reading, and my most recent eye check-up revealed eyesight better than 20-20. Mostly, reversing health problems in our bodies is difficult but maintaining good health isn’t.

I aim to make every decision based on my own needs. This is harder than it sounds. Even in the smallish sunglass category more than $2 billion is spent annually on consumer manipulation in every imaginable way, including: athlete sponsorships, product placements in movies & television shows, paid social media influencers, pop-up ads on websites, sponsored search results, and in case you thought A.I. recommendations were trustworthy, AI SEO (artificial intelligence search engine optimization) where manipulating the recommendations of the large language models is the fastest growing segment for marketers. The question I am wrestling with as I enter the store is “how can I know I am the one actually making the decision?”

In this small outdoor retailer the prices range from $40-$200 across several different brands.

How not to be manipulated

I have now tried on approximately 40 pair, the salesperson is worn out and has left me alone. The twelve finalists are lying on the counter in front of me. Deciding the most important feature is a secure fit, I now go through the twelve, looking at the ceiling lights, discovering all but two pair suffer from some sort of reflected image, like a halo, and am now down to two pair; $170 vs. $60. They are different brands and one, of course, carries much more prestige than the other. I take the two semifinalists to the front of the store to look out across the parking lot to assess glare reduction and clarity (reading signs on the highway at a distance becomes a matter of critical importance because I am always driving on unfamiliar roads and frequently towing a 10,000 pound trailer).

A quick glance at our truck— Did I just see a drip of paint fall to the asphalt? Is it melting? Now I’m wondering about spontaneous combustion. Is that a real thing? Can it happen to people, like when they’re walking across the parking lot to their truck? I find the sales girl and ask “will these $170 sunglasses protect me from the sun?” “Yes, they have full UV protection” she says. “No, I mean will they keep me from bursting into flames when I walk into the parking lot?” Giving me the eye roll she says “They only work on your eyes.”

I can find no difference in clarity, protection, or fit between the $60 pair and the $170 pair so I put the more expensive pair back. Surprisingly this store didn’t stock any sunglasses that made me look like Cary Grant so it wasn’t a total win, but for one more day, I was in charge…as far as I know.

All photos and videos taken by the author, except for Cary Grant

There’s this guy on the internet. He’s 25 years old and he seems to have all the answers.

There’s a new thing coming out and it’s better than the old thing. After all those other things I bought, this is finally the one that’s going to make me happy.

There’s this politician, he said he had all the answers. all the people that voted for him worship him because they only watch the news their confirmation bias allows them to.

The people that didn’t vote for him see him for what he really is. The Devil, because they only watch the news their confirmation bias allows them to.

There’s a guy on the internet that has figured out weight loss. Finally. He must be really smart because he has big muscles and he’s really confident.

It’s not a bubble. It’s real. This time is different.

There’s this company making tons of money. their stock is going to the moon. They’re smarter than everybody else. It might have something to do with accounting. It will be all over the news in a couple of years. We can learn about it then.

There’s this preacher on TV. He says he can get me into paradise where I can live forever, just like a terrorist, but I don’t have to kill anybody. I just have to give him a bunch of money. He has it all figured out.

There’s this young pretty celebrity. She’s really famous and it turns out her personal life is a train wreck. Her boyfriend looks like a hoodlum. It’s all over social media. It’s really important.

The weather girl says there’s a storm coming, maybe the biggest one ever. It’s so important, they gave it a name. We better stay tuned for updates.

There’s this billionaire, he’s a jerk. He doesn’t care about anything but making money. He doesn’t get it.

The sports team just signed a new athlete to the richest contract in history. He will be the one to finally bring us a championship. It’s what this city needs. The suffering will finally be over.

Oh, and I climbed a mountain today…with my wife.

“America invaded Venezuela and abducted their President Nicolas Maduro” I read that unexpected news, walked out my door, and looked around at the peaceful desert setting where we were currently parked. The magic of Winter in the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona, warm, while the rest of the country was freezing, peaceful, while our country had committed an act of war. Unprovoked. These contrasts leading to momentary disorientation.

Why would we invade a country and abduct their president? and why Venezuela? This seemed like such a far-fetched scenario that it stirred my interest.

Over the coming days I combed through the news stories containing the reasons given by President Trump for the invasion, and later by various members of the administration…they were all different. Wait, you/we invaded a country, abducted their president (an act of war) and don’t even know why? But there had to be a reason. What was the REAL reason? It would come out eventually, I was sure.

The stories surrounding the invasion never coalesced into any kind of sensible narrative, so I started connecting the reasons given, with the larger picture as I saw it.

For instance, Trump said that president Maduro aided Venezuelan gangs in the business of smuggling drugs into America. Once he is tried, it may be determined by our court system that he is guilty of this, but I wondered, if this was really why our president ordered this military action, then why had he pardoned the ex-president of Honduras Juan Antonio Hernandez? He was found guilty in an American court of law for facilitating the importation of 400 TONS of cocaine into America and was sentenced to serve 45 years in prison. Trump pardoned him. Surely if the president was willing to forgive this level of illegal drug trafficking then drugs didn’t really matter to him, and that wouldn’t motivate him to abduct Maduro.

“OIL! They have oil. Lots of it! and it’s all mine- I mean, ours.“ I was imagining our president in the white house situation room, pounding on the table, with his cabinet members and military leaders looking on. In the media, He didn’t sound that much different, “We’ll be running Venezuela for a while.” “Our big American oil companies, the biggest in the world, will get all that oil.” I was relieved to hear companies like Chevron and Exxon would be making even more money, but was this reason enough for an act of war? It seemed that Trump was fixated on making the price of oil as affordable as possible, which, as we will see, hasn’t worked out very well for him.

Even though Venezuela has more proven oil reserves than any other country on Earth, I found plenty of interviews with American oil executives that had little interest in Venezuelan oil because:

- It is difficult to refine (Only certain refineries are equipped to process the “sour” Venezuelan oil.)

- Because after decades of mismanagement, their oil fields would require an investment of billions of dollars before they could be returned to full productivity.

• The oil in Venezuela is very expensive to extract.

Was this really about oil, and Venezuelas neglect of a natural resource that Trump wanted for America? I considered whether “you aren’t living up to your potential” was a valid reason to invade a country.

So, if it isn’t the drugs or the oil, what-

But then the U.S., along with Israel, attacked Iran. Double weird. I mean, Trump ran as the “peace president”. He promised to keep America out of wars, and now in a matter of weeks, he had ordered attacks on two different countries. I wondered what could be such a strong reason to attack these countries that he would need to break his pledge of peace. Just as compelling, I wondered what connected these two events.

Why had they happened so close together?

What was the master plan that called for redirecting our military away from their strategic posts monitoring the major adversaries of the United States. Russia at war in the European theater with Ukraine, and China continually flexing it’s military might in the direction of Taiwan, our major strategic trading partner for sophisticated A.I. computer chips, among other cutting edge tech.

What connected these two events a hemisphere apart?

Oil was the only thing I could think of that these two countries had in common…they were both authoritarian governments, but having expressed admiration for several authoritarian leaders in the past for their toughness and strength, including Vladimir Putin (Russia), Kim Jong Un (North Korea), and Xi Jinping (China), I didn’t think the president found this particularly objectionable.

Was I wrong? Was affordable oil the reason for all of this?

I took a look at the price chart of oil futures that were trading on the open market. The effect has been dramatic.

Having nearly doubled in price immediately after the attack on Iran, affordable oil doesn’t seem to be in the cards any time soon. In fact, it is just the opposite. As the price of oil rises, it ripples through the entire economy because it has so many end uses:

Fertilizer, plastic, transportation of people and goods (including food), medical equipment, electricity generation, heating, cosmetics, electronics, toys…

Prices will be rising in every area of the economy as a result. This won’t happen just in America, but around the world because the oil market is international. Every country will be affected by this war. They will literally be paying the price for it.

I noticed the same disturbing pattern in the public pronouncements regarding the reasons for the war in Iran as I had with the action against Venezuela. They were all over the board with no consistency. Initially it was to neutralize their nuclear weapons program, but then I remembered just last year when Trump said the U.S. “totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities, so that couldn’t be the real reason. Then we were told it was because of the 30,000 protesters the Iranian government forces killed, but then I remembered the 60,000 people that had been killed in Sudan and the 70,000 killed in Gaza by America’s partner in this war, Israel, and the president hadn’t done anything about those slaughters, so that couldn’t be it.

As time passed, I was able to examine the outcomes from this war to see if there was an emerging clue to his strategy that would become apparent.

Clues amidst the chaos.

Maybe our president that was doing these seemingly crazy things was really crazy like a fox and would leave us all in awe of his cleverness.

Results thus far:

• massive jump in the price of oil.

- While spreading economic hardship around the world, there is one country that benefits massively from this rise in oil prices…Russia. As a result, they will be able to pay for their ongoing war in Ukraine with these unexpected oil profits.

- Large drawdown of missiles and drones means there will be fewer available to aid Ukraine in their defense against Russia.

-Defense contractors will receive large orders to replace all of these weapons.

-China gets a chance to assess current U.S. drone and missile capabilities.

All of this has me thinking of a Turkish proverb that I know:

“When a clown moves into the palace, the clown doesn’t become a king, the palace becomes a circus.”

I was beginning to feel really frustrated that I couldn’t figure out something that should be pretty obvious, I mean, this isn’t a bar fight, it’s war. People die. Lives and buildings and cities are destroyed. Wars cause economic turmoil and there is always a risk of it escalating beyond it’s intended scope into something far larger and even more deadly. So, I knew there had to be a really good reason for starting it. Still, I felt like I had reached a dead end and was out of ideas, but then I remembered something. It had nothing to do with war, or Iran, or Israel, but since I had no other ideas, I explored it anyway.

