In 1960, A.J. Liebling tossed off one of his most memorable lines. In his May 14 column, in the New Yorker, Liebling wrote: “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.” Even back then, in the face of corporate takeovers of newspapers and layoffs of hundreds of journalists, he worried that the power of the press was being concentrated in too few hands. Today it is estimated that about seven hundred billionaires control the information flow to three-hundred and thirty-million people in the United States.

As I was capping off 2021, with a brief bout of Omicron, I had time to think about the phrasing our press uses with respect to that variant, and what they habitually call “break through infections.” Thanks to my three doses of an mRNA vaccine, my natural immunity was augmented and informed on precisely how to recognize and combat the COVID-19 virus.

Because the press is so imprecise about what it means when one gets infected despite being vaccinated, people think that the vaccines don’t work and that is probably a reasonable inference. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Unless an infection is present, there is really nothing for the immune system to do. It can only mitigate damages from such an infection once the infection is detected. Vaccinated or not, if you inhale the infection, you are infected. Sooo, use of the term “breakthrough” is actively promoting the erroneous idea that a vaccine is a barrier. That’s simply not how it works. An mRNA vaccine informs the immune system by means of it’s messaging.

Intellectually undisciplined and integrity challenged bloviators have also exploited the misconception many people have about bacterial infections, as opposed to viral infections. Accordingly, they confuse the role of antibiotics and vaccines. They lead the incurious to equate the two and engage in hearsay based upon the bloviator’s erroneous or intentionally misleading conclusions. 

Now you may ask yourself what might motivate an excessively prominent influencer to mislead their followers. And it is, perhaps, not comforting when one realizes that he or she is being played for a fool. Consider how those, the most entitled at the commanding heights of the world’s power dynamics, think of what they view as the “great unwashed.” Is it beyond the realm of possibility that they actually want someone, that’s foolish enough to take Ivermectin for COVID, to self-sterilize?

Now you may be inclined to dismiss this as one of many wild conspiracy theories that are currently in vogue. Still, at this juncture, I am inclined to believe that at least some of the following quotes, by well known individuals, will surprise you.

Theodore Roosevelt said “society has no business to permit degenerates to reproduce their kind.” And, Herbert Hoover said “There shall be no child in America that had not the complete birthright of a sound mind in a sound body.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, the justice who wrote the Supreme Court’s 1927 Buck v. Bell decision, also wrote “It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. … Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” 

Adolf Hitler took note of these American sentiments when he said “There is today one state in which at least weak beginnings toward a better conception are noticeable. Of course, it is not our model German Republic, but the American Union.” Winston Churchill had advocated for sterilization and compulsory labor camps for mental defectives in 1911. In that vein he said “The unnatural and increasingly rapid growth of the Feeble-Minded and Insane classes … constitutes a national and race danger which it is impossible to exaggerate.” 

Other influencers such as George Bernard Shaw supported this line of reasoning when he said “We should find ourselves committed to killing a great many people whom we now leave living, and to leave living a great many people whom we at present kill. . . . A great many people would have to be put out of existence simply because it wastes other people’s time to look after them.” Even the words of Helen Keller will surprise many for she said “Our puny sentimentalism has caused us to forget that a human life is sacred only when it may be of some use to itself and to the world.” 

Margaret Sanger aligned her fight for contraception with that of the eugenics movement. She stated that “birth control is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit [and] of preventing the birth of defectives.” W. E. B. Du Bois, the African-American activist and writer, promoted marriage and reproduction of the most desirable group while breeding out the least.

The most boisterous of the know-it-alls, through their abysmal ignorance, are self-selecting to breed out the least fit voluntarily. By taking their Ivermectin and trans-femme cocktails, they are sterilizing themselves. And that is precisely what the Tucker Carlson types want them to do.

As a teenager, my relationship with my father was always contentious. My questions about things that seemed important were often dismissed in ways that left me without soul satisfying answers. Although he was one of the most generous people I’ve ever known, I had developed no real appreciation for that until I was born-again into a larger, truly universal family.

My rebirth occurred right around Christmas of 1972. It was a long labor. Before that, my highest conception of any Supreme Deity, if one existed at all, was that it was the sum total of our collective human experience. As I began to consider the possibility of a Supreme Being, one that might even have personality, my focus shifted from the ancient Hindu concept of the It Is to the things Jesus revealed about the I AM.

In those days my personal bible was the record library of the FM radio station where I hosted an all night show for a year or so. It was a twenty-three hundred watt flower pot, inside the Washington Beltway, that featured album rock. Because of the free form way, in which the station operated, I could simply spin what interested me. It was a time of spiritual growth as my interests and my selections were gradually moving away from themes of darkness and death to those of light and life.

