Someone once told me many years ago, “You’re a sufferer.” It was a shock to me at the time and I never forgot it. He was calling me on something I hadn’t realized; that I’d developed an emotional habit pattern based not so much on circumstances as on a persistent way of interpreting things negatively. I wasn’t someone with big problems so much as I was a bit of an emotional spoiled brat.

Within ten years of that conversation I found myself in the middle of the AIDS crisis, witnessing collective human suffering up close and personal for probably the first time in my life. In the years that followed, having the privilege of being allowed into many people’s experience of the darkest hours of their lives, I saw how often those with the most painful problems had the most positive attitude. They were positive not because of their circumstances but because at a time when giving and receiving love was literally all that they had left, they practiced it fully and found peace.

There’s a lot to be cynical, and jaded, and even angry about today. But we still have a choice because we can always choose love. Today I walked into a bakery and ordered a cappuccino. The man behind the counter asked me how I was and I said, “Great! I really like Mondays. How are you?” He said he was great too, and that he loves every day. I talked for a couple of minutes with my new friend, an immigrant from Africa with a heart full of gratitude for his family, work, and friends. The conversation itself was a blessing and both of us knew it. I came home with a lot more energy from him than I got from the coffee.

What has that given me, that little practical affirmation of what’s right with the world? A lot more energy with which to stare down what’s wrong. As it says in A Course in Miracles, “Look at the crucifixion but do not dwell on it.” A positive attitude doesn’t weaken the mind. In the middle of the worst news you might see today, perhaps remind yourself that it’s Mick Jagger’s 83rd birthday, put Satisfaction or Beast of Burden or Symphony to the Devil on full blast, and raise a glass to the miracle of it all.

As my new friend at the bakery told me, “Love every day!”

Share

Subscribe now

(If you’re interested in studying A Course in Miracles with me, you can do so daily).

In today’s video, I suggest a good way to start each day. Before you even get out of bed in the morning, send your love to the entire world. I know, though no longer care, that many would call this woo woo. Those who know the most, however, know it’s a way to rewire the brain. We can program the mind in the direction of inner peace, treating it as a spiritual muscle we develop through repeated forms of exercise. Sometimes it’s seemingly inconsequential movements that make a tremendous difference, such as a morning shift from “I wonder what’s going to happen today” to “I send love to all the world.”

The powers of consciousness are every bit as important as the powers of the world Why? Because everything starts there. Thought is the level of cause, and the world as we experience it is the level of effect. Learning to change our thoughts is the key to healing our lives. The spiritual journey, the journey of enlightenment, is the harnessing of our internal forces for the sake of an internal good.

Share

In the book of Exodus, God tells Moses to throw his staff onto the ground. It becomes a snake, which God then tells Moses to pick up by its tail. At that point, it becomes a staff again. What God commanded Moses is a lesson for us: if our thoughts are low and lowly, they are a dangerous thing. Lifted high, they empower us in everything we do. Thoughts of love, forgiveness, and faith in each other and in God, carry the power to cast out fear.

We need such power now, for we are living at a moment of chaos and tremendous change. The world is transforming, and with every thought we think and everything we do, we contribute to the collective decision in which direction we will turn. We will be burned by the fires of transformation, or we will be purified and illumined by them. The choice is up to us.

As we move through this time, we should ignore the needs of neither our bodies nor our spirits. We’re here to strengthen them both. We are rebuilding who we are now, to be the designers and the builders of a far more beautiful world.

Subscribe now

The ego mind is a constant fault-finder. Whether it’s a person or a circumstance, the ego is like a scavenger dog always on the look-out for someone or something to judge. Nothing is ever good enough. I remember always thinking I was too young, then thinking I was the right age for about a minute-and-a-half, then quickly starting to think I was too old! All three were statements not about my age but about my mind.

The journey of age is a mysterious one. The younger we are the more we know certain things, and the older we are the more we know certain other things. Hopefully we can begin to break down the generational walls that divide us, so we can learn from each other what we can’t see by ourselves. We need everyone now, at every age. We need each other’s wisdom. We need each other’s hope.

Share

(For those feeling the encroaching shadows of age, the magic time of sunset when the sky turns darker blue though no less beautiful and even more magical, you might want to check out my book MIDLIFE AWAKENING: Creating a Miraculous Next Chapter. There’s magic in the air at every age, for the body ages but the spirit does not.)

Subscribe now

This isn’t an easy season of our lives. It’s making us dig deep into ourselves as well into an analysis of the world around us in order to understand what’s happening. But that’s not an entirely bad thing. In fact, it’s long overdue.

In the midst of this chaotic hour, a profound rebirth is also taking shape. Despite the noise, the lies and the millions of distractions, many are thinking about things that matter for the very first time in a long while, if ever. Even the fear we feel is for many people the most authentic moment they’ve allowed themselves for years.