This goes back to when Trump was elected to his first term and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law was appointed as his senior advisor during his first term. He had no political or diplomatic experience, yet here he was, a senior advisor to the president of the United States of America.

The same month Trump was elected to his first term, advisors to prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, traveled to the U.S.. When they returned, they singled out Jared Kushner as an ideal contact to be cultivated by the prince because of his lack of experience and transactional mindset. Within a few months Kushner and the prince were regularly texting each other and on a first name basis.

What is a “transactional mindset”? It is a relationship based on giving something and immediately getting something in return. The reverse of this would also be true. If something is received, something else must be given as compensation. The Saudis would have viewed this as a trait they could exploit. Give something first and then Kushner would feel indebted to them.

When Trump began to think about making his first international trip to meet other heads of state, Kushner convinced him to visit Saudi Arabia first. During this visit, Prince Mohammed bin Salman focused the conversation on all of the ways he could be of service to the Trump administration, and to the United States, in the middle east and his desire to improve relations between his country and America.

During that first term President Trump disappointed the Arab gulf rulers by declining to retaliate after Iran attacked a Saudi Oil processing facility. This seems like the point when they learned a key lesson and gained an important strategic insight in dealing with Trump and Kushner.

It started after Kushner left his post as Trump’s advisor and started his own private equity fund, something else he had no experience with. Six months after he started the fund, the Saudi Wealth Fund, which is headed by Prince Salman, invested $2 Billion which would mean Kushner would earn hundreds of millions of dollars in management fees, even if he never earned any investment income for them. It’s worth noting the wealth fund board of advisers unanimously voted against the $2 Billion investment, but Salman overruled them. Later, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar used their sovereign wealth funds to invest an additional $1.5 Billion with Kushner’s investment fund.

With Trump, their strategy was the same, but the tactics were slightly different.

It started with a gift from the Emir of Qatar. A luxury Boeing 747 for Trump to use as his presidential jet. The value was around $150 Million at the time the gift was presented to him.

Then the Trump Organization started World Liberty Financial for the purpose of entering into the crypto-currency business. Their first major customer was the United Arab Emirates which purchased $2 Billion for the purpose of investing in the cryptocurrency exchange ‘Binance’. This generated fee income to the Trump organization of $75 Million plus annual interest income of $80 Million as long it stays in the account. I wondered why the UAE would use the Trump crypto coin to make this purchase because they could have just used dollars, or they could have used Binance’s own cryptocurrency called BNB. The founder and former CEO of Binance is named Chanpeng Zhao. He pleaded guilty to violating U.S. anti-money-laundering laws and in 2024 he was sentenced to four months in prison, which he served. He was later pardoned by Trump which paves the way for him to resume his position as CEO of Binance and clears his name. As long as Mr. Zhao leaves the $2B of cryptocurrency in his account at World Liberty Financial it generates that massive interest income ( $80M ). This effectively gives him control over a large amount of income for Trumps crypto venture.

In Saudi Arabia, the Trump Organization is a partner in several real estate projects valued at $10 Billion. Their partner, DAR Global, has ties to the Saudi Government who also provides much of the financing through the Saudi Wealth Fund (the same fund that invested $2 billion with Kushner).

The Trump organization is also partnering with the Qatari government on a massive project in that country.

The United Arab Emirates made a cryptocurrency purchase from World Liberty Financial in the amount of $100 Million. The Trump family receives $75 Million of this as profit.

The same three countries that have made major contributions to Jared Kushner’s businesses have also made enormous contributions to the Trump family businesses.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman originally approached Trump and Kushner with offers to help them in the Middle East, it begs the question:

WHO’S HELPING WHO?

Even though these three countries have committed Billions of dollars to the Trump family businesses, they are coming out on top in this transaction as the Iran war appears to be costing the U.S. more than $1 Billion per day.

Multiple officials in the middle east have commented that rulers in the Persian Gulf view business deals with Trump as a kind of safeguard. Like insurance.

According to the Washington Post, Prince Salman conducted multiple phone calls with President Trump urging him to attack Iran, stating that “Iran would become stronger and more dangerous if Washington didn’t strike immediately”. Ultimately, the decision to attack came after the Saudi Arabian and Israeli governments lobbied him repeatedly to do so. Officially, Saudi Arabia denies this.

Sidebar: These countries are three of the largest oil exporting countries in the world. Electric Vehicles are an existential threat to their future economic well-being. Trumps big beautiful bill officially ended the tax credits for purchasing electric vehicles.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

What is “conflict of interest”?

Conflict of interest exists when an individual’s personal interests are in conflict with his duty.

Imagine you are in the hospital and are scheduled to receive quadruple bypass surgery in the morning. The surgeon comes into your hospital room to check on you before going home for the evening. After asking how you are feeling and giving you his assurance that everything will be fine. He hands you a business card. You are surprised to see it’s for a nearby mortuary. He explains that he owns it as a side-hustle and hopes you will pass the card on to your wife, just in case.

Even though he has a reputation as a competent surgeon, how do you feel as you realize the man that holds your life in his hands might stand to profit if you don’t survive the surgery?

Likewise, every candidate we elect should be performing their duties with the best interests of their constituents, as their sole motivating factor. It is vitally important to the long-term success of the entire country, as an ongoing enterprise, and the livelihood of each citizen, that the interests of everyone entrusted with the care of this country have personal interests that are fully aligned with the interests of those they were elected to serve.

Those cunning Sheikhs and Princes in the middle east have created a situation where President Trump and trusted adviser Jared Kushner, as well as other advisers close to the president, have an immense personal financial interest and deep personal relationships that are not aligned with America, but with the Persian Gulf region.

“I like the man a lot, maybe too much”. President Donald Trump speaking of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman

CORRUPTION

Why do these conflicts matter?

because they can lead to corruption.

What is corruption?

It is a process where something is changed from it’s original form into something vile by dishonest or fraudulent conduct.

Corruption is inherently destructive because it works outside of the established principles that our country and it’s founding fathers have written out as a way to live in such that each individual citizen has the freedom and opportunity to pursue the life they most desire while not impeding the lives of others, or the long-term viability of the country. This is a way of being that benefits the individual, the public at large, and the country itself as an ongoing venture.

When an individual or organization puts it’s interest ahead of the public’s or the countries’ then they are doing damage to our society and it’s long-term prospects. They are stealing from the public good and when they do that they rob each of us individually of the full measure of the best life this country makes available to us.

Every corrupt person, every act of corruption they commit, siphons off a little bit of our best life and puts it into their personal bank account.

The Topics of “Conflict of Interest” and “Corruption” bring us back to Venezuelan President Maduro. Remember him? We yanked him out of his home country with a covert military action. This could be construed as an act of war ordered by the “Peace President”. Once I figured out how to assemble the facts regarding the Iran war, I was able to go back to Venezuela and view it through the proper lens.

Since at least 2015 American presidents have talked about removing Venezuelan president Maduro from power and possibly bringing him to the U.S. to stand trial. I wanted to know what would move Donald Trump to actually put lives at risk, and commit billions of dollars of tax payer money, and add to the chaos our world is already experiencing? Not just why? but why now?

So I dug in.

I found evidence of some trading on insider information, in the oil markets, right before the attack on Venezuela, but at a small enough scale that it wouldn’t be the reason for this attack. In the end, Venezuela’s role in the world oil market isn’t large enough for this to create more than a ripple in the price of oil.

Could this be an attempt at misdirection? The president is good at directing our attention at wild things that he says, in the moment, to distract the public and the media from some topic he doesn’t want to talk about, like the Epstein files, his very low polling numbers, or the negative economic and diplomatic impacts of his dynamic tariff policies. In the end, I decided the Venezuelan action didn’t last long enough to be an effective obfuscation, so I moved on.

But then, I found something that fit perfectly with the way the war in Iran has been handled.

Let me introduce you to Paul Singer, a billionaire several times over that runs an investment fund that specializes in purchasing distressed companies at bargain prices. For several years he has been donating millions of dollars to right-wing think tanks, like the Manhattan Institute, that produce white papers supporting his position that Maduro needed to be removed forcibly. He also made a $5 million donation to Make America Great Again Inc. and contributed many tens of millions of dollars to support Trump allies in the 2024 election cycle.

Through a subsidiary of his fund, Singer bought a company called Citgo for a song at less than half the price many observers thought it was worth. It owns three major refineries in the Gulf of Mexico that were purpose built to refine the heavy grade crude oil that Venezuela has so much of. Only certain refineries can process it. Citgo is considered the crown jewel of Venezuela’s neglected oil industry.

How did he get such a great deal for something so highly regarded?

For several years, the U.S. has placed sanctions on the sale of Venezuelan oil. This meant that they couldn’t sell the full amount of oil they were capable of producing, and the refineries that Citgo owned weren’t able to operate at capacity, meaning Citgo was only worth a fraction of it’s potential value because it operated at only a fraction of it’s capacity.

Less than 45 days after Singer bought Citgo, Trump ordered the invasion of Venezuela and a couple of months after the successful abduction of Maduro, the Venezuelan oil embargo was lifted, meaning, for the first time in many years, Citgo’s refineries will be able to operate at something close to full capacity. As a result, this will turn out to be a wildly profitable transaction for Trump ally Paul Singer.

After seeing our president start two wars very close to each other after he ran on a platform of peace, then asking the simplest of questions, “why?” then reading more than 50 articles and research papers to piece those events together, I am left with one final question:

“what is my country becoming?”

One Minute Summary with my Snarky comments.

America invades Venezuela!

Why Venezuela?

Pick a reason…Any reason

Drugs? Honduran President- 400 TONS of cocaine PARDONED!?

Oil? Oil executives say “Meh, expensive. Hard to process. We’ll pass”

We attack Iran!

Why? Why now?

Nonsensical reasons:

Humanitarianism- ignoring human slaughters in Gaza and Sudan totaling more than 110,000 people.