Jim Morrison’s shouts of “Cancel my subscription to the resurrection” no longer appealed to me. While I continued to love the music of the Doors, I was developing a real affinity for the Moody Blues. The song Have You Heard reached me. I was especially touched by the lyrics: Life’s ours for the making, Eternity’s waiting, Waiting for you and me.

My first flight instructor was George. He was into Scientology in a big way and, although I had read some of the Hubbard stuff, I found a statement contained within one of his books rather off-putting. He wrote: “Don’t mix this with modern psycho-analytic theory.” I remember thinking “How self-serving.”

George however, was an impressive individual. One television commercial that aired in Washington featured George flying a little red biplane wearing a leather aviator’s cap and a white silk scarf that was trailing him. He spun the plane into a dive and, in the voiceover, George said “My life was in a spin; but then I found the modern science of Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard.” At that point George had put the plane back into straight and level flight. It was a great commercial. Although I had already read Dianetics and found some of it useful, the commercial didn’t persuade me to buy into Hubbard’s package deal. But it really was a great commercial!

Years before, during my first flying lesson, and with his elbow propped up on the wing of a Cessna 152, George had said: “Don’t try to memorize what I say to you. Just make sure you understand it. At that point memory will be automatic.” I thought “What a great teaching technique,” and I immediately recognized the culture from which George drew his inspiration.

At some point, during one of the many flights that followed, George said something else that stuck with me. He said “after you get your pilot’s license, be sure to get a seaplane rating.” When I asked why, George said “Because it’s the easiest to get and it’s definitely the most fun.” In the days, months, and years that followed that conversation, I was drawn to every picture in every magazine that featured a seaplane. Some would have a person sitting on the wing while fishing. Others would have kids swimming around the plane. I thought: “I get it now: Island hopping for one vacation and lake hopping for the next.”

Then, I had the dream. It was an impressive dream. It was kind of like a short clip that seemed to be spliced onto the end of every dream I had for a period of years. I had landed a seaplane on some lake that was too small to support a takeoff run. And it always ended with me going around in circles hoping for that rare gust of wind that would finally get me airborne. Now if that ain’t a metaphor for something, I don’t know what is.

Here’s what I do know. There are times when we look at a problem as if we’re wearing blinders. We may think the only thing that’s going to get us out of a bad situation is a gust of wind or a winning lottery ticket. Waiting and hoping for luck to come our way may give rise to a teachable moment. Then, we must be responsive to Divine leading.

The Phil Keaggy song Disappointment described God’s appointment this way: “Well, He knows each broken purpose leads to fuller deeper trust. And the end of all His dealings proves our God is wise and just.” It is that wisdom, that flows from the heart of our loving Heavenly Father, that is our best evidence of the Supreme Being.

With each rising tide there is a process of increase known as accretion and, as the tide recedes, there occurs a necessary cleansing and reduction along with some sorting and sifting. Our life experience is built up and refined through a similar ebb and flow and, without this process, wisdom could not evolve. 

Acquiring and proving factual matter is essential to the conservation of knowledge. At times facts reveal patterns reminding us of essential truths that may lead us God-ward. But how does this happen? At what stage and under what circumstances do we attribute meanings and assign value to a collection of facts. And by what process do we aggregate and assimilate individual facts? 

We often take note of effects without necessarily understanding the causes much like the way atheists can develop an affinity for the things of God while failing to develop an appreciation for the Source and Center of all. Even so, the one and only uncaused cause leaves his signature on everything. It may be barely discernible in our shadowy light, but it is there none the less. 

The Deity centric cosmos reveals the fact of the fatherhood of our eternal God and a correlated truth, the brotherhood and sisterhood of human kind. It is the vibrantly alive, rock solid principle of reality upon which Jesus based his gospel concerning the gift of salvation through faith and the inevitable consequence of rebirth, to awaken as part of the Divine family. What is the universe of universes if not nurturing infrastructure? There is precise science, a coherent reason, a predictable path to and a gravity influence emanating from the center of all things. Nothing escapes his grasp. 

The self-preservative endowments of primitive animal life, including the instinctive power of quick perception and reflexive action, suggest a form of intuition that is beyond the scope of inheritable learned behaviors, far superior to those capabilities inherent to small brains and the envy of those engaged in leveraging robotics technology. How many years of technological evolution had passed before our display technologies began to approach, in capabilities, that compact dazzling light show taken for granted by the cuttlefish? 

The automatic association and referencing of ideas combined with the coordination of acquired knowledge suggest a capacity for understanding. Reason, seasoned judgment and decision making all depend upon understanding; a comprehension of meanings for which there is no ready neurological explanation. The conscientious self-direction that accompanies character development and moral stamina manifests spiritually as courage; a quality for which there is no adequate physiological explanation. 

