I was talking with a former colleague from my SIUC days this morning. Her reference to life was similar in many ways to mine. We are all more alike than we are different. We humans are cut from the same cloth. Believing we are special is a deception wrought by our ego.

I enjoyed the book Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen so much that I am reading it again. I have never read such a clear and accurate account of the devastation of the Nuclear War. The idea that deterrence is facilitated by which country has the most nuclear weapons is absurd. Our governments are a bit like Nero who fiddled while Rome burned.

Life’s Clock is ticking as we live lives of quite desperation. We want what we do not have and ignore the riches that surround us. I read a Washington Post article today that quoted a study that age is not a deterrent to leadership. Older folks are usually wiser and have more even temperaments. Forgetting someone’s name or the occasional word salad is not a marker for mental acuity.

Servant Leaders are needed! The clarion call goes forth for leaders who want to help others. Our world is full of Servant Leaders. People who give up their time and talents with no thought of remuneration or personal aggrandizement. When the spotlight is shining and the microphone is hot they are in the background working for their constituents. Most of us are not living in the fiery extremity of conservative or liberal passion. We have a sense of place.

Fight we do for our rights. Victory is a zero-sum game where one side wins and one side loses. We war with our neighbors to bring peace. We persecute those who are different from us to please our War-Like god. Millions are dying from hunger and we are fat from our Horn-Of-Plenty. Babies with bloated bellies stare at us with wide sad eyes. We erect Vomitoriums to purge our gluttony…

‘Oh my God we must get in the backyard bomb shelter now,’ Neva J screamed! ‘Grab the transistor radio and the batteries,’ she commanded! ‘The bombs will arrive in 6 minutes,’ she said with tears in her eyes.

‘I thought President Kennedy had made a deal with Kruscheve and that the missile scare was over,’ Billy B said. ‘Jane Chet get in the shelter…there is no time for you to return to your families,’ Billy B exhorted.

‘How did we come to this point what madness possessed us to believe that with all of the nuclear bombs that Russia and the United States have sooner or later one of us was going to try them out,’ Chet said. ‘The Nuclear Clock must surely be on Noon today,’ Chet whispered…

‘As I climbed into the shelter and shut the door there was such a brilliant light like the Sun at its zenith I stared at it a moment and now I can not see,’ Jane said…