Weary of cataloging

Sometimes the retreat is only part of a morning or evening. Sometimes it’s an entire day. Our recent two-month camping trip, which I called a sabbatical, provided multiple multi-day retreats, or abstinence, from the news flow. One tactic of current leaders, effective in the short run, is to “flood the zone” with multiple, simultaneous initiatives to overwhelm and dominate.

Sometimes I know exactly what I want to write. Yesterday (Wednesday), weary of cataloging the flood’s incompetence, corruption and grift, I was depleted and had nothing to write. During last night’s phone conversation with our son Rob, I knew what to write, so I asked for the ChatGPT summary that he had read to me, which became the essence of last night’s post.

Today (Thursday), my first read was “Becoming Light for Others,” the Daily Meditation from the Center for Action and Contemplation. It was about John of the Cross and his “dark night of the soul” by Richard Rohr and Therese DesCamp. The ongoing attacks against democracy feel like a “dark night.” When I read CAC’s Daily Meditation first in the morning I avoid being consumed by darkness.

In case you missed it:

From “‘Flooding the zone’ and the politics of attention,” by Zsolt Kapelner, Justice Everywhere, March 10, 2025

ChatGPT

Our son Rob has found a useful resource in ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI. In our phone conversations, when discussing history or current events, he sometimes says, “I’ll ask ChatGPT.” He’s aware of its limitations and he’s savvy about when and how to use it.

Heather Cox Richardson and ChatGPT help Rob see things in context. For a third opinion, especially about something within my lifetime, he may ask me. Tonight (Wednesday), he asked whether, during the Nixon years, I thought we’d ever have another crisis like Watergate. I said, “No. I didn’t realize our nation would have such a short memory. It’s scary for a nation to be without a 50-year memory.”

Rob then consulted ChatGPT and immediately received six points to consider. Here’s the first point: (1) Most people don’t remember history because their brains aren’t built for abstract timelines. Your dad’s point about “a public without a 50-year memory” is basically pointing to this: Humans evolved for immediate survival, not long-term cultural memory. Remembering complex political sequences is not an instinctive cognitive trait.

Here’s a short version of the next five points about why our nation has a short memory:

(2) The American education system teaches history as memorization, not pattern recognition;

(3) Political tribalism overrides historical memory;

(4) Most people don’t read long-form anything;

(5) History without emotional experience doesn’t stick. Your dad lived through Watergate. That wires memory differently. Anyone under ~50 didn’t feel it happen. And humans remember emotion more than information. So unless they experienced a scandal firsthand, it doesn’t imprint; and

(6) History is uncomfortable — people avoid what disturbs their worldview.

In case you missed it

“OpenAI’s ChatGPT 5.1 versus Google’s Gemini 3: Here’s how the models stack up in the AI race,” by Katherine Li, Business Insider, December 3, 2025

Crossings and John of the Cross

A noon Zoom meeting with some “elders” will focus on how to share deeply with those who see the faith/politics intersection very differently, looking at Disarming Leviathan, which seeks to:

Chart… a path forward in life, politics, and religion… a compassionate religious text that practices what it preaches, guiding people toward a less divisive future.

Tonight, a Zoom meeting with some fellow travelers will compare notes about the Journey, aided by “Crossing Thresholds with Clarity and Courage,” which says in part:

Our life stories are punctuated by a series of thresholds — doorways we walk through, chosen or not, that land us in new territory. They include major life events such as falling in love, becoming a parent, landing a dream job, losing someone we love, or facing an unwelcome diagnosis.

In case you missed it, and if John of the Cross is only a vague, dusty name in history, I invite you to read the Daily Meditation (linked below), Mirabai Starr’s take on “the path of unknowing,” and her translation of John’s poem about the mystical search for “I-don’t-know-what.”