The scientific quest, the curiosity that leads to adventure and discovery yields knowledge that guides us along useful and progressive paths of physical, intellectual and spiritual growth. The collaborative urge, the desire to socialize and the ability to harmonize all point to a Spirit of Counsel prompting the exchange of ideas and opinions as we learn to cooperate for mutual benefit. Such an endowment transcends natural law and provides further evidence of mind ministry. 

The religious impulse serves to differentiate the soul deprived creature from those with the capacity to appreciate origins. The worshipful expressions of the appreciative individual create deep channels through which wisdom may flow. This wisdom yields an even greater appreciation. And so we come full circle to the rolling tides. A process that favors the granularity, particularity and the specificity from which meaningful constructs and useful value propositions are built. 

Once we have learned to test all things and adhere to that which is true, beautiful and good, we can become reality centered within the greatest possible reality. As for all the things we take at face value, we should remember that the truth never suffers from close examination. So there is no disloyalty implicit to revisiting all prior assumptions. It doesn’t serve God’s purpose to artificially prop up sophistries based upon faulty analysis. Our mandate is to promote Truth; to prayerfully consider the things that are set before us and to allow ourselves to be led into all Truth by the Spirit of Truth. 

The question of whether to facilitate or teach is much easier when we consider the context: when we realize that perfection is not prerequisite to making meaningful contributions that help advance individuals and groups. The contextual relationships are only revealed through a balanced understanding of the things, meanings and values that encompass the essential curriculum. 

You can be instrumental in creating that rising tide that lifts all boats. You can help with the cleansing, the sorting, the sifting. You can lift others to stand on the shoulders of greatness. And your analysis can be the one that is tested through experience and tempered by wisdom. If Jesus is your teacher, the world becomes nurturing infrastructure. Where God is your thesis advisor, the universe becomes a grand conspiracy to insure your success. When the faith- fellows of the kingdom of heaven befriend you, an exciting career begins to unfold before you. And, whether you decide to embrace this, your first, best destiny, is left entirely up to you. 

And then it dawned on them, the Epiphany would be sullied by the one year anniversary of the racist riot that occurred in Washington on January the 6^th in 2021. Like the poo flinging monkeys that breached the nation’s capital on that day, defecating on the floor and smearing feces on the walls in Statuary Hall, members of the Sedition Caucus would continue to soil themselves in a high profile way. Theirs is not a profile in courage, far from it. History will correctly characterize them as vacillating jellyfish. Today, they are simply seen as Benedict Donald’s bootlickers.

They have desecrated the memory of all who courageously sacrificed, some dying face down in the mud, to preserve our constitutionally grounded democratic republic. Many of the country’s major corporations that took a stand, pledging to withhold campaign donations in the aftermath of the failed coup, have since demonstrated their own contempt for government of, by, and for the people. Their early declarations about not supporting seditionist politicians proved insincere. As the New York Times would opine: “The donations also reflect the fact that, over time, lawmakers are a more influential constituency for companies than consumers.”

What the old corporate guard has failed to comprehend is that workers and consumers have become more intentional as they decide who they’re willing to work for, and as they vote with scarce dollars. Unlike the featherbedded corporate CEOs, that enjoyed pay raises of over 940% over a period of 40 years, compensation for the average worker had increased by only 12%, not even keeping pace with inflation. Even so, due to the generosity of taxpayers, members of the United States House of Representatives and the Senate were also benefitting from generous vacation schedules and automatic pay raises. And yet, the minimum wage in the United States had increased by only two dollars and ten cents, from $5.15 in 1997 to $7.25 at the close of 2021.

As the nation struggled to recover from the COVID pandemic, price gouging was used to create inflationary political pressures. At the same time, the Hosea 4:12 contingent became even more boisterous. Though considered a minor prophet, Hosea had described this type of excessively prominent evangels of mammon perfectly, In about 750 BC, he wrote: “. . . for the spirit of whoredoms has caused them to err, and they have gone a-whoring from under their God.”

Ever since Plato wrote his philosophical dialogue, dealing with the composition and structure of the ideal state, a republic has been defined as a body of persons that comprise a commonwealth. It was not a nation in which the government is ruled by a hereditary head of state or monarch. It’s a state in which the supreme power is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by the body of citizens entitled to vote.

And there’s the rub. “The body of citizens entitled to vote” was an acceptable concept as long as the body was white. And, to guarantee it remained that way, the three-fifths compromise was used to insure a black man or woman would never amount to more that three-fifths of a person. When the Civil Rights Act of 1960 authorized court-appointed referees to help African Americans register and vote, those Democrats that were sympathetic to Neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, and other white supremacist groups were enraged, and they changed parties.

