Citizens vote, and care, like members of a huge national family

Each citizen in a democracy who is eligible to vote is a steward, bound in honor to do their best to preserve the integrity of that democracy - including the inevitable disagreements, debates and tensions.

I urge every voter to vote in every election.  Whether the election is for President or Town Clerk, or on a referendum, voting is like having a huge family meeting to make major family decisions. How can one justify not attending and participating?  Who cares so little about their family as to refuse to do their part in examining its condition and values, deciding what values and policies need to be changed or preserved, and selecting the candidates who we believe will best steward the family's near future and preserve its long-term future? 

Each of our votes counts as much as the vote of the President or any Governor, Member of Congress, or Supreme Court Justice; as much as any boss, billionaire or celebrity. And many, many people have given their lives to protect their fellow citizens' right to vote.

Here in the U.S., Election Day 2026 is upon us.  The choice to vote or not vote in the November 3 Election is clear.  Citizens who are comfortable having fewer people involved in governance can, if they wish, stay home and accept the status quo. But those who reject authoritarian government and the self-dealing which comes with unchecked power, who want the federal government to be based on truth, the rule of law, checks and balances and respect for reasoned dissent, who oppose war (especially when it is not declared by Congress) and extrajudicial killings on the high seas, or who oppose the decline in number and influence of experts more devoted to public service than to any individual really need to vote!

You are creative!

Do you regard yourself as creative?  You should: we all are.  Just look at your dreams - which can be seen as plays containing messages from your subconscious to your conscious self.

If you are at least sometimes conscious of dreaming, to see more clearly the creativity within you in action, try to remember your dreams.  If you have trouble remembering your dreams, just tell yourself, as you are drifting off to sleep, "Let me remember my dreams."  Repeat as needed.  

If you are not conscious of dreaming at all, try this: as you are drifting off to sleep, relax and tell yourself, "Let me dream tonight, and let me remember my dreams." Repeat as needed.

It helps to write down at least key parts of your dreams.  Save your notes.  Honor your dreams - even nightmares, which are trying to tell you something.  Honor yourself, including your subconscious self, that vast library of experiences, emotions, memories and intuitions all gradually accessible - and presented with astounding creativity - for your self care and your growth.

Two questions about Heaven

In Heaven as I imagine it, there is consciousness. Maybe the consciousness is shared.  Maybe we are absorbed into a unitary Holy Spirit.  But, if there is no consciousness after death, what's the difference between Heaven and ... nothing? 

Heaven as I imagine it includes consciousness and the experience, however brief, that everything is all right just the way it is. 

In millennia of imaginings of Heaven, it is a place where there is no need for effort to be joyful and at peace.  Are we - or have religious leaders for ages thought people are - so tired of activity, so averse to effort (particularly the effort to experience mattering, the experience of self-worth that comes from contribution to the lives of others) and so burdened by our responsibility in this life for our choices that such a Heaven is appealing?

 

 

A thought experiment about evolution

I recently listened to The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature, by Matt Ridley - a deep dive into genetics, including DNA as a natural, powerful, and unconscious force in human behavior. DNA, the "blueprint" of reproduction, is in every creature.  Our individual human DNA is - with countless genetic variations - set at conception.  It is our invisible, physical badge of humanity.  But human DNA is ever, if slowly, evolving.

Ridley’s impressively-researched book focuses, in part, on the genetic effects - the physical but subconscious effects - of millennia of human civilization, including a male tendency to compete in status and power. Within reason, competition is fun and wholesome, but it - and the fear of defeat - can produce injustice, intimidation, abuse of others, and a get-away-with-it erosion of personal responsibility. Again, though - DNA, the biological driver of life in general and species reproduction in particular, evolves. Human DNA evolves.

So here is a thought experiment: In what direction are my life choices, particularly the way I conduct myself as a parent, friend and citizen, likely to be nudging my DNA?

We can at least imagine steering the evolution of our own DNA by our behavior.  That is hypothetically important when we are of an age and desire to have children, either as father or mother.

But we need not have any children of our own to experience satisfaction in striving, by our life choices, figuratively to become - genes of respect, even love, for others; genes of contributing to others - to society.

Indeed, of much greater importance that our actual genes is the example of functioning adulthood and citizenship we give to others throughout our lives.  So, the more important part of this experiment is to ask: Am I trying by my example to support others I meet in their nudging, by their behavior, their DNA in the direction of vigor, gratitude, a positive outlook on life, openness, respect for self and others, and good citizenship - and away from laziness, depression, negativity, belligerence and entitlement?

September 6, 2026

Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, "Once you can accept the Universe as being something expanding into an infinite nothing which is something, wearing stripes with plaid is easy."

