Coming BACK to a NEW BEGINNING...

Greetings and salutations. It’s been a minute since I sent one of these newsletters out so you might be wondering, “Who is this guy?” Hopefully it will all come back to you…

In the meantime, I’ve changed a bunch of things and I’m working to get myself organized in the hope that I can resurrect my writing passion. The creative muse is speaking, I just need to make it happen. Many of you have reached out in the last year or so and asked when I was going to return to these newsletters as well as the Forever Saga. More on that, and a special surprise, below.

The first change you’ll notice is this newsletter itself. I’ve moved to a new platform called Substack. From here I can create the newsletter and send it out free of charge. My previous email service changed their policies and forced all users to upgrade to a new, paid-only service.

Substack also provides an easy way for readers to support my efforts, as many of you have asked for over the years. Please know that I have zero expectations and the newsletter will ALWAYS be free. But for those who choose to support me with a membership I am planning on additional bonus materials and opportunities as I develop them. Again, no expectations here, and you can always cancel memberships at any time. I’m just putting it out there.

PROGRESS REPORT - otherwise known as putting my butt in the chair and writing something, anything, just put words of the page! how hard could it be?!!

A little more than a year has passed since I last wrote a chapter for the Forever Saga - that was chapter 95. Entirely too long! But…wait for it…I’m thrilled and excited to announce that a new chapter 96 is now live on my website and can be directly linked here: Forever - Chapter 96

Yay! It feels so good to get this out — finally. I did the first draft LAST SUMMER, but it wasn’t until the past couple of weeks when I felt like I found my voice again, and Jack and Sam started “speaking” to me as before.

The story picks up immediately following the revelations from Chapter 95 of the attempted data breach and other suspicious activities. Jack’s anxiety is at an all-time high, but he’s learning and growing. I’m excited to see where this all leads.

I anticipate one more chapter before the guys end up in St. Louis for the foreseeable future and their respective graduate studies. Old friends and new friends will be on hand to support and challenge them as they continue building their “forever” together.

RANDOM MUSINGS

I had planned on writing something else, but then unexpected events on Saturday evening forcefully changed the focus on what had priority in the moment. It’s taken me a couple of days to collect my thoughts, and I’m still processing.

First, let me say that I have always purposed to not be political in any particular way in this newsletter and in my writing writ large. We all have more than enough opportunities for all the politically focused content we could want. So PLEASE, I’m begging you, do NOT take anything I say as being left or right of center. I’m an armchair student of human behavior, not political science. I make a concerted effort to get my news from multiple sources, left and right, so I can draw my own conclusions.

All that being said, I think I would be remiss to not at least try to glean some kind of deeper understanding from all this. I don’t have all the answers or even a full perspective on things — no one does right now. It’s too soon. It’s too raw.

I remember vividly two major events in my lifetime that compare to the assassination attempt on the former president on Saturday. The first was the attempt on President Ronald Reagan’s life. I was in high school, had just come home from a long day, and sat glued to the television while the video of the shooting looped, the press secretary Brady staring at the sidewalk, blood pouring out of a hole in his forehead, while the secret service team rushed the president into the limo and away to the hospital. Only to find out that one of the men assigned to take a bullet for the president had actually done just that. Thankfully he survived, and press secretary Brady did as well, though his life was never the same.

What I also remember was a coming together of the nation. Most of the mothers and fathers of that time could still remember President Kennedy being shot and dying less than twenty years earlier. They understood the gravity of the unthinkable happening again. We all did. It was a sobering and unifying moment in our public discourse. I’m not even sure how I knew that, as I wasn’t particularly clued in to geo-political events and goings-on. But you could feel it.

Fast forward another twenty years to 2001. The dust had barely cleared on the contentious 2000 election for President, finally being decided in the courts. Anyone remember “hanging chads?” I’m sure most of you reading this can remember where you were and what you heard on that fateful September 11th. How could we ever forget?

I was with work colleagues having breakfast on a sidewalk cafe in downtown Chicago. One of the people with us had a daughter who worked in Building 7, if memory serves. He was a wreck until he got her on the phone. Thankfully she hadn’t gone into work that day. Another man had commuted from Ohio and was unable to get home for over a week following that tragedy. The focus on family and pulling together was palpable.