The Republican Party of today is decidedly unrepresentative of all but the tiniest – whiniest of minorities. They purge voter rolls, gerrymander, intimidate voters, suppress votes, and subvert elections to sustain the last gasp of the three-fifths compromise. The only way they can win elections with their abhorrent set of values is to lie, cheat, and steal while, in the Goebbelian tradition, accusing others of that which they are guilty. There are many who would argue that the Insurrection of January 6^th in 2021 was just the beginning. But, the fact is, racist riots are nothing new. The “Final Solution” in Nazi Germany was nothing new. The Tulsa Race Massacre was nothing new. The Trail of Tears in North America was nothing new just as the Armenian Genocide was nothing new.

For a significant number of citizens in the United States, democracy is ok, as long as it’s the white-bread variety. A representative republic is ok, as long as it too is representing the interests of whites only. Bigots are terrified by the notion of a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-racial democracy. They are running from it, without looking to where they are running. And they are working, feverishly, to convert the United States Senate, and the House of Representatives, into Vladimir Putin’s brothels, where all the members are goin’ a-whoring.

When those religiously agnostic look at the unmitigated selfishness of Ted Cruz, they think to themselves; “If that’s the face of Christianity, I want no part of it!” In addition to diminishing the value of a Harvard education, Cruz has consistently been an embarrassment to the Christian faith. Although, trading one’s witness for a masquerade seems to be very much in vogue for so-called Christian politicians.

Imperfect as they were, the authors of the United States Constitution got it exactly right with phrasing that defined our democracy. “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, , ,” epitomizes the spirit of constitutional law. Without an understanding of precisely what is meant by these words, and the cardinal precepts that follow, one cannot competently approach the letter of the law. Two thousand years before, Jesus accused the courts of his day saying they were “straining at gnats while swallowing camels.” He was referring to each whited sepulcher’s habit of setting aside the best interests of the people, in order to instead serve a club of self-righteous exclusivity comprised of a self-interested few.

Wholehearted and intelligent conformity to the kind of benevolence, that Jesus revealed as the Divine will, is the only way to build the kind of nation that is truly of, by, and for the people. The true consent of the governed is only achieved by insuring such consent is fully informed. The authenticity of any representative government will always be determined by the character and caliber of those who compose it. It depends upon the installation of true to their oath representatives, that are not inclined to hide anything; together with active engagement by an intelligent electorate. It is conditioned upon the practice of electing to public offices only those individuals who are intellectually and technically competent. They must be morally fit and possess a character that is loyal to society as a whole. This is the only way that government of the people, by the people, and for the people can be achieved and preserved.

Our strife-torn planet is replete with forms of liberty that are unintelligent, unconditioned, and uncontrolled. Any exercise of freedom that works to the detriment of others is not serving the long term best interests of any civilization. In fact, it is far more likely to result in abject bondage for someone. Reality based freedom and liberty is always mindful of the fact that every person on earth has a right to be the true arbiter of his or her own destiny.

We must recognize that imbalances within the global economy deprive some people of the right to be free. We also need to acknowledge that excessively burdensome access to food, housing, and healthcare are significant problems imposed as a result of systemic inequities. Such an imposition is typically brought about through the unmitigated selfishness of those at the commanding heights of the world’s economy. The idea of a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-racial democracy terrifies them. They pay mere lip service to the values of those who are fervent advocates for the right of each person on earth to determine their future and that of their posterity. At the same time, they surreptitiously plot to undermine all that is true, beautiful, and good.

The potentate model of corporate and national governance is an awkward and outmoded relic of the past. It may hang on in a pathetic attempt to remain relevant. But, as Thomas Jefferson wrote; “We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as a civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.” The new world has outgrown its relics. Leadership that can evolve to keep pace and operate in a way that is truly commensurate with the intellectual, sociological, and spiritual development of a great humanity is slowly but steadily emerging.

There are, of course, times when a leader must rise to the occasion and become the supreme authority. When the Fire Chief tells you to put a fourteen foot ladder against the North wall to help the hose brigade fight a raging fire that’s about to jump to the next building, it’s not an appropriate time to question his or her authority and engage in prolonged debate. A fire department that’s actively on scene is not a democracy. When the fire is out, and the game tape is being evaluated, the best departments become more collaborative, drawing upon the experience from each of their members.

Authentic corporations and democracies are like the collaborative team. They are composed of people associating for a common purpose and acting corporately to insure success. A loyal opposition is highly valued, like an opposable thumb, for both make it easier to grasp each and every problem that comes before us. Such opposition is described as loyal because, even though there may be disagreement on the best way to overcome obstacles to ultimate success, the objectives are shared. Our depth of understanding is enhanced precisely because we are blessed with two eyes. Think about how much more meaningful the world will become when we have finally learned to also see it through the experience of others.

We must also learn to properly evaluate the opposition we encounter on the basis of its loyalty to, and affinity for, the values of those working to achieve a more perfect union that serves the highest and best interests of We the People.