Share

We need to be there for one another right now, and remain in conversation about the things that matter most. Emotionally, this is all very trying. But we are becoming the people we need to be, not only to handle this turbulence but to give birth to a new chapter on the other side of this. Birth is hard, not only laboring a child but also laboring a new sense of self.

The President will say whatever he says tonight, and then we’ll have a clearer view of what’s going to go down between now and November 3. We all know his hold on reality is tenuous, and that’s being charitable. It’s a dangerous moment we’re in but we’re going to handle this. There are too many good and decent people in this country for me to believe for even one second that we won’t.

Keep your eye on the horizon. We are birthing a new world.

Subscribe now

I heard someone ask recently, “Is it possible to operationalize love?” I think every time we feed a hungry child, we operationalize love. Every time we act with kindness, we operationalize love. Every time we give help where needed, we operationalize love.

The problem isn’t that we can’t operationalize love; the problem is simply that we don’t. How many hungry children we do not feed, how much kindness we do not express, and how much help we are not willing to offer. When we’re as serious, strategic, andy committed to operationalizing love as some people are to operationalizing hate, our world will drastically change.

Until such time, the momentum, energy and rate of occurrence will continue to be on the side of all that’s not-love. And what is not-love is not neutral, for there is no such thing as a neutral thought. All energy manifests, either as a creative or a destructive force. Every thought we think adds to the manifestation of a world that is light, or a world that is dark. Today more than ever, enlightenment or dystopia are our only two choices for the future that lies ahead.

In the 2020 Presidential primary campaign, I stood on the Democratic debate stage and told President Trump he had harnessed hate for political purposes. I told him I would harness love, which clearly I wasn’t able to do; but that doesn’t mean the effort should end there. Turning love into what Martin Luther King Jr. called “a broad scale social force for good” is still the task of our generation. It was never anything that one person could do alone. It’s our collective mission. If we want a new and better world, each one of us can and must take part.

Such change does not begin with what we do, but with what we think. It’s the quality of our personhood more than the quantity of our actions that will ultimately turn the tide. Everything we do is infused with the consciousness with which we do it, and even the “right” thing done without love will only have temporary effects within a world still under the sway of a fear-based thought system. Waking up each morning dedicating our lives to love, to being agents of healing, to loving everyone to the best of our ability, is the most radical and ultimately most efficacious way to contribute to the world’s repair.

Without such change within us, we are limited in our ability to produce change in the world. As long as we are still imprisoned by the thought system that dominates the world, we remain at its effect and lack the power to create fundamental change. Our enlightenment is not a parallel track to the goings on of the world; it’s our key to transforming them. The dismantling of a thought system based on fear, and its replacement by a thought system based on love, makes us the people we need to be to exert miraculous power. Why? Because it purifies our hearts, diminishes our neuroses, heals our wounds, decreases our anxiety, and releases us from the fear that binds us. Nature’s intelligence takes over when our fear stops blocking it. In the words of A Course in Miracles, “Miracles are everyone’s right but purification is necessary first.” To recognize and surrender our non-loving thoughts, to be willing to see things differently, is our most important work. It is the work of self-purification. And as we do it, the mind expands. As our minds expand, the world transforms because the world is nothing other than a reflection of our thoughts.

The reason psychedelics are experiencing a resurgence today is because of a collective yearning to break free of those mental confines. As someone of the boomer generation, I well understand; we were into such drugs ourselves. I remember as though it were yesterday, being a seventeen-year-old tripping on LSD and saying to my boyfriend, “If Nixon did this, there would be no war!”

I was probably right.

On the other hand, a trip to the top of the mountain is not itself a ticket to remain there. It’s a glimpse we’re shown, before being placed back at the bottom of the mountain and made to climb up by ourselves. In my case that glimpse was important, however, and when I later read books like The Nature of Personal Reality by Jane Roberts and A Course in Miracles, the idea that the problems as well as the solutions are all in my mind was already part of my mental framework. I knew that, though I didn’t yet know how to apply what it means to my practical circumstances. The journey of enlightenment is the gritty work of learning how to do that.

Drugs can’t do it for you. You have to do it for yourself.

Share

None of this is theoretical. It’s practical. And it’s a collective as well as individual journey.

For instance, the roughly $100 Billion we’ve spent on the Iran war in 120 days could finance lifesaving malnutrition treatment for hundreds of millions of children and cover the current child severe-wasting caseload many times over.

But the mindset that dominates our global functioning is fear-based, immoral, and insane.

