Reflections

A dog was carrying a piece of meat in his mouth to eat at home. On his way he had to cross a plank lying across a running brook. As he crossed, he looked down and saw his reflection in the water beneath. Reacting as if it was another dog with a piece of meat, the dog snapped at the reflection in the water and by doing so opened his mouth and the meat fell out, dropping into the water never to be seen again. There are many morals to this old story such as, “If you covet, you may lose all.” Or “It is very foolish to be greedy.” The moral I like best is, “beware lest you lose the real thing by grasping at its reflection.” Our ideas of a good life are often a reflection of our culture, the influence of others in our social groups or our consumption of siloed media. I feel a sense of loss for the younger generations who live in the era of computers, gaming, and Artificial Intelligence, who never experienced the analog world. The joy of playing hide and seek outside, the journey of one’s mind writing in cursive and sending a letter in the mail and then waiting for a reply. The pleasure of listening to an album on a record player and reading the liner notes. The discussion of ideas that took place at the dinner table with family, rather than the mindless scrolling on smart phones. Reading a hardcover book and smelling the ink of the pages waft in the air as you turn them. Or finding a treasured old tome with musky pages and imbibing the prudence of the past. I enjoy the innovation that technology has brought for the betterment of life. Better medicine, better information, better transportation, better communication, better opportunities. Yet, there is something about the virtue of the past that I hold passionately onto. Our nature as humans does not change. That is the one constant we find as we look back in history and see the humanity of our ancestors through story, song, and sagacity. Those that think human nature changes are like the dog snapping at its reflection. The end of the year is a good time for reflection. It is a time when we bend back our thoughts and intentions and ruminate on the actions we did and did not take. I think about how dedicated I was to uphold the positive philosophy of the past while embracing the nutrients of the new year. Did I make a positive progression towards my intention? Did I make the right choices to advance the one or two classic ideas I wanted to implement that would help me succeed and thrive? Or was I too busy trying to gather up someone else’s reflection of who and what I should be? Jimmy Buffett had a lyric in a song he sang that goes, “only time will tell.” Perhaps, that is the only thing we can be judged on. Did we do what was best for the advancement of the good, the true, and the beautiful? Or were we wrapped up in ruling others rather than taking stock on what we could do best as individuals to advance ourselves, and thereby humanity. In advance of the Jewish New Year Rosh Ha Shanna, literally meaning head of the new year, Jews reflect, and repent for their transgressions. The shofar, a ram’s horn made into a musical instrument, is blown as a symbolic “wake up call” from slumber. The sound reminds one to examine and conduct oneself so they may be written into the “Book of Life” for the coming year. As you enter this New Year, it’s an opportune time to start your own personal “wake-up call” and make an old tradition new again. Give yourself the gift of doing those things that brought humanity to the dance. I am committing to opening each day with a mantra, prayer, or time to listen to my own breath. To write and read daily. To prepare and think thoughtfully to enable to create intentionally. To look to do something useful or thoughtful for someone else. To make someone smile each day. And to be intentional in what I do. Giving myself thirty days to make each of these things a habit can help make them repeatable. Focusing on my desire to make it a habit increases my chances of repeating the next day. As I look back on this year’s successes, I continue to build up my strengths and work on those things I wish to improve day by day. I am aware of the day’s news, yet I refuse to be dragged into the muck of the world. I can have a positive mindset and impact myself by demonstrating what is possible for me by working to be the best I can be. To slow down to speed up in the coming year and not let the illusion of others deflect my focus. The world advances sometimes for good, and sometime not, yet as Thomas Paine once stated, “The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection. Happy New Year! https://kimmonson.com/featured_articles/reflection/?vgo_ee=43w9SD5lCV9GFMr7P93KT2ZT9Ki4PETUjFfhFeWeMHlwyaDfuEs2OxOy%3AeaSS20nB6zVIdNglqKZlK%2Fx7N76HTLP1