When all about you is in turmoil, when adversities somehow seem insurmountable and when there is no way to avoid meeting them head on, the centering prayer is the key to staying on an even keel. Jesus was more than a carpenter. He was a boatbuilder. Each vessel he built had to withstand not only the onslaughts of time, but rogue waves that might come from any direction. On our isolated, rebellion torn world the assaults on human dignity can also be severe and unpredictable.

Selfishness, cruelty, hate, malice, and jealousy can be like tsunamis that slam the mortal soul. And then there are the smaller waves that continuously beat about all that is near to us and dear to us. Even so, each and every human being that has dedicated the keeping of his soul to the indwelling spirit of Our Heavenly Father is rewarded with a Divine form of ballast that serves to stabilize us as we venture out onto the high seas where unexplored truth has the potential to reveal the keys to our eternal destiny. 

As we set about to search, seemingly distant shores for meaningful spiritual realities, we discover our temporal securities are vulnerable and we steadily develop a preference for spiritual sureties that are unassailable. As we encounter and enter the citadel of the spirit, it can serve as the inner bastion that shields us from any attempted incursion into our soul. It can also be the inexhaustible source of our moxie, our pluck, our spunk, and our mettle.

The soul satisfying landscape that surrounds Our Father’s central abode can also be our eternal dwelling place. Our perseverance can either be deeply rooted in this living spiritual gift from God or, our entire root structure can be shallow and weak. Much depends upon how we perceive Creation. And, even in this context, we are more than creatures to a Benevolent Creator. We are members of a spiritual siblinghood. We are the children of a Divine Parent with all that implies.

As we come to realize that God indwells and envelopes us, we gradually grow past the earthly sciences, philosophies, and religions of any particular age. We begin to see facts as transient, meanings as time conditioned and, as if by contrast, values as potentially eternal. When those values are derived from our loyalties, as conditioned by our seasoned perception of Divine Qualities, we receive assurances that we are on the right course to the center of all that is real.

We must be sympathetic to the doubters because those who fail to recognize the existence of God are often appreciative of his handiwork without recognizing the author. They may be justifying rejection and claiming to be “reality centered” when, in fact, the embrace of the Divine is the most real experience that may be encountered in all of human experience. And then, of course, there are all the problems associated with the quality of our witness. Are we really walking the walk as we talk the talk?

God is not coercive. We need to give him permission to order our thoughts as well as our steps. To actually be reality centered, we must be intellectually balanced. Our science, philosophy, and religion must be truly complementary rather than competing. As long as our facts, meanings, and values are coherent, this is arrived at naturally and augmented spiritually.

The term Theos is defined as God. Those steeped in theosophical traditions have long held that it refers to our ultimate environment; our total reality. The English word enthusiasm is derived from the Greek term en-theos. It has been defined to mean both “in God” as well as “God within.” In the first case, Theosophy appears to support the statement of Paul the Apostle, for he said: “In Him we live and move, and have our being.” In the second case, Jesus advances the concept of God within as he proclaimed “The Kingdom of God is within you.”

The Jesusonian Gospel as it reveals God within is entirely compatible with ancient as well as modern wisdom traditions that support the concept of God as all pervasive. And, while our conceptual frameworks will undoubtedly continue to evolve, we realize it is precisely because our relationship with the omnipresent and benevolent Deity steadily grows. The wonder lure is not only hard to resist, once we realize that the high mission of art is to serve as prelude to a far more appealing reality, we cease to resist as we let these higher, more refined arts, have their way with us.

Our early fascination with and affinity for the scattershot rage machine will fade. The discordant screech will lose its appeal. And, as the singer foretold, “The things of earth will grow strangely dim, by the light of God’s glory and grace.” The possibilities are endless. And, even though our highest and best destiny is known. Although we are each ideally suited for a custom made future, it will not be imposed upon us. We must deliberately and enthusiastically reach for it.

In 1971, Lewis Powell presented a memo to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, In it, he repeatedly refers to an “attack on the enterprise system.” He rages against what he characterizes as “self-interest groups of all kinds” while failing to acknowledge that an American Corporation, especially one controlled by foreign potentates, is also a self-interested group. Powell scrupulously avoids addressing the primary criticism of what he tries to sell as “the” enterprise system. Our country’s evolving benevolence is not an attack on the “American System,” but rather a much needed critique of its integrity deficits.

The Powell Memo is a blueprint for the domination of American Democracy by inauthentic, out of balance, corporations. It is indissolubly linked to the Shareholder Rights Movement. Many who actively engage in free enterprise manage to do so while privatizing profits, but also without socializing expenses and losses. They conduct their businesses in a forthright manner without low-balling the workers and thereby forcing them to seek compensatory public assistance. In other words, people of integrity do not operate their businesses in parasitic fashion.

In December of 2021, The Atlantic contributor Peter Whener published an article that pretty much defined the Trumpi-Inanity cult as composed of people who have the devil on both shoulders. Once the emotionally-charged / intellectually stunted hoards at the December 19 Turning Point USA gathering finished with their chants of “Let’s Go Brandon,” Donald Trump Junior revealed what we have always known about the so-called Evangelicals and their thin veneer of religiosity.