Untitled 2020 photo by Laura Barbato, from “Met by the Beloved,” by Mirabai Starr, Center for Action and Contemplation, December 9, 2025, whose translation of John’s poem says in part:

The generous heart
does not collapse into the easy things,
but rises up in adversity.
It settles for nothing.
Faith lifts it higher and higher.

Such a heart savors
an I-don’t-know-what
found only in the heart of the Mystery.

In case you missed it

Joyce Vance is putting good thought into how to follow important cases before the courts amid the heavy load of legal news flowing from the administration’s judicial activism. In last night’s post, she discussed cases scheduled for oral arguments before SCOTUS today and tomorrow.

Two posts by Heather Delaney Reese and Heather Cox Richardson led me to resolve, beginning today, not to mention the name of our current president. This will lower my blood pressure. I take no delight criticizing a broken human being. His name has appeared in too many of my 2,041 blog posts.

His unconstitutional atrocities, rampant delusions and existential threats to democracy are documented on a daily basis by his words and actions in official government documents and by a large group of credible reporters and writers who are forging a new era of American journalism.

He has a knack for seeming to be omnipresent, so when a reference to him is unavoidable, I will refer to him as the President. I’ll minimize my comments and point to reporters and writers who cover the administration by providing links to their posts under the heading, “In case you missed it.”

In case you missed it:

From “A timeline of the US military’s buildup near Venezuela and attacks on alleged drug boats,” by Ben Finley, Konstantin Torpid and Regina Garcia, APNews, December 5, 2025.

Frameworks matter

The second candle of Advent anticipates peace. Through the years, the candle has called me to re-frame my thinking about many places, such as Vietnam, Northern Ireland, the Middle East and Ukraine.

The plan to begin a framework for peace is the mirror and in our immediate presence. Nick Saban, in this 2-minute video, describes an operational framework suitable for a church, family or any group.

In the “beatitudes,” Jesus offered an alternative to the empire’s way of thinking. Today, America is the world’s greatest empire. The world’s eyes and history’s eyes are on us and our Emperor President.

The administration’s new national security strategy radically reframes how America interfaces with the world. Critical issues raised about this framework, described here, call for our best thinking.

From “A Framework For Peace,” by Danny Kleschick, Nonviolence NY, September 28, 2017.

What football game?

I explained to Friar that the Tide had a tough day in Atlanta. He said, “I was for the Dawgs.”

The United States of Amazon

Something to think about during the Alabama-Georgia halftime: A December 4 Seeking Alpha news article by Clark Schultz, “Amazon may be looking at ending its longtime partnership with USPS,” said the USPS may “sell access to postal facilities to the highest bidders among large shippers and retailers.”

Amazon has a “broader strategy of building a vertically integrated logistics empire, leveraging a dense network of warehouses, its own parcel fleet, and armies of contractors and gig drivers to handle the majority of its US last-mile volume in house and stand as a direct rival to USPS, UPS and FedEx.”

Two reader comments preview a national debate: “That would save tax dollars. It will probably take at least another decade until the older boomers pass away, but I don’t think any of us under the age of 55 are even receiving physical mail anymore.” On the other hand: “The cost of running the USPS, which serves everyone, is about 4 days worth of the cost of the defense budget. The one where we deploy a $13.3B aircraft carrier with 4500+ crew members to hunt down boats with outboard engines.”

As an “older boomer” who uses Amazon Pharmacy, I understand both sides of the debate.

From “Amazon in discussions with USPS about future relationship,” Reuters, December 4, 2025

Another Heather

Walking down Facebook Avenue yesterday, I was distracted by a shiny post. (I can’t remember where I was headed, which happens more times than not with Facebook.) A title grabbed me as I passed by: “How much longer will Trump be able to keep doing this?” It was a December 3 post by Heather Delaney Reese. Like HCR (Heather Cox Richardson), HDR can be found on both Facebook and Substack.