I am skeptical that something which might be called a conscious being made the decision "Okay, NOW!" to push the button, so to speak, and set off the Big Bang.

Fast forward billions of years and there are now, we are told, so many galaxies that, if each was the size of a cheerio, they would fill over a hundred Olympic swimming pools.[*]

It has not been given to me to believe that one Creator — of just Life on Earth, let alone of the entire Universe – keeps track of all life here, let alone determines everything that happens here and every act of every human being.

I think the Creator, however named, gave each of us physical and spiritual life and intelligence, and enough holiness, love and courage, to do our respective parts in the stewardship of Life on earth. As daunting as that responsibility may be, we can each do our best to seek, and to do, what love calls us to do moment to moment.

* See “Epic Spaceman” https://youtu.be/7J_Ugp8ZB4E?is=P1O4Fh9_5o-KpT5c

 

Life and holiness and awareness unfolding

Paying close attention to Life is like living with a snake in the room – and that is a good thing.  More on that in a minute.

Let us try to imagine the scope of the accomplishments resulting from the lives of our fellow human beings, past and present and beyond.

This exercise came to me recently as a guest aboard the USCG Cutter Eagle – “America’s Tall Ship” – as it entered the port of New London, Connecticut, home of the United States Coast Guard Academy. The ninety-year-old ship is a complex and spectacular training vessel for Coast Guard officers.  Having no responsibility other than staying out of the way of the officers and crew, I had plenty of time to observe, to marvel, and to imagine.

Starting with where I was standing, on the deck about two stories above the water line: the Eagle is 90 meters long, 12 meters across (beam), 5.3 meters below water when fully loaded, with 3 masts averaging 43.3 meters and over 2000 square meters of sail area, and I cannot guess how much rope! Turning to its human history, I tried to imagine all the people who, over nine decades under two once-warring governments, designed it – every rivet, plank, mast and pulley – constructed it, and have updated it to keep it seaworthy and secure; all the officers, crew, and trainees on board that day and who have ever sailed it – saluted, climbed, pulled rope, cooked, dined, slept, flirted, steered and kept watch on it.  Then I tried to imagine the places Eagle has been and the conditions it has weathered around the world, in port and at sea, that calm, temperate day off New London being just one point on the very long lines of time and place.

I let my imagination go – and you can easily do this with me: first, imagine zooming out from a few hundred people on a ship to the spirits of the tens of thousands of people who have sailed it; then to encompass all the people in all the buildings – factories, schools, homes - and vehicles we could see from the deck of the ship moving upriver between two cities, people going about their lives; then on beyond those horizons to all of humanity around the world – that day, then going back for 90 years and beyond; then going into the future 90 years and beyond, people – our relatives - building ships, bridges, buildings, roads, vehicles and countless other things in teams, building families, building relationships, sharing joys and miracles, including each birth and all of Nature, and helping each other in times of loss, of natural and man-made disasters, including wars.

Is it possible not to experience a wonder, a holiness, a Holy Spirit at work in every moment of Life?

Now - back to the snake.  “You can give your whole attention only when you care, which means that you really love to understand – then you give your whole heart and mind to find out.  Such awareness is like living with a snake in the room; you watch its every movement, you are very, very sensitive to the slightest sound it makes.  Such a state of attention is total energy; in such awareness the totality of yourself is revealed in an instant.” Freedom from the Known, by Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986), p. 32.

Thanks, Mom!

I got one of my most important and memorable life lessons from my mother on Saturday, August 11, 1962, the day "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," by Neil Sedaka, hit No.1 on the American "Billboard Hot 100."  I was 13 years old.  I was alone, listening on the radio - as I often did - to the countdown of popular songs in my room at our home in Mount Carmel, Connecticut, USA. I loved that song.  I was thrilled that it was Number One in the nation.  

After listening to the song all the way through, I rushed downstairs to share my joy.  I found my mother in the kitchen.  As I recall, she was calmly moving toward my approach - doubtless alerted by the sound of my clomping feet - wiping her hands on a dish towel.

"Screeching" to a halt in front of her, I yelled, "Mom! Mom! My favorite song just hit Number One!  That means I have good taste!!"

Looking me in the eye calmly and lovingly, she asked, "It does?"

That's the moment I learned that liking what's popular just means I have average taste.  Whether it's good or bad is just an opinion.  

I still love that song, and I still love a lot of popular music - and other things and activities that are popular.  I like things and activities because I love how they make me feel. But how I choose to fit which things I love into my life - whether and how acting on my love for what I love serves me - is personal, experiential - and important.