The problem is not a lack of food, or even a lack of money. The problem is what in worldly terms is called “a lack of political will.” Yet what is behind that? Why do we embrace, or at least acquiesce to the thought that our security lies more in our capacity to kill one another than to make peace with one another? What is the mental contagion that would persuade us to say yes to such a preposterous notion, that would lure us into agreement with such a dark and self-destructive idea, even aligning in mockery toward those who point out the obvious fallacy in seeing death as the path to greater life and greater life as the path to death?

The idea of changing our social paradigm from an economic to humanitarian bottom line is essential if we’re to free ourselves from the mental prison into which we have been cast and which we continue to maintain. Like elephants who are no longer fenced yet often remain within the confines of the space that previously held them, we refuse to think beyond the walls that surround us. But the walls themselves are nothing but thoughts, with no power beyond the power we give them. Nothing but our attachment to fear-based thinking now constrains us, and only our willingness to change our thinking will free us now. Love is to fear what light is to darkness; choose one, and the other disappears.

The thinking of the world is upside down. It is 180 degrees away from the thinking of a loving God. Learning to change our thinking, to psychologically and emotionally discipline ourselves to think love where we might have thought fear, is our greatest power to change the world. The change itself is not difficult so much as it is different. What is difficult is getting over our resistance to doing it; it’s amazing how attached we are to remaining in the hell of our own making. In A Course in Miracles it says “some people would rather die than change their mind.” How true that is apparently, of us. We are slow-walking — not so sure it’s even slow right now — to the brink of extinction while we fiddle with our smart phones. We know this, and yet we still keep walking.

But all this can change, and the urgency of this moment is propelling that change. Only in the material realm are there huge political and economic forces that would stop us. In the material realm, yes, they have power over us. But in the spiritual realm, we have power over them. Only Love, or the Mind of God, has ultimate existence; the rest is a mortal hallucination we have manufactured and we can choose to let go. Spirit has power over the material because in the realm of the ultimate it exists, and illusions do not.

The spiritual meaning of this moment is that it’s a chance to choose again. Each of us is assigned by nature the relationships and circumstances that provide, should we wish to inhabit it, the portal to a better world. We either activate or de-activate the portal with a single decision: do I choose love, or do I choose fear? It isn’t always easy, and only enlightened masters have made it to 24/7. But we can try. Every situation we find ourselves in is an opportunity to get it right, to expand our hearts beyond where we might have been the last time such a situation presented itself. But we will be tempted by every situation, as well, to constrict instead of expand… to fall into the ego’s default patterns of littleness or grandiosity. We will be tempted to do the victim thing, the judgmental thing, the dishonest thing, the inauthentic thing, the arrogant thing, the whatever it is with which we have blocked our love, blinding both ourselves and others to the light that lies within us.

Your light, my light, everyone’s light is needed now. It’s not just your own life you’re transforming when you choose love instead of fear. We are all a part of a gigantic sun, its rays so powerful it can cast out all the darkness of the world. But only if we do this together. If someone asks you, “Who do you think you are, God’s gift to the world?” please say yes. You, and everyone else on the planet. We have a job to do and it’s urgent now. Fear is on a roll these days, backed by huge material, technological and economic forces. But where there is love, there cannot be fear. Be the change. Hack the system. Choose love.

Subscribe now

Earlier today I did a Substack Live to read aloud the Declaration of Independence. I figure you can read the document yourself and I highly recommend that you do. Reading it aloud, possibly with friends or family, is a powerful thing to do.  

Here is the video about the 250th that I posted yesterday, in case you missed it. It’s very important to consider what this day meant 250 years ago, and what it means today.

Rarely has the nation’s birthday occurred at such a momentous hour as the one we’re living through now. We are once again deciding, as Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address, whether a nation “conceived in liberty…can long endure.” The Civil War sorely tested that premise, as we are tested now.

Revisiting the spirit of our ancestors - their words and their actions - we are reminded of the spirit that lives in us. Our Founders were not gods, they were people; but they rose courageously to the challenge of their time and we can do the same. The Founders began this experiment; it’s up to us whether we will repair and renew it.

Above all else, and in your own way, make the day count. God Bless America, and God Bless the world…

Share

Subscribe now

It’s America’s 250th birthday, yet unfortunately it’s less a time for raucous celebration than for a sober taking stock. We’re celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence at a time when our government is systematically trashing what it stands for.

We need to do more than celebrate our founding; we need to recommit to it and reclaim it now. For it’s not hyperbole to say the freedom it established for us is hanging by a thread; some, such as Minnesota’s Attorney General Keith Ellison, say we have already entered the region of full authoritarianism. I made it clear in today’s video that celebrating July 4th this year is incomplete unless we show up fully on November 3rd. We are, as were our Founders 250 years ago, at a moment of grave peril as well as incredible possibility.

Share

Here’s a transcript of the Declaration of Independence - something that this year, you might want to join with friends and family to read out loud. It’s definitely something to read with your kids. It was a radical document in 1776, and it’s a radical document today.

