It was Game Day today. Uno and Golf, along with savory meats and cheese. A good way to spend the first Sunday of 2026. A crisp, cold day with brilliant sunshine on the way to church this morning. Our engines are warming as we take our place on the racetrack of life. The Old Man walks more slowly and with a more deliberate step in 2026. Age does make a difference. Steps slower, time to think clearly about the future. We watch the skies and hope not to see bombs dropping in the night. Generations do not know what that feels like, while others know it as a way of life. Someday it will be our turn.

It is Epiphany Sunday. The day marking the arrival of the three kings to see the Baby Jesus. Christ’s birth is a manifestation of the divine in our midst. So we wait for the peace on earth that the President wished over the Christmas holiday. I learned this morning that our garbage disposals eat better than 30% of the people on Earth.

We watch each other. Talk is cheap, Neva J told me. Watch what people do. Who helps you in the quiet of the shadows with no spotlight or fanfare? Who offers their hand of friendship when you are so down you have to look up to see the bottom?

When did we decide that money was the ruler to measure success? How is God’s Grace equated with wealth? What about the desperately poor Christian? So today we travel with the Three Kings to see the Baby. It is an old story, and new. We say we want the wolf to lie down with the lamb and will gladly offer our spears to be fashioned into pruning hooks, yet we celebrate the casual, thoughtless killing of women and children…innocents.

‘I see nothing but calm waters and endless horizon,’ Richman said. ‘This year we will buy a condo in Aruba and spend next winter there…it will be our winter White House,’ Richman continued. ‘By then Venezuela will be pumping on all cylinders Texas Tea,’ Richman chuckled.

‘Monday, I will see if McDonald’s is hiring,’ Poor Girl said. ‘Although I have a work visa, I am afraid to look for employment due to the crackdown on foreigners,’ Poor Girl continued. ‘I have to do something as my kids are hungry and many turn their heads when we pass,’ PG noted. ‘I was studying Cardiology when the men came to take me away for being the wrong skin color, although I had permission to study in the United States,’ PG said. ‘I was to begin my residency Monday, but cannot due to not finishing my last Semester in December,’ Poor Girl said with her head held high. ‘ICE sent me to El Salvador to be held in a cage until the ACLU sent a lawyer to speak on my behalf.’Poor Girl continued. ‘It was not long ago that we from India felt at home in the U.S. to study and flourish and often to become citizens working in this wonderful country,’ PG said. ‘Now there is no frame of reference or logical procedure to rely on for safety in what was the home of the downtrodden,’ Poor Girl wept.

‘My niece is suffering in the country she went to study in, the King said. ‘She is brilliant and almost a Doctor of Cardiology until the government intervened and stopped her studies and sent her to El Salvador to sit in a cage,’ the King said. ‘A lawyer got her returned to the U.S., although I do not understand why she wanted to return to that dangerous country,’ the King said. ‘After we see the Christ Child, I shall visit my niece and see to her care,’ the King said.