Nuclear threat- last year Trump said we obliterated Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Price of oil/gas skyrockets, causing oil related inflation worldwide. You’re welcome everyone.

Russia: much needed oil revenue to pay for their war against Ukraine.

Ukraine: shortage of weapons for defending itself.

China- gains insight into current U.S. military technology and strategic thinking.

Payday for defense contractors. (Profiting from misery)

—Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman targets Kushner (an exploitable resource)

—Salman influences Kushner-Kushner influences Trump and brings Salman and Trump closer together.

—Kushner’s investment fund receives massive investment from Saudis then Qatar+UAE totalling $3.5B (good boy. Here’s a bone)

—Their method with Trump: $150M jet (Qatar)

$2B WLF crypto purchase ($75M fee + $80M annual interest income)

—Binance/Zhao leaves the $2B in WLF then gets pardoned ($80M annual interest income continues for Trump)

(It’s not a bribe)

—Saudi Arabia- funds real estate projects valued at $10B that the Trump Organization is a partner in.

—Qatar- Partners with Trump organization on massive real estate project

—UAE- purchases $100M of WLF crypto that triggers a $75M fee for Trump Organization.

(It’s not a bribe)

—Prince Bin Salman- master puppeteer offered to help Trump, but who is helping who? Well Played Sir.

—U.S. spending more than $1B per day on war in Iran. Putting lives at risk. Disrupting the worlds economy. Helping Russia fund it’s war against Ukraine.

—Trump’s strong personal and financial relationships with middle east rulers are the definition of conflict of interest, as his actions show.

—Our President starts a war to protect his business interests.

Venezuela:

—Singer donates many tens of millions to Trump and his allies.

—Singer buys Citgo at bargain price.

—U.S. abducts Maduro less than 45 days later.(Purely a coincidence)

—Citgo/Singer will make billions of dollars from the attack on Venezuela.

How long before America’s national symbol is changed from the bald eagle to the cash register?

I open the door as our camper takes a long awaited lung full of cool, leaning toward cold, high-altitude oxygen (what little there is) as it exhales our leavings from the nights hibernation. Dawn light, a welcome friend, needing no invitation to cross the threshold.

There are things you know without knowing you know. For instance, I didn’t need Isaac Newton to explain gravity to me because I unconsciously intuit it’s presence and how it operates. I say up, it says down. I jump, land, conversation over.

It is the same with being in the high country. Currently situated hundreds of miles from any city at nearly 10,000 feet, the air has a virginal quality. It’s gossamer embrace is as light as a new ghost. I don’t need to know we are at this elevation to know it. If you take a large chunk of the ocean away, the water level goes down, but the water itself doesn’t change. Air doesn’t work this way. As we get higher, it just spreads out. At our high elevation, I can take a double-lobed lung full, and my alveoli feel as if they got the appetizer while missing the main course. “Where’s the oxygen?” They sigh.

What I call our window wall, because it consists of four large windows, observes the comings and goings of the mountain bikers and backpackers on this section of the Continental Divide National Recreation Trail just thirty feet away, before feasting on the expanse of the inappropriately named Bull Hill. I say the name is inappropriate because the summit of this mountain rises above 13,700 feet. Only three states have such a lofty peak, but here in Colorado, this is so unexceptional as to be saddled with the pedestrian designation of ‘hill’.

Long before the sunrise was any more than a warm idea, I watched as the summit of Bull Hill came to life like a candle, the flame slowly melting the harsh frozen granite, inch by inch until reaching the mixed forest of blue spruce and quaking aspen, in frosty slumber on the lower slopes.

Hearing the crush of tires on the path, I pause and look up from my writing to share a casual wave with a smiling mountain biker rolling by; wheels, legs, and lungs, coming together in a contented symphony of motion.

The biker trailing into the distance, my gaze casts over to the backpacker reclined against a near boulder, lazing in the newborn day, basking in it’s tentative bounty, reading the book pulled from his backpack.

As I write this, my hood is pulled snugly over my head, the chill mountain air still winning its rivalry with the star of this little corner of the Milky Way. Sure, I could be warmer and more comfortable inside, but comfort is overrated. Looking out the window, even in such a beautiful and fascinating environment, I would be a mere observer. Watching. I didn’t start traveling to be a spectator, but a participant. Thus, I cinch my hood, adjust my little folding chair to allow me to absorb as much of the suns’ energy as I can, and settle in, right where I am.

These are my people. This is my place.

As Superman floats at the edge of Earths’ atmosphere, looking down and scanning for catastrophes he hears a sound he has heard many times before and with his X-ray vision begins scanning the surface to pinpoint where it is coming from. His vantage point, high above the Caribbean Ocean, allows him to see more than a third of the planets’ surface. The rumbling continues, deep and resonant and can be felt as much as heard. The first sign of the chaos, unfolding below, appears as an immense cloud of dust and debris rising into the atmosphere above a vast desert in Nevada.

He knows he only has seconds to act and reaches into is red trunks, and realizes his maid dried them for too long, again. He can barely get his fingers to extend far enough to retrieve the thing he needs most right now as he hears the unmistakable sound of fabric ripping, he considers that shorts might be more practical than these darn tight red trunks.

Cargo shorts. Red cargo shorts. Hmm. He could use the extra pockets for sure. Okay, this is definitely worth considering, but not right now. There is devastation everywhere and the magnitude of it is still increasing. He must act, but he takes a few vital seconds to assess the overall situation so he can prioritize. The area is so great and the damage so complete that he knows he must act wisely to have the greatest impact immediately.

Then he sees something he wasn’t expecting, and can’t believe his good fortune. They stretch across a vast area and are completely devastated. The potential for loss of life from this massive earthquake will be catastrophic. He can’t turn back time and prevent what is happening, but if he acts quickly he can bring as many to safety as possible.

But not just yet.

He has been given a special opportunity and wants to make the most of this situation. Finally, his hand is free. Cargo shorts. Definitely. He raises his cell phone to his ear, it rings once, then a second time, he says to himself “come on answer, don’t you know people are dying down there?” “Myron Silver-“answers the familiar voice. “Myron it’s Superman, I need you to place a trade for me right now.” “Hey Sup-“ “not now Myron this is another emergency opportunity so listen closely. I want you to liquidate all of my stock holdings and put my entire account into gold futures and leverage it as much as you can. Load the boat! The largest complex of gold mines in the world has just been completely devastated by a powerful earthquake. The disruption in the supply of gold will be felt across the entire planet. This will cause it to become scarce, which will drive the price up. Way up. Once the news gets out, the price of gold will double or even triple within the next few minutes. These trades must happen immediately, before the news gets out. I have to go. Thanks Myron, I know I can count on you. There are lives depending on me down there and every second counts.” He ends the call and with a blue and red streak flies at maximum speed to save as many lives as he can.

Wow, what happened to Superman?

This is a side of him we have never seen. The sleazy side. Now we know how he can afford that snazzy fortress of solitude on a reporters salary.

While he is saving lives and preventing the full disaster from unfolding as it would have without his intervention, we have to wonder.

How many more people could he have saved if he hadn’t taken the time to make that phone call to his broker?

He said it himself, “every second counts.” Yet, he took several valuable seconds to make that call so he could profit from this horrendous disaster.

Has he soiled his superhero status by using it for personal gain?

Will we ever be able to see him the same way?

It might be easy to justify his actions and to say “why not let him wet his beak a little?” He does so much good. Making money is the American way. So what if Superman turns out to be a capitalist. What’s the big deal?

After all, he wouldn’t be the only one to profit from misery. There’s drug cartels, international arms merchants, and tobacco companies.

As soon as he put himself and his interests ahead of the public’s interests, and took the time to profit from the earthquake instead of immediately charging into the situation, to save everyone he could, he created a loyalty conflict for himself.

Is he concerned with the public’s welfare, or his own financial interests? Which comes first?

But what if he gets down to the mine and sees that the damage isn’t as severe as it looked when he was high above the atmosphere? He bet everything he had on a disastrous outcome. He stands to make a lot of money if that mine collapses. He will be financially incentivized to “enhance” the severity of it, if it will improve the performance of his trade in gold futures. After he saves everyone that can be saved, he can move on to the next people that need saving from this terrible disaster, or he can take a few precious minutes to fly into those mines and just make sure they won’t be producing any gold in the near future. After saving all those lives, he might think, the Karmic scales will still tilted in his favor. He wouldn’t be putting anyone’s lives at risk. “A giant gold mining conglomerate can afford a little delay.” he might justify to himself.

What happens the next time there’s a natural disaster? Tsunami racing toward the port of Los Angeles, Americas busiest sea port. Goods from all over Asia shipped across the Pacific then loaded on trains and trucks for distribution across the Unites States. That port is a crucial part of America’s modern supply chain. Does he race down to the deadly wave and stop it, or does he short the stock of the shipping companies that stand to be hurt the most? He could profit handsomely from that kind of calamity. How many lives would be lost?

He didn’t create these natural disasters, they aren’t his fault, nor are they his responsibility…unless a superhero’s duty is to prevent or minimize danger to those he protects.

What if he sees the action unfolding in time to prevent or minimize danger to human life, and chooses to do nothing when it is within his power to do so, and instead profits from the situation? Who is Superman now? Which version of him would you want looking out for you?

-the self-interested profiteer

or

-the idealistic selfless public servant

How do we feel about the most powerful man in the world putting his financial interest ahead of the safety of individual men, women, and children when it is his duty to look out for their best interest?

Here in the United States we have an awesome responsibility. Not just to pick the person that we think will represent our best interest, but to decide who will be the most powerful person in all of the world for four years at a time. Superman.

Do we want him to be financially incentivized to put the interests of other countries ahead of America’s because he entered into business partnerships with those countries? How would we know we could count on him to operate in our best interests in a situation that pitted the United States against a country that he has significant financial ties with?