The men who signed the Declaration were risking their lives in doing so, because if the British had won the war they would have all been hanged as traitors to the King of England. The sign off to the Declaration is as follows: And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

We need to go deep this year, and then rise.

Subscribe now

And that’s what Trump is trying to do now, by federalizing the 2026 election. So far the courts have been blocking his unconstitutional power grab, as have Governors and Attorneys General throughout the country. But none of that will be enough unless We the People see the pattern for what it is, and get actively involved in resisting it.

Keep it legal, peaceful, and non violent - they’re using any excuse to come down hard on those who work against them. But resist we must. Silence should not be an option.

Share

Subscribe now

We had so many chances to prevent this precarious moment and we didn’t.

We had so many chances to stop this juggernaut and we didn’t.

And now we are where we are. We owe it to ourselves, our children, and our country to be clear-eyed about what’s happening now.

To those who say this is being negative, I say there’s nothing negative about yelling “Fire!” if the house is burning. The millions of Americans who stood on the sidelines for decades - chanting “I don’t do politics,” “That’s not where the change will come from,” or “Politics is too toxic” as an excuse for their complacency and lack of citizen involvement - are seeing in real time the old French adage, “If you don’t do politics, politics will do you.”

TrumpWorld is not only stealing the November election - actively, as we speak - but some among them have decided that should the American people get a little too pesky on Election Day, “We might as well get this over with.” This is a rolling coup, and if it reaches a climactic level then opponents will be dealt little mercy. They have agents to round people up. They have detainment centers to put us in. They have executive orders labeling protesters domestic terrorists and enemies of the state. A fascist takeover of America is a very real possibility over the next few months.

Yet there’s another real possibility as well, and that’s an historic pendulum swing on November 3, 2026. Believe it or not, I was a cheerleader in the seventh grade! I remember the outfit, the red and white pom poms, and the chant of “Push ‘em back! Push ‘em back! Waaaaay back!” But this time, it’s not a game.

I have no doubt the majority of Americans are fed up with what’s happening. The challenge is to make sure we have a fair and free midterm election, of course, and each of us should make it our personal business to make sure it is. Join with others. Sign up to help! And don’t underestimate your power online. That’s where a lot of the darkness is, and it needs to be met with a lot more light. Any time you see an obvious lie online, you can respond to it with a link, or an argument, from a reputable source that challenges the lie and proffers an established truth. You might think it wouldn’t make a difference, but it does! You never know who’s going to read your response. You don’t know what influence it might have. Anything, even the slightest act that permeates the field with light helps eradicate the darkness. In the quantum field of infinite possibility, there’s no such thing as big or small.

Share

One of the biggest problems we have these days is that the abnormal has been so normalized, it’s hard to be heard above the noise. Congressman Ted Lieu reported that in the unredacted Epstein files there are several allegations of child rape by the President, yet the press has treated it like it’s just another news bit. “Oh, it’s only allegations!” Yeah, right. So nothing to see there. Congress said they want all the unredacted files released, of course, but at this point that doesn’t even matter. Former Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “Nah,” and current acting Attorney General Todd Blanche says, “Nah,” so that’s it. That’s the America we live in today.

That’s just one current example of many, where laws are broken, principles trampled upon, even lives lost because of the criminal gang that’s now in charge. And again, it’s not negative to point this out. Yes, we’re offering solutions galore - beginning with November 3rd! In A Course in Miracles, its says “Look at the crucifixion but do not dwell on it.” In other words, don’t ignore the darkness - just don’t get so swept up in it that you spiral down. To ignore it entirely is not transcendence; it’s denial. A nation in denial is a nation that’s going down. The Course discusses positive denial - where you don’t deny the darkness exists, but you deny it the power to override the light.

Within the purview of the light, we don’t all agree on everything of course. In a free society, we don’t have to! But we all value freedom, and justice, and a rules based order based on law. We value the Declaration of Independence. We value the U.S. Constitution. We value democracy. We value humanitarian principles. And we are willing to make a stand for them all, when and if they are under assault.

Let’s commit to ourselves, to God, and to each other, that we will do what we can today - and on every day hereafter - to help make a difference and dissolve the chaos. The midterm elections are less than six months away. Friends don’t let friends pretend that there’s nothing we can do! There’s a lot we can do. Martin Luther King, Jr. said we should use every encounter as a chance for moral persuasion. Let’s leave behind the world of constant small talk. Only you can decide whether you’ll play life shallow or you’ll play life deep. Play it shallow, and they’re coming after us. Play it deep, and they will be stopped in their tracks. We’ll push ‘em waaaaay back. We the People, awakened and alert, shall rise up like a mighty force.

