When my iPhone quit due to the heat, so did I. I wonder how I used to live without air conditioning. A lot of fans. They blew hot air, but at least it was air. Summer could not be escaped. You woke up in the morning with wet sheets and went to bed at night with your nose in the semi-open window, hoping for a breeze from the kitchen window fan exhausting the hot air in the house. A pop-up thunderstorm was welcome relief for a few minutes. In those halcyon days, kids spent the daylight hours outside unsupervised. Sweat was a fact of life from morning to night. Most adults spent the evening hours on their front porches sipping iced tea and hoping for some relief. Gossip was plentiful. It was believed that a little heat would not hurt you. Automobiles had a vent window next to the big roll-down window in the front. We gingerly opened the vent window in an attempt to distribute the air flow. Cars that came with air conditioning installed were few and expensive. Some folks purchased portable air conditioning units that fit on the hump in the floor board. Poor people did not have such luxuries. At times, we stood in front of an open icebox. Now we had a refrigerator, but my family referred to it as the Ice Box or, as my Aunt said, ‘The Box.’

We Americans have become accustomed to the finer things of life. Many of us have air conditioners at home and in our automobiles. We do not seek the cool breeze of evening on our front porches. Now we are in our cool houses looking out at our surroundings through our peepholes. Kids are engrossed in their iPhones and tablets with little thought of being uncomfortable. Many young people think that manual labor is for someone else. I reflect on the many hot and onerous jobs I have done in my life. Jobs designed for the humble, as many passed by and grinned and thought, but for the Grace of God go I. Or as one of my American student custodial staff asked me many years ago, who cleaned the toilets? When I told him that he had toilets in his area to clean, he noted that no one told him that he would have to clean toilets. I explained that the University did not have self-cleaning ones. The student employee quit on the spot.

Life teaches us that there are practical applications to all decisions. When Iran is attacked, and we say once and done, we are naive about history. There is the law of cause and effect. War is humans against humans. This is why the Bible speaks of an eye for an eye. It has always been thus. It is called escalation. The recipient of aggression responds at a time of their choosing. Not everyone pays their debts on Friday. Crowing about victory and the Obliteration of our foe’s ability to retaliate is a fool’s errand.