Junior told the crowd that the scriptures are essentially a manual for suckers. The teachings of Jesus have “gotten us nothing.” It’s worse than that, really; the ethic of Jesus has gotten in the way of successfully prosecuting the culture wars against the left. If the ethic of Jesus encourages sensibilities that might cause people in politics to act a little less brutally, a bit more civilly, with a touch more grace? Then it needs to go.

The mammon serving evangelicals cheered. They have always subscribed to the Horse and Sparrow doctrine that teaches “If you give the horse all it wants, the sparrows can subsist on the undigested oats that are contained in the dung piles along the road.” This perverted twist on what Jesus was quoted as saying in Matthew 6 was clearly problematic for those feigning allegiance to Jesusonian principle. In the 26^th verse Jesus said: “Consider the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

In contrast to those of Jesus, the abhorrent values of the entitled class were on full display with the Horse and Sparrow example. It then morphed into “trickle down economics” which the masses correctly decoded to mean “trickled on.” Stiffing the public treasury shifted the burden to everyone else. It reduced the size of the middle class in The United States. While running against Ronald Reagan for the presidential nomination in 1980, George H. W. Bush had derided Reaganomics as “voodoo economics.” It gave the military industrial complex a sugar high while reducing taxation. Trump senior’s reprise of the ill advised consisted of further reducing taxation on the inheritors, skimmers, and hoarders of wealth as he squandered money and vandalized vital institutions.

The Putinesque Prevaricator occupied the nation’s highest office just as it was revealed that CEO pay had increased by 940% over a period of 40 years. During the same period, compensation for the average worker had increased by only 12%. During a period when members of the United States House of Representatives and the Senate were benefitting from generous automatic pay raises, the minimum wage had increased by only two dollars and ten cents, from $5.15 in 1997 to $7.25 at the close of 2021. The price gouging that was the proximate cause for inflation, during the nation’s economic recovery, has now completely offset the cost of living allowance relief Social Security recipients were hoping to enjoy in 2022.

While the Trump followers were mainlining deception, their cult leader was siphoning off most forms of equity out from under them. The scattershot rage machine is bearing down full bore as we are witnessing a new iteration of the Goebbelian tactic, “Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty.” It consists of co-opting the top concerns expressed by the service-motivated; then twisting and using them as talking points to corruptly benefit the profit-motivated. 

Jerome Powell’s distorted conception of American Enterprise is directly attributable to the shell-like characteristics of inauthentic corporations; ones where the employees, if any, are typically devalued as low level functionaries. The sociopathy manifest by the stockholders makes no provision for the original meaning of corporate culture. For authentic corporations are formed by people, associating for a common purpose, and acting corporately.

The Employee Owned Benefit Corporation is truly of, by, and for the people. It is the best example of shared prosperity, one in which employees and that company’s retirees hold a supermajority interest of at least two-thirds, thus limiting the holdings and influence of outside investors to a maximum of one third. An EOBC also has a clearly articulated public purpose.

The spiritual endowments that both indwell and envelop us are not at odds with one another. They are steadfastly working on our behalf in a complementary fashion, in unison, in concert. Just as the various systems within a healthy human body are designed and orchestrated from on high, ministering spirits are unified and coordinated in accordance with an overarching principle. The Law within our Universe of Universes is Life. The cardinal precepts, throughout the entire cosmos, are life affirming.

We are the beneficiaries of a nurturing environment that operates in accordance with certain design imperatives. Among these are somehow making provision for arenas of choice. Our comprehension of Infinity and Eternity gives rise to a challenging concept described as Divinity Tension. From our perspective, between life temporal and life eternal, there is what some have described as a Great Divide. And yet, Our Eternal God intentionally bridged that divide when he so loved the world that he gave his Son, so that we would not perish but have everlasting life.

Sooo, even to the time-bound and space-fettered mind of human kind, it would appear that God level access means that he is able to bridge any divide at will. Could it be that part of the tension we perceive is due to the choice that God can make between being everywhere at once and somewhere specific at the most appropriate time? In other words, does God, by his own volition, ever limit himself? And is Infinity somehow confining? Curious minds want to know. Just how does one, who occupies all of Infinity, create the Divine equivalent of elbow room?

And what about the competing views that God is either existential or experiential? Of course, if he is God, he can choose to exist and also experience. After all, who are we to deny him that choice? And that gives rise to yet another controversy. Our ancestors were reluctant to even name God because it was thought to be disrespectful. After all, isn’t naming just another form of coercive labeling? Are we reducing God to fit in a compartmentalized box for our own convenience, to fit our naming conventions?