Subscribe now

As I wandered through a Banksy exhibit in London a couple of days ago, I was struck by the bluntness and passion he has brought to his decades of graffiti art. Never having seen so much of it presented in the same place, I had never thought about how much he has to love humanity to be so unsparing in his critique of it. I can’t think of any other artist or philosopher who so fiercely lays bare the insanity of our age.

Share

American consumerism and militarism, in particular, receive deserved condemnation. But we’re hardly alone in being put under his microscope; all of modernity is skewered for what we are doing to each other, to children particularly, and to the earth. What makes Banksy so phenomenal, however, is his clear insistence that things don’t have to be this way. He’s not doing all this to make us hate ourselves; he’s doing this to inspire us to create a better world.

I left the exhibit just grateful he’s out there, whatever his actual name is these days. May he remain as anonymous as possible, as prolific as ever, and a continuing prophetic voice in our midst. It can’t always be easy living inside that man’s head.

If you’re anywhere near London, make it over to Old Brompton Road to see the exhibit. Such living genius is not to be missed.

Subscribe now

Some stories need to be remembered, told and told often year after year, passed on to our children like a torch they will one day pass on to theirs. What happened on June 6, 1944, was one of the greatest examples of collective heroism in the history of the world. 130,000 Allied troops - primarily from the United States, the UK, and Canada - landed on the beaches of Normandy to make the assault that would mark the liberation of France and the beginning of the end of Hitler’s Third Reich. Tens of thousands of those men would not survive.

Any time you read about the D-Day invasion, there is some new element that fascinates. Planned over a period of two years, the level of coordination, secrecy, and pure military genius involved was something no fighting force ever matched before or since. Years ago I visited Normandy, and the impact of being at the site - actually seeing the Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword beaches - was something I will never forget. I only got to spend a couple of hours at one of the extraordinary museums there, but it’s one of my goals to go back and spend at least a day or two absorbing more. I don’t know anyone who has visited Normandy and not been emotionally overwhelmed.

That day- after years of fighting Hitler on land, sea, and air for almost five years - the Allies were finally ready to invade the Western Front. The invasion began with airborne assaults shortly after midnight on June 6th, followed by amphibious landings at 6:30AM. The average age of the soldiers who participated was 22 years old. Given the intense fortifications of land mines, metal tripods, and barbed wire on the beach, plus heavy German gunfire that would greet their arrival, one can only imagine the scenes of bravery and horror. I’ve read that the opening of the film Saving Private Ryan supposedly gives a realistic depiction.

General Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in charge of Operation Neptune, knew that no matter what happened - whether the Allies succeeded or failed - he was sending thousands of young men to their death that day. And World War 2 was not a war of choice or a military misadventure; it was a civilization-defining battle between freedom and fascism. One man was set on destroying the world, and millions rose up to stop him.

It was Eisenhower who listened to daily meteorological reports and made the final decision, “Okay, let’s go.” The unknowns were many and the stakes immeasurable. If the skies were too dark at the time of the invasion, there wouldn’t be enough light for the landing. If there wasn’t enough cover of darkness, the landing craft would be seen from too far away and the Germans would have more time to respond. Hitler was convinced that the invasion would be at Calais, not Normany, and it was important to act before he could figure out otherwise.

Finally, in one of the most astonishing historical twists of fate, German Field Marshal Edwin Rommel, whose job it was to oversee the Nazi army’s coastal defenses, had returned to Germany on June 5th for a quick visit to see his wife on her birthday! He traveled 500 miles to personally deliver to her a pair of grey suede shoes he had found in Paris, having been assured that the rough seas at the time would make an invasion over the next couple of days impossible. While he made it back to France by the night of June 6th, Rommel’s absence during the first hours of the invasion was a blessing for the Allies and a devastating blow to the ability of the German panzers to respond adequately to the initial assault. By the time he returned, the Allies had largely secured the Normandy beaches.

Eisenhower was famous for walking around talking to his men on the night before a battle. He’d say, “Scared, soldier?”to which the response of course would be, “Yes, Sir.” Ike would say, “You just gotta keep moving. That’s the thing. Just keep moving.” I remember from my visit to Normandy, where you can actually still see barges in the water, that there is a ghostly feeling there very hard to explain. You close your eyes and can almost see what happened on what is now a tranquil beach and was then such a scene of carnage. Starting then and for over the next twelve weeks, thousands of lives were sacrificed so fascists would not take over the world.

Share

President Roosevelt was at the White House when a call came through at 3:00AM on June 6th from the Army Chief of Staff General George Marshal, reporting to him that the landings had begun. Roosevelt is said to have remained on the phone throughout the day, Eleanor with him, trying to get whatever news he could from military headquarters in Southern England. That night, the President spoke to the nation on the radio…

My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home - fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas - whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them - help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too - strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen.