Would America’s military personnel be mobilized to protect a country where those business partnerships are located?

When a person is charged with the responsibility of safeguarding anything and they find themselves in a situation where they are in a position to profit if harm comes to that which they have sworn to protect, can they be counted on to do what they are supposed to?

Do we want our policemen receiving payments from criminals?

Do we want our lawmakers receiving payments from the industries they are supposed to be regulating?

Do we want officials at the FDA receiving payments from the pharmaceutical companies that make our prescription drugs?

This is called conflict of interest. It should be illegal for every government official and agency. It’s purpose is to protect the public from being put at risk by people charged with the duty of overseeing the ethical and safe functioning of our government. It also protects these responsible individuals from their own human weakness.

If somebody is trying to eat a healthy diet, then the best idea is to get their favorite unhealthy foods out of the house because if there’s ice cream in the freezer, it will get eaten. Humans are weak, and temptation is strong.

Right now, congressmen can accept jobs in industries they have favored with tax breaks or legislation, when their term is over. Supreme Court justices accept lavish vacations. America’s President is entering into business partnerships with foreign countries.

All of this makes one wonder; When it comes right down to it, whose side are they on?

This is not politics, it is principled governance and should influence our voting much more than party affiliation.

My wife and I were on an island in South Carolina. It was known to be inhabited by alligators, and we had seen a few, here and there, as we toured it on our bicycles.

Something we learned on that trip is that, even if you are riding on a trail in the middle of a maritime forest, with no water evident, there can still be gators right there by the trail, hidden in the brush, and they can be very feisty during mating season. Aggressive even.

On this island they are known to grow as large as fifteen feet and weigh up to a thousand pounds. That’s right. A half ton of aquatic dinosaur.

After a long day of bicycle touring through maritime forests on remote paths, we were having a relaxed evening with a friend on the steps of the rear porch of the cabin he was renting. The edge of a swamp was only a few feet from where we sat. It was completely obscured by the cave-like darkness that was so dense it seemed like I could reach out and grab a fist full of it.

Wondering if this swamp had any alligators in it, I told my companions I would be right back.

Dashing through the cabin, out to my truck, and emerging a moment later flashlight in hand, with the idea of shining it out across the forested water we were huddled next to.

This is the appropriate time to share that the small flame of illusion that mankind tends in his soul as a way of keeping the darkness of reality at bay, is just that. It is an illusion. In nature there is a shiny, plastic laminated menu with pictures of the various items. Just like in Chinese restaurants. No description. One of the pictures is of…us.

Gulp

I pointed the flashlight in the direction of the small lagoon, turning it on with the press of a button, and there, just slightly above the level of the water, were no less than twenty pairs of eyes, glittering in the beam I held, looking right at us. The closest was less than fifteen feet away and the furthest no more than eighty.

It is worth noting that, on land, an alligator can run faster than the current one hundred meter world record holder. Commonly known as the fastest man on earth. His name is Usain Bolt. Also, they can swim more than twice the speed of Michael Phelps.

It is a clarifying moment to look at the menu and see a picture of yourself staring naively back.

Another time, and what feels like another world, we were camping in a place that has to be the near opposite of a swamp. We met a couple that we got to know pretty well while we were there. They said they wanted to share a secret place with us, and we should follow them.

Subscribe now

After navigating a network of remote dirt roads for an hour, arriving at a small anonymous pull-off companioned by a thin sandy path winding across the landscape to nowhere, we shouldered our packs, treading on and in the soft sand through the Pinyon and Juniper forest.

Hours later we emerged into a forest of stone…with alligator skin.

You can let in everything as it is presented to you. Taking all that is pushed at you, until the next thing is pushed at you mere seconds later, before you have had any hope of absorbing the previous glob. A giant funnel implanted in the top of your head like an ungainly appendage. An endless series of impressions with no contemplation, no intention, or direction. A leaf flowing down a raging torrent. Where the river goes, so goes the leaf. Navigating the currents, cascades, and eddies controlling all thoughts and actions, creating an all consuming reality consisting of endless reactivity to the continuous change you are fully immersed in.

Another is to seek harmony with yourself. To step out of the angry torrent, letting it flow, knowing that it always will, but also that you are not required for it’s existence.

Instead of swallowing your food whole, with no hope of digesting it, and having never tasted it, you choose to savor every bite of the flavorful fruits and vegetables carefully chosen for maximum nutrition. Choosing health over novelty. Independence over the herd. Knowledge, carefully chosen and considered. Earned rather than accepted.

Geese are force fed a mixture of boiled corn and fat which is delivered via a tube that is inserted down their throats for the purpose of fattening their livers. It is the modern way of making foie gras. Their entire lives lived in anticipation of the slaughter. Food.

The difference between us and those victimized geese is that we still have a choice. Whether we know it or not. Whether we act on it or not.

It is the invisible reality that is possible but not currently manifest. It’s not real. It doesn’t exist, but it could. It isn’t “make believe” but “Make real”. It’s hanging in the mist just beyond our ability to see. Like being deep in an underground cavern where the darkness is so completely suffocating that light seems like something that isn’t real and never has been. As you are standing in the tangible darkness, knowing there is another person there but not being able to see them. That other person is our unrealized self. The happy one.

This morning as the sun is just climbing above the far side of the canyon. I look out my window to see the light reflecting off the red rock wall behind us, extending at least two hundred feet above. The Colorado River doing it’s work in the bottom, still and forever sculpting this masterpiece.

If it isn’t a bad day, it’s automatically a good one. Peace.

We don’t climb, but I still love the look and feel and energy this place radiates!

Share

Subscribe now

I walked into the Apple Store. It was like walking into the Church of Technology. It was so full of the teeming faithful that a beehive would seem cavernously deserted by comparison.

I sat down at the table to await a priest who would anoint my misbehaving phone.

There were two men across the table from me, conversing in Spanish, which I don’t speak. The one directly opposite me, furtively raised a vaping device, and made quick use of it.

As I sat patiently, reading, I noticed him raising his vape thingy again. I leaned forward and growled “Don’t do that in here. That stuff’s nasty.” “You don’t have to sit there” he replied cooly as he and his friend sized me up. “I was told to wait here for the technician. Have some manners.” I fired back, not so cooly. We eyeballed each other for a moment until he turned to his friend and resumed speaking in Spanish.

Shortly after the exchange, the priest arrived and the exorcism began. Demons be gone! During the ceremony, my friends rose from the table and left. Eventually, I was released, the outcome still in doubt.

left with a bitter aftertaste from the experience. The demons might or might not have been cast out. Only time would reveal the outcome, but this wasn’t the cause of my cloudy disposition. So, why was I feeling foul?

Because, on the surface it appeared that I won the exchange with the vaping guy, but I didn’t, not really. When you push someone, their natural reaction will be to push back. To fight against the force being applied to them. It is likely that our skirmish will echo elsewhere as he displaces his anger toward me, onto someone else. My treatment of him will ripple across other lives. Sure, he was the offending party, but placing blame doesn’t solve problems. Solving problems does.

What’s the problem?

The better question is “what are the problems?”

When people aren’t taught to be aware of the impact their actions have on others then they will be oblivious to their negative influence. I grew up in the South at a time when smoking was allowed in all places. Airplanes. Restaurants. Bathrooms. A lack of societal disapproval was interpreted as tacit approval and thus, the non-offending endured the negative effects of the oblivious transgressors as they indulged themselves.

Nowadays the issues with public smoking are less intrusive than at any point in my lifetime, But another intrusive behavior has risen to take it’s place.

Vulgar incivility is becoming institutionalized in our society. As an indicator, all you need to do is walk around and hear the F-bombs dropping like it’s London during a nazi air raid. It reminds me of high school, and how some kids tried so hard to fit in that they would ape the behavior of others in the group in an exaggerated attempt to fit in that only made them stand out more for looking foolish and needy.

Ugliness begets Ugliness

Just as a smoker can foul the area around him/her, our words, and the way we use them have the power to do the same for every person within earshot. The vociferous F-bomber can be equally offensive, and just like smokers from previous decades, they don’t seem to realize their impact on the immediate space. This is not about being afraid to offend someone. It is about having the courtesy and presence of mind not to, and demonstrating to others, the idea of having a personal code that elevates you above the least common denominator in our society. You project strength when you have the confidence to set a positive example that others may not understand at first. It takes no courage whatsoever to follow the crowd down to the bottom. When you behave in an unprincipled way, in an attempt to appear powerful, what you are really communicating is that you have no personal code that guides your behavior, so go ahead, there’s plenty of room on the bandwagon. There always will be.

What do F-bombs have to do with my Mexican stand-off?

The paradox of tolerance states that intolerance must prevail over tolerance because the tolerant will tolerate the intolerant, but the intolerant will not tolerate the tolerant. Whew. This seems like an intractable problem which is why it is called a paradox. (I figured that out on my own…mostly. Except for the big words.)

Tolerance is not the answer. Turning the other cheek doesn’t solve problems (We already covered this. Solving problems solves them. Remember?) I’m also ruling out violence as an actual solution because It doesn’t make problems go away, it simply defers them, if it doesn’t make them worse. I know, I know, this puts me on shaky ground based on my exchange with vape guy, but give me a little more rope with which to hang myself.

The answer is leadership. No, not the politicians. Not the religious leaders. Not the corporate titans. Not the celebrities. Who does that leave? Look in the mirror. If we want a better world, we need to set the example that allows others to become aware of it’s wisdom in whatever timeframe they need in order to benefit enough from it that they begin to set their own positive example. Sure, there’s plenty of room on the bandwagon, but I would find the ride to be uncomfortable.

And this is where I failed. When vape guy did his thing, he made a choice to break the social contract of being considerate of others in a public space. I did not need to act in kind. I was no better than he was. Rudeness is an admission that you haven’t got better tools for solving the situation. It is weakness. It also creates divisiveness which creates weakness on a societal level. Hence the saying “divide and conquer”.