Thousands of voices cried out from the rubble of the twin towers, and we as a nation pulled ourselves out of our self-importance and shook off our complete shock, then did something I’d never seen before, and definitely not since. It seemed like every one suddenly remembered we’re ALL Americans. We ALL have family, friends, and loved ones and we ALL hugged each other more, encouraged each other more. American flags flew on homes, buildings, cars, trucks and more.

Suddenly “The Star Bangled Banner” was a hit song. “America the Beautiful” brought tears to the most hardened hearts. We somehow found a way to love our fellow man (and woman) again. It was tragic and wonderful at the same time.

Then it all ended…

That unity and sense of common purpose fizzled away in the face of steadily increasing polarization and heated rhetoric. The proliferation of competing voices on the internet, cable networks, and broadcast TV and radio amplified the conflicts into something more than they should ever be.

This is a not a one-sided issue. We are all culpable — collectively. What’s been happening of late is not new. We’ve been behaving badly for a long, long time. The name calling, public shaming, social media character assassinations and the rest. I expect my grandkids to do better than that. Shouldn’t we expect our leaders to do the same? Or better yet, OURSELVES?!!!

I got off of social media completely about seven or eight years ago. I couldn’t take it anymore. Such hatred, lies, distortions, really evil stuff — from ALL sides of the issues — it took a toll, and I pulled the plug. Turns out I was just fine without all that noise. I had my family and real human friends, and that’s all any of us really need.

And just over twenty years later, here we are again. Things escalate because wise and reasoned voices are drowned out in the cacophony of vitriol and existential fear mongering. Enough already. Family members no longer speaking to one another, not inviting relatives to big family events because of WHO THEY VOTED FOR? Give me a break. It’s time we ALL grow up a little and get over ourselves - AGAIN.

Sadly, one man lost his life on Saturday doing what good men do — protecting his wife and children. Another lost his life doing something neither he nor anyone else should have ever contemplated doing. How did we get to a place — AGAIN — where another’s life means so little?

Like the others before it, the tragedy of Saturday evening revealed humanity at it’s worst. I was sitting in the stands of a college football stadium watching the Drum and Bugle Corps competition with my wife and two friends. One eye and ear was focused on the truly breath taking performances, and the other on my phone, looking for the latest updates. The thought kept coming to me — Dear God, not again. When will we ever learn? How many have to die needlessly?

In that moment, at least for me, this was no longer a fight between two political parties and all their sycophantic ideologues in tow. No, this is (and has always been) a battle between good and evil, between light and darkness. Between real truth-tellers and the lying liars who lie. We need to see it for what it actually is. And understand our part in all of it. I’m not sure any of us doesn’t have blood on his or her hands.

But there is hope today…

I see two examples of humanity rising above the fray. The first is an iconic photograph that the second I saw it, I said to my friend in the stands next to me, this picture will live forever in the minds of Americans, even the world. I’m sure you’ve seen. You’ll likely see it a lot.

To me, that picture isn’t Left vs Right, Blue vs Red, CNN vs FoxNews. It’s not even really about Donald Trump at all. At the deepest, most visceral level it’s about something so much more than one man, something common to ALL of us — the need to stand in the face of adversity and not give in to it. It’s a victory of good over evil, life over death, the refusal of light to surrender to the darkness.

The other example that truly encouraged me and has given me a renewed hope for all of us was the immediate outpouring of sympathy and compassion from President Biden and many other political leaders on all sides. The clarion call to tone down the rhetoric and see even your opponent as a human being with family and loved ones, is in itself a victory. And it seems to be taking hold — on both sides.

Both political camps have significantly ratcheted down their fear mongering and character attacks, with a public pledge to try and be more civil from now on. Oh that we could get to a place where we could disagree and have real debates and discuss the merits of ideas, and still be friendly with each other.

I was also personally uplifted by the numbers of politicians, news reporters, and law enforcement leadership calling on the nation to pray. To perhaps pray like we never have before.

There IS common ground. It’s always been there. We just have to determine to not bury it under the garbage of unprincipled passions and disdain for life. Hopefully America can come back to a new beginning…

Until next time,

Be good, do good.