We teach without realizing that so much of our behavior has been taken over by the subconscious mind, that when we hear the results years and years later, we say, “Did I say that?”  We may be surprised that our teaching had an effect we didn’t realize, something better than we thought.

That is what I call the influence of a Holy Spirit.  How do we know what’s right in a given situation?  We are creatures of habit as well as of instinct.  One of humankind’s crowning achievements is the development of reason.  We thought we had that accomplished.  And now there’s QM (Quantum Mechanics); we’re still trying to assess the mind of God.  Good luck, humankind.

As Einstein let us know, so much is hidden in the simple things of life.  My granddaughter, when asked what her mother wants for her birthday, would say, “Ask her.”

Is your mind a virtual black hole?  Is it sucking everything into an obsession with pot or sex?  Is your reading what one reviewer called “deliciously filthy”?  I don’t know if that has a place in the history of humankind, but I’ve looked down that path and seen nothing but mental anguish and pain.  No fanfic (fan fiction) writing for me.

I’ve seen pictures of a real black hole, as much as they can gather, and to me it’s not just a useful metaphor, but another wonder of the Almighty.  My schooling has been a tour of the wonders of the universe, everything from the bombardier beetle to the mating flight of the robin.  And I have seen the effects of what I call evil, the human susceptibility to drugs and sex.

Still, I love Nature, including human nature, and I have been made part of the struggle for the right way, the joyful way.  I love to see the triumphal march (usually in a wheelchair) of people who have conquered coronavirus or some other disease.  Usually they haven’t done it alone.

What started the decomposition of Rudolph Giuliani?  Was it entropy on a human level?  He went to one of the same colleges I did, and they taught him the same moral standards they taught me.  Did it start with his first marriage, the big A—for adultery?  Something like that can make a man lose his direction and orientation.

You lose one sighting of the pole star, and it you don’t know the sky (life), all the other stars just confuse you.  Rudy, you’re fighting yourself, and if you think it’s all relative, I ask you, relative to what?  That’s why there’s only one pole star.

Rudolph has been floundering ever since he left his first wife and children.  He had great talent, and was called America’s mayor, but when you forget that you’re relying on the guidance of a Holy Spirit, you think it’s you, and you forget your insignificance — what then?

Rudy, I pray for you and your reunion with the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

God said what he created was basically good.  But that was before he created mankind.  Yet the historian Rutger Bregman has come out with a new book, Humankind, that tells, among other things, the story of six Catholic school boys that refutes the world famous Lord of the Flies.  He says humankind is basically good.  Of course, don’t the past 2,000 years of Christian history mean anything in the evolutionary progress of humankind?  True, you can find in those 2,000 years instances where Christ’s teachings meant nothing, but that’s humankind’s story: two steps forward and one step back.

We look at Western Civilization today, and find that you can expect a basic civility from almost everyone you meet.  But don’t forget, that has been 2,000 years in the making, and Western Civilization has influenced all the other civilizations in the world today.  Good or bad, it has left its mark.

Of course, you can undo 2,000 years in one temper tantrum.  That is the effect of the free will with which humankind has been gifted.

Schizophrenia?  Isn’t that the worst of the mental diseases?  Caused by marijuana use?  You bet!  And which of our honored presidents allowed eleven states to legalize it?  Wasn’t it the one whose wife Michelle got after him when his oldest daughter took it up?

Dr. Dinesh D’Souza of Yale said mental illness happened with heavy use, but he tempered that word with “regular use.”  It doesn’t have to be heavy, it just has to be regular, and if the user is young, watch out!  What are we doing, with the District of Columbia allowing marijuana use and eleven states legalizing it for “recreational” use?  Are we going the way of that misguided president?

We’ve made heroes of some men whose background didn’t fit them for office, but I believe the voters realize in time what reality is about.  I won’t say they correct it, but I do believe in that old saying, Vox populi, vox Dei (The voice of the people is the voice of God).