Here’s what we do know. God is bigger than even our most fanciful descriptions. His creation is more symphonic than anyone ever imagined. And, his mercies are far greater than what we have any right to expect. The nurturing infrastructure we inhabit was designed and is maintained for child rearing. It features an array of problems that we are free to perceive as either distressingly insurmountable or as stimulating challenges.

Some may rise to greet the morning sun while others may not. Charles Darwin said “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one.” The uncertainties of life do not contradict the sovereignty of God. If we are never confronted with insecurities and recurring uncertainties, just how are we to manifest hope?

Unless we are, at times, reacting to disappointment and grappling with hardship, just how are we to develop strength of character? How are we, as coordinate creators, to evolve societal benevolence without encountering and addressing social inequality? How can we ever mature in an abiding faith unless we, at times, know less than we can believe? How can we appreciate and favor truth unless contrastive error and falsehood are possible?

How can spiritual idealism ever emerge victorious without the relative goodness and beauty that prompts us to reach for better things? How will we ever know loyalty without considering the possibilities of betrayal and desertion? And, how can we overcome the self’s incessant clamoring for recognition and honor, without deliberately choosing the divine life and intentionally embarking on a career characterized by self-forgetfulness?

In each of these situations we are called upon to grow in that grace which is defined as unmerited favor. Many of the experiences we gain are simply a matter of rehearsing for the vicissitudes of life. Others are a true test of stamina as we develop the quality of endurance. In every case, the celestial process is one of continuously perfecting us. We learn from our failures as well as our successes.

We are told that all things work together for good, for those who love God, and are called in accordance with his purpose. While we are learning to think as adults, we should also be learning to pray as children. Jesus told the apostles to allow the little children to come to him; He said “forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

In the natural world, life can be brutally competitive. In the life of the Spirit, life is complementary for there are shared objectives, a sincere devotion to acting in accordance with the Divine will, and a supreme satisfaction with any accomplishment that brings honor to our Creator Father and Son. Life is but a day’s work – we are called to do it well. The act is ours; the consequences God’s.

Once upon a time there were just a few destinations, hotels, and restaurants readily identified as iconic. These descriptions usually flowed from their unique atmospherics, their commitments to superior service, and consistently delivering culinary delights that earned them a truly enviable reputation. In essence as well as substance, iconic enterprises are characterized by fidelity. Faithful patrons have learned the quest for authenticity is only rewarded along a critical pathway that leads to full satisfaction. As if by contrast, the experience gained by not paying attention to the road ahead or where we’re going, typically yields a fleeting gratification at best, , , if at all.

The entrepreneurs of yesteryear usually identified a need within the community and then worked diligently; rising to meet that need. Today, the business plan often starts with a cool looking icon drawn on a cocktail napkin. In true style over substance fashion, identifying and delivering on promises made to the ultimate consumer can be an afterthought. The brainstorming sessions focus on the aspirational while the essential functions are relegated to an oft neglected category as backfill. Such an approach to entrepreneurship often gives short shrift to even the most foundational considerations.

Consider the promise of personalized medicine and, specifically, the recent Theranos experience. The marketplace is crowded and delivering on the promise of personalized medicine can be lucrative. Even disciplined business professionals usually have to compete with the ruffles and flourishes of forward looking statements contained in their rival’s fundraising prospectus. The idealistic goals put forth are probably yet to be realized. However, the legal consequences for damages, when others rely on such statements, are mitigated through disclaimers.

We have become acclimated to the current reality dynamics. Rightly or wrongly, we’ve come to accept a simple fact: When competitive pressures are on the rise, the line between potentials and actuals can become blurred. As more and more attention is devoted to the next raisin’, less and less mind-share is made available to focus on the fundamentals.

Theranos was not a lemonade stand. It was a highly complex startup with many moving parts. The idea that the skill-set required to be a tech industry entrepreneur, are somehow comparable to that of a custodial CEO riding a mature legacy business, puts the value proposition and the global competitiveness for our country on a plane of unreality. The future focused visionary is an essential component, as is the custodian. And, complementary relationships, with compatible talent, do not just occur independent of time. They are carefully and methodically forged.

In the mid 1980s, I served as one crazy-assed visionary for a Fortune 500 company that manufactured computer, television, broadband network, and cable television products. My job was to do product development in a way that leveraged such a unique product complement during a time when computer based imaging was considered to be too specialized an application to have any real market potential. While there were others in the company that shared my team’s enthusiasm for such an intrepreneurial effort, I was not an engineer. The company assigned an electronics engineer, who just happened to be a vice president, to my case. His job was to remind me of the laws of physics while also insuring that I was properly provisioned.