Subscribe now

Eisenhower, meanwhile, drafted an unsent memo on June 5, 1944, planning to send it to Roosevelt if the invasion failed. It opened with these words, “Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops,” and ended with, “If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”

Fortunately, Eisenhower never had to send that memo. He crumpled up the document once it was clear it wouldn’t be needed, but it was found and saved for posterity by his military secretary. Hitler was supposedly excited when he learned that the invasion had begun, so certain was he of German success. But he was wrong, of course. From that day forward Hitler’s days were numbered. On the anniversary of D-Day. we remember those whose names we know, and those whose names we will never know, who fought and died to make sure of it. They died, so we could live.

Hey, you. Just thought I’d drop a quick note to catch up.

The techno-authoritarian dictatorship envisioned by Peter, Curtis, Elon, David, Russell and the others seems to be taking shape fast.

The part where you have to demolish democratic institutions in order to start over on a foundation of everything under 24-hour corporate control has been going swimmingly. Ellison is ransacking CBS, so that’s good. Women and minorities seem to be on their way out, or at least quieted, so that’s unfolding according to plan. The Supreme Court got the message (Clarence was a good investment). All in all, it’s a great day. America is back!

I mean, there were bound to be some squeaks from the serfs along the way. Did you hear what happened in Albania? Jared and Ivanka have a great idea, bought an island over there for development - plans for a billionaire resort, gonna be beautiful - and now a bunch of Albanian street scum are all up in arms as though it’s their island! Ungrateful bastards. If people would only realize, be compliant and this won’t hurt.

Donald and his guys are gonna make sure the midterms won’t be a problem. They’ve got some plans to lock that up, the whole team is on it. It’s a complicated process but it will be worth it in the end. If they do it right, we’ll have the next twenty years or so completely sewn up and from then on out it will basically just be maintenance. Dems will make a lot of noise in 2028 but as long as the November midterms go well, we’ll be okay. There’s always the chance some upstart Che Guevara type starts to rally the masses, but our people are on it. We got DHS, DOJ, ICE etc. They’ll handle any problems. We’ll be fine.

Let me know if you wanna meet at the club next week and play a few rounds. I’ve heard they’ve cleaned things up a bit and all the girls are over 18 now. Not quite as juicy but hey. I’m sure it’s temporary, just till the furor dies down. What’s important is the long game. We got this. They would need a miracle to stop us now.

Share

Subscribe now

Reminder that day 2 of Marianne’s book club starts at 4pm PT / 7pm ET. We’re covering A Politics of Love.

The Zoom link is below for paid subscribers

See you there!
Team Marianne

*All chapters of the book can be found in the Book Club section of Marianne’s Substack.

Read more

A reminder that paid subscribers are meeting on Zoom at 4pm PT / 7pm ET for a discussion about my books Healing the Soul of America and A Politics of Love.

You can find all chapters of both books posted in the Book Club section of this Substack.

Paid subscribers can access the Zoom link below.

Read more

Hey, Everyone.

A new world begins with a new conversation, in our minds and in our world.

Wednesday and Thursday we’ll be getting together for a level of conversation that we sorely need. It’s historically and spiritually informed, heart-centered as well as head-centered, and forms the genesis of a new politics. “Politics,” said Gandhi, “should be sacred.” He didn’t mean religious or dogmatic or doctrinaire. He meant coming from the deepest, most soulful place within us.

Join me 4pm PT / 7pm ET on Wednesday, June 3 and Thursday, June 4, as we gather to discuss my books Healing the Soul of America and A Politics of Love. The material in the books, however, is just a jumping off place for a larger conversation. We will address the brokenness of our world today, considering how each one of us can help repair it.

I posted all chapters from each book in May. You can find those in the Book Club section of my Substack. Paid Subscribers can access the Zoom link below.

I look forward to being with you. This is our moment to rise.

Till then,

Marianne

Read more

Visiting Paris for a few days, I’m reminded of the intense beauty of this city. Anyone who travels here has to be.

Driving around the Luxor Obelisk at the bottom of the Champs-Elysee, I started thinking about where all that beauty came from. It doesn’t take away from its magnificence to realize how much money had to be hoarded by a small group of people in order to create it. Century after century, a vast majority of the French population lived like serfs in order to support the unbelievable extravagance of a few. And while we gaze with awe at the gorgeous art, sculpture, and architecture in such places as the palaces of Fountainebleau and Versailles, you can also understand the anger of the French people that built up generation after generation, century after century, among those who witnessed all that while having no way to feed their hungry children. Millions of people with no hope of anything ever being better. People whose frustration and despair would lead in time to the grotesque horrors of the French Revolution and the overthrow of the French monarchy and aristocracy. All that beauty led to all that ugliness.