Sometimes people need some negative feedback to gain awareness that they need to make a change, but the person that can provide that feedback without generating negative feelings will ultimately make a more lasting impact than the person that incites a rebellious response.

Next time I feel the need to remind someone of their duty to be considerate of others, I will deploy my smile like a trojan horse and ask politely if he “would please not do that in here.”

If you enjoyed this please share it. Thanks.

If we had a scoreboard, it would read something like:

NATURE 1,000,000,000,000

HUMANITY 0

This is humiliating. We need to get on the scoreboard. A comeback isn’t possible if we can’t get a single point. In fact, I’m not sure we have ever even tried to score a point. It’s like we are in the World Cup Finals sitting in the center circle, counting our money, oblivious that there is a high stakes game going on around us…A championship game.

That’s fine with Nature. While we are satisfying ourselves with eensy weensy little successes, Nature keeps on keeping on. Totally focused on maintaining its practice. One perfect little act after another.

I have to admire its professionalism and its humility. Every time we have one of our minuscule successes we want to make sure the world (that is, other people) knows all about it. Not so with Nature. It just keeps humming along. Logging win after win after win. But it doesn’t lord its perfection over our heads. It doesn’t taunt us, unless you count the truly gaudy acts of creation such as Yosemite, Zion, Glacier… at least we have had the sense to treat those places with the reverence they deserve. This isn’t enough to earn us a point, but at least it keeps us from having a negative score.

It patiently waits for us to get our act together…before our time runs out and it sweeps us off the field as it has so many others when the buzzer sounded.

Old School: loser goes home. Winner stays and plays.

But all perfection is not created equal. For instance, TREES seem like a stand-out idea. Right? Very inspired. Think about this, Giant Sequoia, Coastal Redwood, Bristlecone Pine, Aspen. Largest tree by mass, tallest trees, oldest living organism, largest living organism. *

Subscribe now

Even amongst this elite crew there is one that deserves the title of “PERFECTER”. Not only is it the largest “thing” ever*, but it’s just so dang pretty.

It also speaks a language no other tree can quite manage. With the gentlest of breeze, the leaves whisper “keep going, keep going”.

Share

* By the way, all of these trees are native to California.

* A grove of Aspen trees is really a single, interconnected living organism.

That photo came from the Sangre de Cristo mountains outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico somewhere between 9,000’ and 10,000’. Fall is the time. International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, the smell of roasting hatch chili peppers everywhere (even some gas stations), and the beautiful fall aspens.

If you enjoyed this, please share it, and consider subscribing. Thanks.

We stopped at the ranger station near the entrance so we could get suggestions, and were disappointed to realize that we were getting a canned response to a question this ranger probably answered a thousand times a day. “Where should we go?” Ask a stupid question…

It’s no wonder National Parks seem so crowded. Everyone gets told to go to the most popular landmarks, which is the same phenomenon that occurs throughout modern society. We are all funneled into the same behaviors, ways of thinking, and even beliefs.

When the ranger finished his response, I pulled out my map, showed him what I had tentatively identified as a potential hiking destination. He stopped talking, looked up at me with a sort of surprised and serious face, and simply said “yeah, go there”. With an eloquence his words couldn’t manage, his manner communicated that this was a hike we should/must do.

We emerged from the forest after a relatively easy six mile hike through a forest redolent with the scent of Ponderosa pine trees which still obscured our view to the left until they eventually admitted defeat to the inhospitable granite which we had now fully transitioned to. We finally saw what we had come to see and what almost nobody else did. An unobstructed view of the face of Half Dome from directly across the valley. We had seen nobody on the hike here (save for a deer that was so tame that it allowed us to approach within a few feet of it. We took the measure of each other until it tired of us and ambled into the forest). Part of the specialness of this moment was the shocking fact that we were experiencing it almost totally alone as the hordes migrated en masse in the valley below.

We descended onto the North Dome. While the rest of the world shouted it’s proclamations, prescriptions and judgements, we lazed away the next couple of hours as this place infused us with it’s perfect splendor. Eventually, I said to my wife. “I am standing in the most beautiful place I have ever been.”

I haven’t the insight to know the true value of experiencing deep inspiration and exposing our souls to it whenever possible. Mostly people seem to try and justify, whether to themselves or to others, that there is a “reason” for their actions. Happiness is rarely cited. Our spirits are not computers. They don’t follow rules as we understand them. This is the meaning of “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” *

Our prisons are filled with people that have dead or dying spirits, as are addiction centers and support groups. We need inspiration and fulfillment just as we need air and water.

Subscribe now

Feeding the spirit is what nourishes the soul. In its marrow, my spirit knows what it needs. I feel a hint of breath on my ear as, with a ghost of a whisper, it tells me. I ignore the shouts so I can listen.

Share

* I knew the quote, but searched for attribution. I stopped after finding it attributed to three different people. One of which was Albert Einstein.

Subscribe now

IT hadn’t been a difficult funeral. Her father had lived a full life and had lived independently until very recently. Good for him.

Still, it turned out to be a fateful event. There was a teenage boy in Charmaine’s family, at the funeral, that we didn’t really know, but knew of. He had some challenges growing up. Parents had drug problems and were both gone now. Had lived in their car for a while. Lived with various relatives, some abusive. Now, he was here in Illinois with Grandparents, playing on the football team, and making honor roll. We weren’t a close enough relative to have been able to take custody of him, but there was something we could do.

Charmaine and I talked to him a little and asked if there was anywhere out West that he would like to see. We told him we would be moving into our Airstream soon and we would take him there if we could. He seemed pretty excited about the idea and told us where he would like to go.

I reflected on this as I drove into the great north Minnesota woods to pick him up, where he and his Grandfather had been fishing. We were to leave from Clear Lake MN in two days and heading West to his desired destination. As a raging introvert, the idea of spending the next two hours in the truck, with a strange teenager (that is, strange to me, not strange in general…but you never knew.) was an unpleasant thought. This is when I considered the rashness of this whole enterprise. What did we know about him? Nothing. Nothing at all. We just wanted to do something nice for someone that hadn’t experienced a lot of it in his short life. Now that I thought about it, there was a decent chance this whole deal might blow up. Plus, we were just moving into our Airstream and had no idea how to actually live in a rolling micro-house. Hmm, this didn’t actually seem like the best timing.

We knew the power of a transformative outdoor experience and had taken our kids to the Rockies, where we all climbed fourteeners together, when they were teenagers. Those experiences had blossomed into a love of the outdoors for them, just as it had for us on our first trip to Colorado. That wasn’t our destination this time, but we hoped for the same type of experience for Nicholas.

It was a busy few days as we readied ourselves and our airstream for a life on the road. The previous owners had lived in it for seven years, and we were now inhabiting it in the airstream park where they had been staying in it until they moved into the vintage 1970s model they had paid airstream to rebuild. It was a beautiful show-piece, but smaller than the thirty footer we were moving into. What they didn’t want, or couldn’t fit, they left for us. Oddly, there had been a really nice leather chair sitting in the middle of the floor. I sold it on craigslist and the fellow that had driven up from the Twin Cities to pick it up, had been excited because he didn’t think he would ever be able to afford one of these chairs. Nice. I was genuinely happy for him. I was just as happy to have it out of our way. Win-win.

As a part of our change in lifestyle, I now placed more value on shoes and wheels than on chairs and tables. Doing and going.

Summer in Minnesota is warm, just like in Georgia, where we had come from just a few days earlier. With all this activity, I was hot and dressed for the warm temperatures and humidity, while busily working on something with my tools on the tailgate, which now doubled as my workbench, and felt this faint moving sensation on my legs. I was so immersed in what I was doing that it took a while for it to disrupt my concentration. Eventually I looked down at my legs to see what that strange feeling was. I was horrified to realize that I couldn’t see the skin that presumably still covered my legs because it was completely covered by a kind of fur that turned out to be every mosquito in Minnesota. I now know how the cow feels at the all-you-can eat buffet at Sizzler. I slapped my legs a couple of times, killed a few thousand of those vampires, and staggered to the door, weak from blood loss. Suddenly the idea of wolves, mountain lions, and grizzlies seemed fairly benign.

The two day drive had been one of interesting monotony. Having never seen North Dakota before, I was surprised to find there was so much farming because until then, I hadn’t realized agriculture was possible at the North Pole.

With all of this time preparing and driving and anticipating, it was a relief to pull up to the entrance and have the ranger say “Welcome to Yellowstone”, but instead of relief, I should have been feeling fear, because the most dangerous animal in the park is man.

As we drove through the park, enjoying the beautiful and wild landscape, on our way to the campground where we had our reservation, we were skirting a lake as we drove around a large blind curve and staying well below the conservative speed limit. They post low speed limits in order to protect the wild animals that don’t know to watch out for cars when crossing the road. The park service can post it, but they can’t be everywhere to enforce it. As we continued around the long sweeping right hand curve, the road had begun to hug the lake which was about ten feet below the edge of our shoulderless lane. This is when I saw the two oncoming trucks towing fifth wheels. This is a common occurrence in a national park, as a fifth wheel is a large RV which is towed by a heavy duty truck. Except, in this case, one of those 25,000 pound rigs was in our lane and clearly accelerating as the driver was trying to pass the large fifth wheel in the other lane. I had nowhere to go and was towing a ten thousand pound thirty foot trailer. 25,000 pounds coming at us, 10,000 pounds right behind us. Trash compactor. In that scenario, we were the ill fated refuse. I quickly edged off the road just as far as I could while hopefully not flinging us over the edge and into the icy water below, where hypothermia was a real risk. Oh, I almost forgot, the chance of drowning. We were half on and half off the road and at a complete standstill. The jackhammer driving the oncoming rig continued to accelerate, fully committed to passing the other rig which was about fifty feet long. He was either going to make it or it was going to be a calamity. We were all pretty interested to see how it turned out. At the very last possible second, he whipped back into the other lane, causing the other driver to slam on his brakes and fishtail to avoid this maneuver. I gingerly pulled back onto the asphalt while trying not to tip over the edge, and continued to our campsite, while reflecting on the trials and tribulations of everyday life on the road.