The link (above) is to her Substack site. Yesterday, I referenced without quotes accounts by HCR and Robert Hubbell of Donald Trump’s late night social media rampage and his naps during the next day’s Cabinet meeting. One reason I blog is to leave a time-stamped record of my responses to today’s world for our children. So, for the historical record, I offer this opening paragraph from HDR:

Last night, while the rest of us were asleep, the man entrusted with the nuclear codes and the safety of over 330 million Americans was somewhere in the White House in the dark of night, hunched over his phone, and shared what can only be described as a digital tantrum from the edge of reality. Between sunrise and sunrise, President Trump posted more than 160 times on his state propaganda platform, Trash Social. Just unfiltered rage, conspiracy, and ego.

From “Doodling, drowsiness and a conspicuous misspelling highlight Trump’s last Cabinet meeting of 2025.” by Will Weissert and Michelle L. Price, APNews, December 2, 2025.

Where’s Edith?

My Dad was 82 in ICU. It was my responsibility to tell him that his heart valve was ruptured, the heart surgeon said he probably wouldn’t make it through the surgery. I said, “They can keep you comfortable but without surgery you have maybe 48 hours to live.” He said, “Whatever you and your Mom think.” I said, “I just don’t want you to suffer any more.” He said, “I’ve had a good life. I don’t want another surgery.” The heart surgeon was standing by the door. I turned to him and said, “You heard him.” He said, “I think he made the right decision.”

Two years later, my Mom was 82. It was my responsibility to go with her to the oncologist, who said, “You have lung cancer. With basic treatment, you probably have nine months to live. With aggressive chemo and radiation maybe two years or more.” When he explained the radiation’s potential side effects, I could see her shaking her head. She died peacefully nine months later. Those were tough moments, but it was a privilege to be with both my parents when they were facing difficult times– after all they had done for me over many decades.

In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson had a stroke with six months left in his second term. His movement, speech and mental clarity were impacted. His wife Edith became his gatekeeper. She ran the White House and determined who met with him. She was the de facto president. The severity of his condition was a well-kept secret, unknown to the American people. Right or wrong, smooth or clumsy, this is what family members do for one another in times of crisis.

I would have felt the responsibility to intervene if my Dad or Mom had been president, and had posted 160 rants overnight on social media, including one accusation that Michelle Obama had operated Joe Biden’s autopen, then falling asleep during a Cabinet meeting the next day. President Donald Trump’s behavior raises these questions: Who within the President’s family will step up? Who within the Cabinet will step up? Who within the Congress will step up?

President Gerald Ford announces that he will nominate Nelson Rockefeller as Vice President, from “The Establishment and First Uses of The 25th Amendment,” Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum.

Formative memories

Over the weekend, I asked myself why I was so drawn to the Coach Lane Kiffin story, especially since I have no strong opinions or feelings about Kiffin, Ole Miss or LSU. I realized that the LSU-Ole Miss rivalry has been part of my memory bank since I was 9 years old.

Ole Miss and LSU were dominant teams. From January ’53 to January ’65, LSU and/or Ole Miss were in nine of thirteen Sugar Bowls. In 1959, LSU was the only team to beat Ole Miss, 7-3, thanks to The Punt Return by Billy Cannon, who won LSU’s only Heisman Trophy. Ole Miss defeated LSU 21-0 in a Sugar Bowl re-match and were considered by many to be the national champions.

For most Americans, the weekend Kiffin saga was lost amid other events. For ardent football fans, it was about the new bidding war for coaches and players brought on by “the portal,” confirming major college football as a professional sport. Because of my age and geography, I knew the historic LSU/Ole Miss rivalry would make Kifflin’s situation a train wreck in the making.

For the 50th anniversary of The Punt Return, Wright Thompson wrote a definitive article about Cannon (1937-2018) in the October 20, 2009 edition of ESPN’s Outside the Lines (OTL), “The Redemption of Billy Cannon.”

From “The Lane Kiffin saga: Who exactly is to blame for the sordid mess at Ole Miss and LSU?“, by Dana ONeil, CNN, December 2, 2025.