There’s a whole lot there to ponder.

It’s when you realize the human dimension of history that your own point in time opens up to you. Monarchic and aristocratic systems throughout Europe led some of its citizens to simply accept what was, many like the French to revolutionize their societies from within, and some like the American colonists to seek a better life elsewhere. The North American colonies were not settled by people who wanted to separate from England, but they moved to a new continent in hopes of achieving things they felt they could not achieve in Britain. When even in America they felt the frustration and anger of living at the effect of an oppressive King, they declared their independence, fought a revolutionary war, and created their own way of doing things.

So began the United States of America, as an audacious experiment in repudiating the reign of kings. What a sad and bitter irony that our 250th birthday celebration is overseen by someone who clearly doesn’t get the point. Our president has no sense of the radicalism of the American ideal. He doesn’t seem to understand that our country was founded to reject the dictates of an oppressive king; quite the opposite, he wants to be one. Just like Napoleon had the letter N written everywhere, Trump wants his name to be everywhere. Absolute monarchs and imperialistic emperors appeal to him, actually, both those of the past as well as the present. But the United States does not have a king. The role of our president comes with restraints, and President Trump doesn’t like restraints. He wants it to be all him, all the time, doing whatever it is he wants to do. He sees any limits to his power as a personal affront. And while he has cunningly purged the government of almost anyone who would hold him accountable, every day it’s more and more obvious that the American people plan to do so. He knows this, which is why his rigging of the midterms has begun in earnest. We are already in the throes of a cold civil war.

The American people are the heirs of our original ideals, and we are not the first generation needing to defend them. We’re called on now, as others have been before us, to stand for our liberty despite intense opposition. Our Founders understood the horrors of a system in which the whims of one person, enabled by an aristocracy of sycophants, suppressed the hopes and dreams of ordinary people. Nowhere in the Constitution is it written, “Don’t worry, it will all be fine.” Quite to the contrary. It’s a document written by people living hundreds of years before us, our Founders trying as best they could to protect us from the worst aspect of ourselves.

What an audacious bunch they were. It’s not enough to celebrate those men; we need to embody their audacity. This 250th birthday celebration should be a time of recommitment and rededication. The sign-off to the Declaration of Independence was this: And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. We need to do that too.

Those 56 men, by signing the Declaration of Independence, were committing treason against the King of England. Had the British won the war, each of them would have been hanged as traitors. It’s one of the great ironies of history that while 41 of the signers owned slaves - the most egregious transgression against the very principle of human equality - they nevertheless risked their lives placing into the ethers of human possibility that one day such evils would not exist. It’s been left to every generation that followed to make real in its own time the actualization of the document’s vision. Before we rush to cynically judge those who came before us - which is, after all, so chic to do these days - perhaps we should ask how well we ourselves are doing

America has never completed the task of “creating a more perfect union” - but at our best we have tried. Against great odds we have moved forward, we have self-corrected. Today, however, we’re not just not moving forward. We are not just standing still. We are walking backwards. We have regressed.

Share

July 4th, the official signing of the Declaration, is considered our country’s birthday. The Constitution was ratified twelve years later. With the Declaration of Independence, we separated from England. With the Constitution, we established how we would be doing things our own way.

While Donald Trump’s name is not written in the Constitution, the document was created to ensure that no one such as he would gain power in this country. It happened nevertheless, of course, but not only because of the aggressive nature of the political darkness he represents. It happened just as much because of the political light we failed to commit to. We failed to keep it in our hearts and to teach it to our children. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” It’s not that we don’t have a vision; there has never been a more visionary statement than our Declaration of Independence. But our vision has been sidelined, and we the people allowed that.

Generation after generation, compromise heaped upon compromise, particularly over the last fifty years, we farmed out our best thinking to those unworthy of the trust. With every passing year our political institutions have become just another form of aristocracy-lite. When Thomas Jefferson said “The only safe repository for power is in the hands of the people,” he meant it. But somehow we forgot.

Let’s go over the four basic principles of the Declaration of Independence, just in case anyone needs to be reminded. 1) All men are created equal; 2) All men are endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, 3) Governments are instituted to secure those rights, and 4) If the government is not doing that job, it’s the right of the people to alter or to abolish it.

Although Donald Trump neither understands nor respects those American First Principles (it was so clear in his interview with Terry Moran that he had never read the Declaration - he said it was about “unity and love and respect”) what ultimately matters is that we do. We can, despite the difficulties of this moment, protect our freedoms and the ideals they signify. That our country is in a state of decline is irrefutable; the question that remains is whether or not our decline is reversible. I choose to believe that it is, but then again I believe in miracles. Americans are in the process of a great remembering. We ourselves created the conditions of our brokenness, and we ourselves are the source of our repair. As we become more humble, as we become more receptive, as we become more available to the great work that lies before us, the seas are gonna rise and the winds will start to blow. The waters are gonna part I tell you. I feel it in my bones.