Immediately after setting up in our campsite, we all got over to the closest mountain we could find and climbed up to Avalanche Peak. There we had an expansive view of Yellowstone Lake 3,000’ below, our trailhead right next to it. It was a challenging hike, but Nicholas had no trouble. During the school year, he played football, wrestled, and ran track. He was plenty fit. He was going to need to be.

Yellowstone is a primeval landscape, unique as a true American icon. As we explored this place we felt it’s primordial heritage in our bones. Here, there were carnivores of all types and even the herbivores were deadly, but also enticing. “Park” is a small word that can’t truly contain a description of this time capsulized portal to another era in America’s and Earth’s histories. This terrain was large, just like it’s inhabitants. There were keystone species such as mountain lions, grizzlies, and wolves, plus moose and bison. None of us had ever seen any of these animals in the wild. Then there were the thermal features including geysers and hydrothermal pools. Some of them are intensely colorful and are clearly the burning man of the microbial world. And it’s big, really big. How big is it? Larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware…combined.

We started most days at 5:30 to beat the crowds, which was a good call because there would usually be a traffic jam somewhere due to the bison wandering onto the road. I say “onto” instead of “crossing” because they were really just hanging out and not necessarily walking. If you get right down to it, it was pretty darned inconsiderate. But that’s bison. Can’t live with’em, can’t hunt’em to extinction…oh, wait a minute. Never mind.

There was a place on the map named “Observation Peak” which looked like a promising viewpoint. I don’t know where I got that idea, but maybe the name had something to do with it. Charmaine wanted us to have some “guy time” and stayed behind.

I had purchased some bear spray, but felt that I wouldn’t be able to use it effectively unless I tried it out. Once we got to the trailhead, I had Nicholas get behind me and I gave it a quick spray to test it’s range and then put it back in its belt holder. We finished packing our packs and got going. He was in front. As he stepped into the woods, he began coughing violently, I wondered what could cause this so suddenly, then it hit me. I didn’t immediately try to claw my eyes out or anything, but apparently that malicious cloud made a tactical retreat to the trail and we foolishly walked right into it.

One of the great things about life is the sheer number of lessons that are available for upgrading our lives. When he goes through the graduation ceremony, the successful PHD will get to wear a fancy cord hanging from his neck with his cap and gown. I don’t know this firsthand because I am not in danger of earning a PHD or any other academic honors, however, when the school of hard knocks starts handing out honors for distinctive achievements and lessons learned the hard way. I may need some help carrying all the awards that will be coming my way.

Not inhaling bear spray. Check.

We were finally able to start down the trail and I asked Nicholas if he had an animal he was hoping to see as we headed off into the backcountry. He enthusiastically said he really wanted to see a grizzly bear. “Well Nicholas” I said, “I really hope you get to see one. If you wish really hard, it just might happen” Meanwhile, on the inside, I was wishing I had had the foresight to conduct a voodoo ceremony with a talisman representing a grizzly bear that I could set on fire after I had stomped on it and then stuck it full of pins and torn it’s head off. Anything to ensure that we absolutely, no matter what, never saw a grizzly while out in the woods like we were right now.

It was a beautiful hike through a diverse forest. Because of our very early start and the remote location of our hike, we were all alone out here. There had been no other cars parked at the trailhead.

I had recently learned that one of the distinctive features of a grizzly bear as compared to a black bear (which can be several different colors) is a hump on their back between the shoulder blades. It is composed mostly of muscle and fat because apparently these beasts have so much of it that they had to find an extra place to add just a little more muscle. That sounded a lot like what I was staring at right now, through the brush, and it was right where we were going. Brown. Furry. Hump.

I backtracked to Nicholas, showed him the hump, which was all we could see of the animal. in front of us. Excited, scared, he said “What do we do now uncle John?” I said, scared, “Follow me.” We got off the trail, on the opposite side from the brown furry hump, and as silent as an Indian scout (if he had grown up in the suburbs) ghosted our way through the forest in our intended direction. As we got past the hump, we encountered a large fallen tree and I climbed up on it so I could see over the brush that was keeping us from getting a good clear view, and with the higher perspective, I could clearly see a mature male moose with a brown hump between his shoulder blades. That was two lessons so far today. Male moose have the hump as well. Same spot. Same color. This male was with a female moose which made this a dangerous place for us to be. Moose are responsible for more deaths and injuries than grizzly bears. They are very aggressive, but none of that mattered right now. What mattered was that I was looking at the animal I wanted to see and Nicholas hadn’t seen his yet. I looked at him with a big smile and signaled that he should climb up with me and see what I was seeing.

The male moose and the female moose were both looking at us, clearly wanting some privacy, so we climbed down and continued along the trail as I kept talking about what a thrill it was to have seen my animal and how it was a shame he hadn’t seen his yet. After the close call with the moose we were both on high alert and watchful for a brown hump of another sort.

When we emerged onto the observation point at the summit, We were at an elevation of almost 10,000’ it was still early and a chill mist hung in the early morning air all across the Yellowstone caldera (which looks like a huge valley) as it stretched out before us. We could see all of the different geothermal features in several clusters all over the valley as the steam rose in very tiny plumes thousands of feet below us and many miles away.

There is a beautiful massive waterfall on the Yellowstone river and it flows through an incredible canyon that has yellow walls. This yellow rock is the source of the name for the park, and the river. Okay, fine, it makes sense, but I felt that it was an uninspired story for such a magnificent place. I thought there should be an origin story that captured the majesty and stirred the imagination. Something like:

Long long ago in a galaxy far far away. Wait, that’s not it. Here it is: There is a giant boulder in the center of the great valley at the heart of the Yellowstone territory. It can be seen for miles and miles in any direction as a sign to all that it was the land of the Great Bear. He was the protector of the land and all that dwelled there. He roamed this territory in a time of great magic and medicine. The boulder wasn’t placed there by the Great Bear, but by the strange ones that lived in the sky and came from another place. It was pure white and never faded or became dingy. On a sunny day, the boulder shone like a glowing beacon and the strange ones would use it for navigating from far away worlds to visit the land of the smoking waters. Time passed and the strange ones stopped coming. Then one day the Great Bear entered the valley and roared for all to hear that this was his territory and he would fight any and all that disputed this. He would rule and protect this land and all that lived here. He was a mighty beast, almost as big as a mountain, as massive and powerful as he was, he wasn’t alone. He was part of a race of mighty beasts that ruled and protected the land. Another was Grasshopper Mother who ruled the grasslands and protected the buffalo herds. Some said they were brought here by the strange ones. Others said they came from a time before time. But that is a story for another time and another place. The Great Bear had a roar that caused avalanches on the peaks and great waves in the lakes. All feared and respected the Great Bear and none challenged him. His territory was large and he roamed it constantly. As a warning to all who came to the valley, he marked the boulder with his sign and it was forever a Yellow-Stone.

The Yellowstone River is beautiful and mighty and has carved an immense canyon into the sandstone. At the head of the canyon is a powerful raging waterfall that was visible from several spots along the canyon. The hike along the canyon rim was dramatically beautiful. While on the rim we talked to a ranger that told us there had been a tragic death there earlier in the week. There is a platform, the park service built, that looks down on the waterfall and a father let go of the hand of his six year old daughter while on the platform, to get a better look at the waterfall, and she had fallen off.

We hadn’t realized that Grand Teton National Park is just south of Yellowstone. We took a day-trip down there for our first look at another iconic National Park. On the drive, as we got out for our first view of the range, I pulled the truck over and we all got out, walked through the sagebrush tundra for a clear view and soaked in the beauty. In that moment, I lost track of time and I’m not sure how long I stood agape at the majestic mountains that rose up out of the plain like a great granite tidal wave. I couldn’t believe I was finally getting to see this place I had read about for so long, and was even more pleased that we were able to share it with Nicholas. This was a bonus that we hadn’t even expected. He was getting to see two great Western National Parks on this trip. We took a ferry across Jenny Lake and hiked several miles up Painted Canyon where we saw a female moose and her baby. I disingenuously consoled Nicholas as I mercilessly reveled in my good fortune at seeing two more moose. I kept asking him if he saw how cute the baby was and how large the mother was. He was so good natured that he kept saying, in this dejected tone, “Yeah uncle John, that’s great”. In the park, we bought a trail map to take back with us when we returned to Yellowstone.

Once we were back at our camp, I found a cool looking loop route in the Tetons that would take us deep into the backcountry where we would cross over a high pass with an elevation near 11,000’ and we would be in the heart of the mountain range. I was really excited about it, but Charmaine, knowing I had an undeserved (mostly) reputation for underestimating the length of hikes was wary of attempting a 22 mile hike sandwiched in between a long drive to cross Yellowstone, to get down to the Tetons, do the hike, then make the long drive back to camp. So it was another guys trip.

We left at 4:00 so we could be at the trailhead early. Even Nicholas didn’t want to be out on the trail in grizzly country when it got dark. As the first light came into the sky we were on the trail and moving easily. After the first few miles the canyon tightened up and we had great views of the dramatic spires that loomed above us on either side of the canyon but by mid-Summer the thick vegetation inside Paintbrush Canyon had grown over our heads so that we had no visibility of our immediate surroundings. As we advanced up the trail with a purposeful stride, I heard Nicholas, a few feet behind me, repeating to himself “I hope we see a grizzly, I hope we see a grizzly” willing it to happen. I began with my own mantra going around in my head “I hope we don’t see a grizzly, I hope we don’t see a grizzly”. It was dueling karmas. Who would win? In this thick brush, I knew it was possible that we could pass within ten feet of a bear and not even see it unless it wanted us to. Even though my bear spray was hanging right on the waist strap of my pack, I wouldn’t be able to deploy it as quickly as I would need to if we were that close to a startled bear. I kept thinking about how it wasn’t polite to borrow someone’s grandson and bring him back all mangled and damaged. There were no other people out here. After five miles we hadn’t seen a single person.