As a product development guy, foremost in my mind was what the customer wanted. It was way too easy to step in sumthin’ when your main customer was the Federal Government. So I was grateful that I was teamed up with a VP that was also a double E. In federal contracting that line, between actuals and potentials, was extremely important if you wanted to avoid jail time. And so, maintaining a timeline that accurately reflected the likelihood of product availability was key to survival. To this end I also made sure the government agencies I worked with had, in their possession, prototypes of my products so they could see the true functionality at any given time within the product lifecycle.

There are always things you can do to protect your enterprise from any claims of misrepresentation. The discipline required to actually do them, in the face of unrelenting commercial and political pressures, requires focus and persistence. For most entrepreneurial efforts the leading edge in the marketplace is seen as the bleeding edge because you are typically hemorrhaging money at the outset. Tesla was an exception. By selling the first Roadsters to the wealthiest individuals among us for $109,000, the company was able to recoup most of the development cost for its early prototypes. By early 2021, you could buy a standard range Model 3 for under $42,000.

Clearly Theranos could have and should have done things differently. Somewhere between the vision and the implementation, investors were misled. And while there is always a cost associated with full disclosure, that company might have survived after working out the kinks in their production chain in a more forthright manner. Unfortunately, we’ll never know. But one thing is certain. Personalized medicine will become real just as surely as I’m able to watch a movie on my computer-based handheld imaging device.

The most appreciative stargazers and prophets have made their observations, have been appropriately awed, and have said: “You, God, are alone; there is none beside you. You have created the heaven and the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts; you preserve and control them. By the Sons of God were the universes made. The Creator covers himself with light as with a garment and stretches out the heavens as a curtain.”

The enlightened minds of a great humanity have all recognized and worshiped the Universal Father. For he is the eternal maker and the infinite upholder of all creation. God has given us a supreme mandate, “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.” To fulfill this mandate, we must have some idea of what constitutes perfection. Understanding the attributes of God is essential if we are to intentionally engage with him; as he conditions, nurtures, and perfects us. As God-knowing persons, we have one supreme ambition. We are to become, within our limited spheres of influence, just as perfect as God is within and throughout his infinite universe of universes.

The tender affection, and parental devotion of God is unmatched in the infinite sense. Although he has given us all we need to express these same qualities with those he has brought into our presence. While God alone is omnipresent, we can also be there for those in our midst, those with whom we fellowship, and those for whom we have been given some amount of responsibility.

In addition to the Divine attribute of omnipresence, the Father is also omniscient and omnipotent. While we are far from all knowing and all powerful, we do have a certain amount of knowledge and power that Our Father can put to benevolent use, subject to our intelligent cooperation. And, he has made provision for us to acquire more, once he has made the determination we are likely to wield it responsibly.

We serve and reside on a strife-torn, confused, and disordered planet. Because of this, it is easy to be misled. But, we also know that among the Divine attributes are the qualities of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. When our actions are in alignment with our highest conception of these guiding starlike qualities, as informed by the exemplary life and teachings of Jesus, it is unlikely that we will run afoul of the Father’s will.

Jesus said: “This is my command, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Our mission statements should flow directly from this admonition, as articulated by Our Mission Commander. Just about every monotheistic religion that existed, when Jesus walked the planet, had some version of the Golden Rule. With his exemplary life and the command he gave when he said “love one another as I have loved you,” Jesus became, in essence, the Gold Standard for that Golden rule.

Some churches have no apparent aversion to the kind of moral relativism and revisionist history that seemingly supports, in the minds of some, a departure from the Jesusonian Command. Such self-identified Christians should be asked to explain just why Jesus is not taken at his word. When Jesus said ”He who has seen me has seen The Father,” he was leading by clear example. The Way, the Truth, and the Life is simply not compatible with any reckless indifference to this essential Truth.

The superficial prettiness of the well coiffed is not comparable to that beauty emanating from the God within. The beautiful souls that advance a fidelity to supreme values are unrivaled in the material world. That may be lost on some. But the gift of discernment makes the truly faithful unerringly responsive to authentic beauty in all its forms.

When a wise friend said that God wants to be our partner,” I realized the process of perfecting depends upon our wholehearted cooperation, working with our friend and senior partner to become useful in the grand scheme of things. We cannot achieve our highest and best destiny without God. And, he cannot create perfection within us, without our consent.

We may have read in the US Declaration of Independence that “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Is this, to some extent, true for the Trinity Government of All Creation? On our tiny planet, as we circle a sun on the back road to Infinity, the ‘consent of the governed,’ has been held in high regard even as Scotus gave his lectures as a bachelor theologian at Oxford in the 1290s. His Ordinatio was transcribed as the Lectura. John Wycliffe, in the preface to his 14th Century bible translation to Middle English, also made it clear that the bible advances “government of, by, and for the people.”

Our Heavenly Father always intended for us to be the true arbiters of our own destiny. This is what all good parents want for their children. Our greatest joy is to watch them reach for their highest and best destiny. Achieving that in life temporal is just the beginning.