Subscribe now

This weekend I’m in Paris, where today I saw an original 1/16-scale bronze version of the Statue of Liberty at the Musee D’Orsay. I felt numb gazing at it, thinking of all the memes over the last few year or so of Lady Liberty bent over weeping. With our 250th birthday only weeks away, we have much to consider….about our country….and about ourselves.

Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the designer and sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, said these words in 1898:

The experience of the old is not a motor: it is only a lamppost, warning against dangers; the light that illuminates the long path ahead is you, the youth, who are holding its torch; it is you who are to illuminate the future and its obscurities.

We’re living in that future now, and to say it’s filled with obscurities is an understatement. Never has there been a more important moment to consider America’s meaning. Not just our policies, our economy, or even our history. Our meaning. That, more than anything else - should we embrace it an understand it - will carry us through this awful hour.

Subscribe now

On the base of the Statue of Liberty is inscribed the poem The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus. Poet and activist Lazarus dedicated her poem to the refugees she was aiding at the time, applying for asylum from anti-Semitic pogroms in Eastern Europe. It’s worth reading every word of the poem, slowly and aloud to yourself. I’ll warn you now that it might break your heart.

THE NEW COLOSSUS

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

It’s worth asking, what has happened to us? We have gone from that poem…to concentration camps. Literally. To concentration camps. To Dilley in Texas, and Delaney Hall in New Jersey, and Alligator Alcatraz in Florida. Nothing could be more of a spit in the face to Lady Liberty, to Emma Lazarus, or to every brave American before us who has struggled and sacrificed for this country. Yet the darkness those detainment camps represent - and all the other assaults on our freedom today - will not prevail.

Millions of Americans are making sure Lady Liberty’s torch is held high, and we will continue to. From people protesting on the streets of Minneapolis, to judges all over the country standing up to the Administration’s corruption and criminality, to every American who will stand up for our democracy on November 3rd, her light has not gone out. And it will never go out as long as it lives in us.

Share

*Don’t forget our club for paid subscribers on Wednesday and Thursday. All chapters of Healing the Soul of America and A Politics of Love are in the Book Club section of the Substack.

Hopefully the material has brought you some Aha! moments. American history, in Bartholdi’s words, is “a lamppost, warning against dangers; the light that illuminates the long path ahead.”

Dates: Wednesday 6/3 and Thursday 6/4
Time: 4pm PT / 7pm ET
PAID SUBSCRIBERS WILL BE SENT THE ZOOM LINK ON TUESDAY

Let’s seek some light together.

Subscribe now

I did a Substack Live yesterday with Jeff Burningham about his book THE LAST BOOK WRITTEN BY A HUMAN: Becoming Wise in the Age of AI.

JeffBurningham.com
JeffBurningham.Substack.com
The Last Book Written by a Human: Becoming Wise in the Age of AI

JEFF’S BIO

Jeff Burningham is the author of The Last Book Written by a Human: Becoming Wise in the Age of AI, a thought-provoking exploration of what it means to stay deeply human in an increasingly automated world. In the book, Burningham draws on decades of experience building companies, investing in founders, and leading communities to examine how we can cultivate wisdom, empathy, and purpose as artificial intelligence accelerates around us.

A serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Jeff started his career building a tech startup in college and later founded Peak Capital Partners and Peak Ventures, establishing himself as a major player in real-estate, venture capital, and technology with multibillion-dollar assets under management by the time he was in his 30s.

Drawing from his business journey, his run for governor of Utah in 2020, and his lifelong interest in consciousness, spirituality, and human potential, Jeff brings a unique vantage point to the intersection of leadership, innovation, and meaningful community building. Jeff previously served as a Bishop in his local congregation, an experience that profoundly shaped his views on service, faith, and the human spirit.

With a compelling blend of business acumen, spiritual inquiry, and storytelling, Jeff reframes the dialogue around AI: It’s not just about replacing humans - it’s about recovering what makes us human.

He is a happily married father of four, a proud grandfather, and lives in Provo, Utah where he continues to dedicate his time, talents, and resources to be a leading voice that bridges the gap between technology, spirituality, and government in order toensure human flourishing in an era of highly intelligent machines.

Subscribe now

Share

Be that as it may, as my mother would say, it is what it is … until it isn’t. As I make clear in my video, the last few days have been a doozy.

Oh, and another one! The Justice Department brought charges yesterday against Raul Castro of Cuba. And you know what that means. This could be the opening salvo in Trump’s next great misadventure. Let’s pray not, and at the same time keep our eyes on the ball.

Another day in TrumpWorld. Oy gevalt.

Subscribe now

Share