Eventually, we came to Holly Lake, a stunning small lake high in the backcountry. It was such a scenic and tranquil spot that we didn’t want to leave. While standing on the bank, I picked up a stone and casually skipped it across the mesmerizing mirrored surface, momentarily breaking the spell of the perfectly reflected ridgeline on the opposite side. Nicholas thought this was really cool and wanted me to show him how. We stayed longer at the lake than we should have as time ticked and the sun moved, but it was a magical moment. The lake was ours alone and it felt like we were the only humans in this rugged mountain range. He had a few missteps as he tried to master the subtleties of skipping rocks and as they kept imitating submarines I gave him the nickname of “Skippy”. He seemed pleased and told me he had never had a nickname.

We had been climbing consistently for hours and were seeing more and more snow on the ground even though it was July. The thinning air was coming to us in gulps as we maintained our pace. Finally, Skippy said “uncle John I’m getting hungry, I think I’ll eat one of my sandwiches”. “It might be better to wait until we finish our hard climbing and we have reached the pass we’ll be crossing over” I said. Our pace and the hard breathing were relentless as it must be when racing against the darkness at high altitude. Thirty minutes later I stood on the trail and watched him heaving in the snow, as I made a futile attempt to muffle my laughter.

Another lesson. Avoid eating sandwiches in the middle of a hard physical effort…at altitude. Check.

We were now in snow that was up to our knees. We weren’t equipped for it. I hadn’t expected this amount of snow and we had no gaiters. Just shorts and trail running shoes. Skippy said “uncle John this is really hard, maybe we should turn around. This looks pretty dangerous”. He was right, of course. It was hard. We were post-holing in deep snow at more than 10,000’ on the side of a nearly vertical slope that promised a fall that we wouldn’t survive, if we slipped. What I said was “Skippy, you just need to stop being a surly teenager and be hard and prickly, like me.” Now we were both laughing

and the stress of the moment had turned into fun. Careful fun. We were switchbacking up the steep headwall in the snow on our way to Paintbrush Divide and from this vantage point, the weather coming from the west and building in these mountains was a complete mystery to us, and would be, until we crested this snow covered climb.

Once in the pass we had views of the jagged beauty of the entire range in all directions. Also, it was clear that a storm was building and we needed to have a quick lunch before we dashed off the pass and away from the lightning that was sure to be visited upon this open rocky space. We were well above the tree line and would be fully exposed. It would be several hours before we could descend into the trees in the canyon we would eventually enter.

As we descended from the pass I could make out a few hikers around the lake that our path touched, far below. It was a welcome sight as they were the first people we had seen since stepping onto the trail many hours ago. Had we not been in grizzly country, I would have been happy not to see anyone for the entire day, but in this place, I was on edge. I needed to deliver my charge safely and we were taking chances.

We were safely down off the pass when the rain and lightning started. I was thankful for that. Skippy handled the discomfort and uncertainty as if it were just another walk. Good for him. It was cold as high country rain always is. We squished along in our sneakers as the trail became muddy.

The enormous mountains forming the sides of cascade canyon loomed right over us like great muscular gargoyles…wearing pointy hats.

We were descending and seeing people occasionally, because of the dramatic beauty of this canyon. These hikers had stepped off the ferry that brought them across Jenny Lake and could hike to beautiful Lake Solitude (which we had recently passed), situated in a massive cirque of snowy peaks, for a twelve mile day hike. The presence of other hikers gave me confidence (probably false) that we were marginally safer with more people around. We made good time as we descended and when the rain quit were more than 3/4 of the way through our loop. Only five or six miles to go. We were fortunate to have another moose sighting which I gloated about at length.

Our trail skirted Jenny Lake and we arrived at the truck in the fading light. As a truly epic day was dying, we felt like we had never been more alive.

On the morning of our last full day in the park together we were out early and had stopped at a pull off to find a vantage point for enjoying the sunrise. We hiked out across open country in the general direction of a lake that was maybe a half-mile away, then stood out in the open watching the steam rising lazily off the lake because of the cold morning, I noticed a buffalo on the far side. He would take a bite of grass and then look up at us and then take another bite of grass and look at us again. We were probably a mile apart and I was surprised he would take notice of us. Meanwhile, the three of us were enjoying our morning idyll and taking in the kind of scenery only available in the prehistoric panorama that is Yellowstone National Park. The sun had broken the horizon and was beginning to peel the chill back. As we were talking, I noticed a movement in my peripheral vision and looked in the direction of the lake. The buffalo was swimming across it. I pointed this out to Charmaine and Skippy. We all thought it was kind of a novel experience to see a buffalo swimming. He continued across the lake in a sort of point A to point B fashion and as he came out of the water with a look of intention, it dawned on me that we were point B. We were now separated by a couple of hundred yards and I said “Guys, we need to get to the truck. Look at the buffalo, he’s coming right for us.” We hotfooted it back to the truck, jumped in and got going. As I looked in my rearview at the buffalo’s reflection, his head was down as he feasted on the grass we had been standing on. Sorry bro’.

The three of us walked up to the entrance of the Bozeman airport. Skippy hugged Charmaine and thanked her, then he and I embraced for a long moment, he turned and walked through the door, like a six year old on his first day of school, never turning as I watched him. He strode toward a future he wasn’t ready for, just as I hadn’t been ready. I turned to walk back to the truck and brushed a tear from my cheek.

If you enjoyed this post. Please share it with others. Thanks.

I made a choice today. It wasn’t a big one, but based on what I read, it was one that more people should make. I took the road less traveled (not for the first time), and it actually did make all the difference.

While the whole world was pulling it’s hair out, I struck out with my wife and explored a tiny  piece of America, on foot. We walked out of camp with a small pack, food, water, and a curious nature. No motor. No cell coverage. No people. No problem.

I took back my power from the fear mongers,and chose peace instead. My peace.

We are currently in the desert and here is what peace looks like, at least today.

I can’t draw a 4” straight line. How can they put in mile long barbed wire fence on uneven terrain without even one little squiggle?

Is that a cloud or a rainbow?

As we discovered the edge of the known planet, way down here at the bottom of nowhere, we got a micro history lesson when we came upon this ancient corral with an ingenious well and  water trough.

We are in a remote place. A hundred years ago, remote wouldn’t have done justice to this. Lonely and isolated might have come close.

In the past, I needed to be somewhere like a national park to appreciate some dramatically beautiful spot, but after living on the road, in all kinds of distant locations, for a decade and counting, the subtle beauty of the Southern Arizona desert in the Winter is not lost on me. Especially the consistent partly sunny and 65 degree forecasts. In January, I’m happy to get all of those I can.

Peace out…literally.

It’s easier than you think.

You may be a savant and not even realize it.

Inspiration is easily found if you just look for it.

Even with real genuine knowledge being more accessible than ever before, ignorance seems to be at an all-time high. This is great news for the aspirational ignoramus!

There’s never been a better time to be ignorant. With the proliferation of people on your screens and in your earbuds telling you what to think, full ignorance is easily attainable for all that aspire to it.

Get as much of your information from social media platforms as possible. Especially those platforms that specialize in very short attention span content. That way you can be ignorant and shorten your attention span simultaneously. Bargain! That’s kind of a no brainer.

What ever you do, make absolutely sure that you don’t, under any circumstance…. Oh wait, I almost forgot…

Book banning is coming back into vogue which makes ignorance almost a mandate in some places. Personally, I’m more of a pro-choice person when it comes to ignorance and the fundamentalist approach seems a little talibanish to me. I say lead by example not by edict.

When you absolutely must learn something and can’t get out of it. Just use AI. This is the perfect application for extracting maximum ignorance from any genuine learning situation. Let the machines think for you. Brilliant!

Getting your knowledge predigested is sort of like being a baby bird. The mother bird goes out and gets the food, eats it, and then vomits it into the baby bird’s stomach. That’s pretty much how AI works.

The last century was defined by the endless array of devices that freed us from the burden of physical effort. This led to the phenomenon known as the sedentary lifestyle. This is one of the main pillars of the pharmaceutical-medical-industrial complex in America.

This century will free us from the burden of thinking. Take full advantage of this technological advancement. The early adopters will be able to stop thinking the soonest. Gosh, look around, there are some that have already freed themselves from this obligation.

Trust authority figures. When being led by an authority figure, blind obedience is an excellent substitute for actual critical thinking. Just do what you’re told and you can get back to your favorite mindless activity that much sooner. Obedience is the new patriotism.

Remember, never forget, you can learn everything that really matters from the advertising. It’s not as if “truth in advertising” isn’t real. If you can’t trust the people that are trying to sell you something, who can you trust?

Watching the news is an essential part of ignorance, but it’s a bit tricky. If not handled properly, this one can backfire and you might find yourself learning something useful. Not to worry, I’ll walk you through this intellectual minefield and you can be well on your way to oblivion.

1. Make sure that all your sources are feeding you stories intended to polarize popular opinion

B. All of your regular news sources must completely agree with each other. Avoid rigorous multi-faceted analysis (sorry, that means more than one side of a topic is presented, so a more thorough understanding is achieved).

Thirdly, Make sure that all of the stories have the depth and complexity of a sound bite. It is really all you need to form snap judgements and opinions. This is critical for feeding your confirmation bias, which is a must for up and coming dunderheads.

Ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tse once said “He who thinks he knows doesn’t know. He who knows that he doesn’t know, knows”. Don’t let this be you. Strongly held, one sided opinions that are easily arrived at, are central to your ignorance.

If nuance and complexity are trumped by strongly held opinions that were easily acquired, BRAVO! You are well on your way to being a complete nincompoop.

Okay, I was about to say something when I got interrupted, never ever ever, no matter what, don’t open your mind.

Once you adopt an opinion, hold on to it, don’t let it go. If you open your mind to other ideas, there is no telling what might creep in. Ignorance is about keeping things out, not letting them in.

Never forget that the root of ignorance, the main part of the word, is ignore.

The great stoic philosopher Epictetus once said “knowledge is in the depths”, so obviously, you are safe reading most mainstream and pop culture magazines and websites.

Parenting- for those parents looking to pass the ignorance lifestyle on to their children, I have great news! It’s so easy, you don’t even have to think about it. Literally.

Did you realize that your electronic devices make great baby sitters, even when you’re in the same room with your kids?

Legendary physicist Richard Feynman once said “We must not fool ourselves and we are the easiest ones to fool”. Hmm, obviously ignorance was outside of his sphere of competence.

One of the very cornerstones of ignorance is self-delusion. If you can’t tell the difference between beliefs and real knowledge, then congratulations! You’re right where you want to be.

I discovered that it didn’t mean what I thought it did…at least, not to me.

When we use a word, we bring our own definition with us. It’s called context. Because of context we can use words in all kinds of ways that don’t strictly fit its’ definition. Then, of course, there’s also sarcasm where we use a word in such a way that it means the opposite of its definition. This means a word with only one actual definition can have many different meanings. Meanings that would never appear in a dictionary or thesaurus. You can’t exactly hang your hat on it. We define these concepts in our minds based on words that we have learned along the way. The concepts are solid like blocks, and can be stacked and used to build things like entire structures of thought. We can build our world view with these blocks. Many times we even fix them into place with the mortar of our cognitive biases. A popular one these days is confirmation bias, but there are many more. The point is, when we fix an idea in our heads, we don’t generally search for reasons we might be wrong. It served us in another era by providing a mental short-cut when rapid decision-making was necessary, so we could quickly default to information that aligned with our existing beliefs. Hmm, that sounds a lot like advice teachers used to give when they would say to “go with your first impulse when taking a test” and “don’t second guess your first instinct”.

No less than the irresistible force of evolution was telling me that once I learned something, that was what it meant. End of story. That’s really comforting because it gives me certainty. It also means I don’t have to think very much. Thinking is pretty hard, another evolutionary force, conservation of energy, nudges toward thinking only when we have to and to other-wise rely on heuristics for our decision-making. This is my way of saying that it isn’t my fault. Evolution made me do it. I defined a word using social proo-Wait a minute, I forgot about social proof! I can hardly be blamed for adopting (literally) a definition and holding on to it for many decades. This word meant the same thing for me as it did for everyone else. So there. Case closed.

My perspective had been bound with tiny threads like spider silk, or maybe cobwebs, as one silky thread after another held my mind in place so that I never questioned what I thought. I had been going with the flow, just like everyone else…

We were paddling down a river when I blurted out to my friend, “the most important things in life are relationships and experiences”. I don’t usually make unconsidered statements like this, and have no idea where this one had come from. I wonder how long this idea had been growing, untended, until it could no longer be contained. It needed air, and sunlight, and acknowledgment. I had surprised myself when I said it out loud. My friend agreed with me. Then I said “so, my life should reflect that, but it doesn’t”. This surprised him because we were floating toward the house that my wife and I owned on the banks of this river. It looked like, and mostly was, a charmed existence and could be described easily with a word. A word I knew, was familiar with, and suddenly didn’t recognize. Luxury.

There is a reason the human brain looks like a squiggly maze. It’s because it is such a puzzle.

The unthinking exclamation, I had made on the river, became a ghost that haunted my mind, lurking in those cobwebs that were holding everything together. I was long on relationships, but short on experiences. Too short. I had never lived more than an hour from the hospital where I was born, even during my college years, and had traveled very little. I began to think of that word differently. Luxury.

The stage is not the story. Patrons do not pay for tickets so they can see the stage. It is the story that takes place on that stage which draws the crowds. The story gives the stage meaning. Not the other way around. I came to realize that every bit of enjoyment I derived from that home wasn’t actually from it. It was merely the setting for the real enjoyment which came from sharing wonderful experiences with family, friends, and my dog, whom I played in the river with several times a week.

Every ending is also a beginning.

Planets and stars aren’t the only possessors of a gravitational force. Our lives are held together with this invisible and mysterious energy. It is an easy thing to plunge ahead into situations and choose new directions on a whim with no thought of the difficulty of future extrication. In life, “getting into” is much easier than “getting out of”. The entrance is an inviting portal into a new place, a new experience. The exit, sometimes obscured and generally difficult to find, is a gauntlet filled with obstacles, encumbrances…and teeth. Each role that we fulfill comes with numerous responsibilities, commitments, and expectations. Gravity. It holds you in place. All of these roles are good. They are an indicator that we are needed and we serve a purpose. That we aren’t alone. Maybe even that we are loved. There is another more nefarious form of gravity that plays a role in our lives. The things we have, have us. We constantly make choices based on these things and mostly don’t realize the extent to which we are possessed by our possessions. There I was, mired in luxury.

The heart wants what the heart wants.

They have talons, these possessions, and they grasp and gouge when you purge them from your life. Like food poisoning it’s a brutal process, but you feel much better when it’s over.

By the time we piled our remaining possessions into our truck and began the trip from Atlanta to Clear Lake, Minnesota to move into our new luxury home, the word luxury was wearing new clothes and looked completely different in my mind’s eye. And it was smiling.

A decade, and a financial crisis, had passed since that unconsidered statement had dashed out the barn door, never to be corralled. We had downsized, twice. We did a cleanse as we sold and donated as if we were on a fasting diet. The weight was coming off, but it was a painful and painfully slow process. There are easy ways to do this and hard ways. I was determined to do it the hard way. That has always been my path. Lessons and memorable experiences rarely are birthed on the easy one. I sold every single item I could, one at a time, meeting with each buyer (they were invariably nice people whom I enjoyed talking to). The cost of a thing is a complex calculation if you let it be, but in this case I kept it simple. If I paid $2,000 for a chair and sold it for $300, the chair cost me $1,700. At this point, I ask myself “did I receive $1,700 of value from that chair?”. The answer was almost always “no”. Then I would view the buyer as the “winner” in the transaction. Over and over this happened. It was like getting punched in the arm, in the same spot, time after time after time. It left a mark, and I wanted it to. There were painful lessons to be learned, and I learned them. The lesson isn’t the teacher, the experience is. I wanted to be changed by this experience…and I was.

But the lessons were just beginning. We learn from what we see around us and generally struggle when thrown into new situations that are beyond our experience level. Inventing a new lifestyle, a completely new way of being in the world, is an exercise few will ever encounter, but it was our new reality.

Not all journeys can be seen on a map.

Imagine a factory that can build itself and can make one of the most potent tools for life extension known to man.

Not only that, but it’s completely automated. It doesn’t require any factory workers.

It needs no external energy source and removes carbon from the atmosphere.

Obviously this a futuristic daydream.

Except, that it isn’t.

It exists right now.

In fact, it is a very old technology. It is, paradoxically, an advanced and ancient technology. Though, oddly, most people don’t recognize it as such. Probably because it wasn’t invented by humans.

Now consider this. It uses only two raw materials. Dirt and water.

I am of course referring to the humble blueberry bush.

Now, if you were to take any of the world’s most revered and lauded chefs and gave them only dirt and water and told them to make a masterpiece, and it has to be incredibly nutritious, and it would really be great if it were also tasty, your result would be an exquisite mud pie. Probably the most beautiful mud pie known to man. Still, though. It wouldn’t exactly be a blueberry.

Consider that anyone can be taught to prepare a delicious and aesthetic meal, complete with colorful flourishes that compliment the meal in both color and gustatory compatibility, but if it’s impact is ultimately deleterious upon the human organism can it really even be considered food, or would it simply be a bill that has yet to come due?

For all of the celebrated chefs there have been, no human being in the history of the species has ever created a blueberry. Perhaps this simple fact should receive more attention than it does. By comparison, the most celebrated chefs, which receive enthusiastic praise from patrons and critics alike, practice their art within the realm of human understanding. It’s like magic. Not real magic, but performance magic. Once you know how the trick is done, it isn’t magic anymore. If you want real magic, eat a blueberry. Even as you savor it’s tangy sweetness, it makes every part of you better for the experience. Just because they are commonplace, it doesn’t mean they are common.

This is an unusual view of food, but it’s time has come. It is like comparing the statue of “David” to a tree. Sure, Michelangelo was great…for a human, but he couldn’t make a tree. Not even a little one.

Have you considered that even Apple can’t make an apple?

So, while the world celebrates the achievements of top chefs the world over, as the great artists that they are, What they are doing is finding creative ways to prepare food.

Perhaps the perspective deserves to be re-examined, There is a process that was in place before we existed that provides all of our food, and in the case of plants, our air as well. We don’t understand it fully. If we did, we could replicate it, which we can’t.

For me, the simple act of gratitude that I experience as I enjoy this modest overachiever (it is after all one of the most nutritious foods you can eat), as well as most other varieties of fruit, is my epicurean pinnacle. So, while some will continue to scale new heights of hyperbole for the creations of the latest newly discovered chef, you can wake me from my gastronomic reverie when someone actually creates a blueberry. From scratch. The next time you go to some fancy restaurant with a lot of splashy buzz about the chef, keep this thought in mind. “He’s really good, but can he make a blueberry?”

Everywhere you look, there are mysteries that humankind has yet to solve. Most people don’t even see them for what they really are.