Listen Before You Leap

“The Frogs and the Well,” is an old Aesop Fable in which two frogs lived together in a marsh. But one hot summer day the marsh dried up and they left it to look for another place to live, for frogs like damp places if they can get them. By and by they came to a deep well and one of them looked down into it and said to the other, “This looks like a nice cool place. Let us jump into it and settle here.” But the other, who had a wiser head on his shoulders replied, “Not so fast, my friend. Supposing this well dried up like the marsh, how should we get out again?” The moral of the story, listening to others’ ideas may be better than your own. I have struggled with the issue of listening for years. My first-grade report card stated that “Bradley is loquacious.” I always preferred talking to listening. My wife will heartly agree. A physician will use auscultation, the act of listening for sounds made by internal organs, such as the heart or lungs, to help diagnosis a patient’s health. This process of listening to body sounds derives from the Latin auscultare, to listen attentively. An auto mechanic will use their listening skills to identify and diagnose the root cause of a car problem to see if your vehicle has a fast idle, an increased idle speed that occurs for short periods of time after a cold engine starts to improve drivability and speed engine warm up;or detonation, a rapid, uncontrolled combustion of the air-fuel mixture in the cylinder that results in a hard, rattling sound. A male will listen to his female partner who will tell him about a problem or an issue she is having and more times than not, the male will try to find a solution to her problem because he’s internally wired differently than she is. She will be speaking, and he will be listening, yet she is not being heard. Unlike the physician and the auto mechanic, who are trying to fix a problem, the female partner may just wish to talk something through or explain something that is affecting her. She just wants someone to listen to her. Of course, I am writing in generalities compared to the first two examples, however, my experience confirms this. In my Roget’s Thesaurus I find the term hearing as a verb, a word that in syntax generally conveys an action such as, to listen, attend, lend an ear, bend an ear, tune in, give a hearing to, give audience to, prick up one’s ears, be all ears. Therefore, listening can be an active endeavor that requires the one receiving the words spoken to be attentive, open, and not respond. This is a skill that takes practice and repetition to master. Acknowledging this is a good first step, says my wife. As a member of Liberty Toastmasters, I practice and refine my listening skills. The roles of evaluator, general evaluator, grammarian, ah-counter, and the audience members help me learn to hear what a speaker says, and report back what I heard them say. In fact, only a third of the time in a Toastmasters meeting do members speak, yet it is known as the premiere “public speaking” organization. Perhaps it should be rebranded as the “premier listening” organization. Imagine if businesspeople, educators, politicians, media, and public policy influencers spent more time practicing the skill of listening to others rather than spouting off on ideas and issues they have an opinion about. Think how much richer our dialog could be listening to ideas based on principles and not opinions. Imagine civil dialogs and debates rather than uninformed diatribes and noise that divides. I once had the opportunity to hear Jonathan Haidt speak at CU Boulder. He is a social psychologist and co-founder of the Heterodox Academy which is committed to advancing the principles of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement to improve higher education and academic research. Haidt realizes that for him to have a beneficial debate, he needs an opposing argument with someone who can articulate ideas that can help him be a more critical thinker. Haidt co-wrote The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure. In that book he says, “Education should not be intended to make people comfortable; it is meant to make people think.” Listening facilitates the opportunity to think and thereby act, more prudently. The next time you are looking to jump into a new well, think about the two frogs. https://kimmonson.com/featured_articles/listen-before-you-leap/?vgo_ee=zCdIUUMY0jPQ6Iv2PpAi8%2Fv3WtzLe1nyXQqDMrMFNX8nGv%2BOiZINbTnT%3AGQy1%2B1clEuOuGvxcz1C8%2F3yuZcDTkK81

A Climate Conversation

“The weather is here I wish you were beautiful.” These lyrics, sung by the great Jimmy Buffett, remind me of ugly, unsettling, uncomfortable conversations about climate change with friends and family. The lyrics, likely taken from a dive bar bathroom wall, seem humorous and prophetic at the same time. In conversations I’ll strive for clarity and truth based on reason and logic while my opposition usually argues to win the argument using emotion, propaganda, and utopian thinking. This is about to get interesting so let’s order some boat drinks. When I was growing up in the 1970’s I was indoctrinated with the idea that the planet was overburdened with people, pollution, and a puzzling array of end of the world problems. “Save the Earth” was the rallying cry. Earth Day Festivals were the rage and global cooling was the topic of the day. Being young and uninformed I bought into the narrative. In the 1980’s when I was starting my career and raising a family, I was too busy to notice the coalitions of activists, environmental groups, and experts who scared everyone with man-made global warming. As an aside, it seems we’ve not learned from history because the Wuhan lockdowns created the same “boogie man” scenario. Under the religion of science, the activist became alarmist, preaching that modern civilization is baking the planet into oblivion, yet that prediction proved wrong. The only burnt surfaces were the predictions of the end of the world that became toast and so the alarmists doubled down. A former vice president filmed a half-baked story and by omission lied about the information in the film he narrated. A misguided Swedish girl captivated a United Nations audience with her carnival performance claiming her youth had been stolen and Climate Change is an existential threat to existence. The current administration wants to ban every modern convenience from gas stoves, water heaters, and fans, forcing Americans to buy unethically manufactured batteries used in EV’s which are made from cobalt and lithium mined in the Congo where labor and environmental laws do not exist. Escaping to that tropical island Jimmy Buffett regales about and leaving the “Fruitcakes” to their own self destruction is looking better all the time. Even after reading dozens of books, articles, and attending debates and seminars with world-famous experts, I felt discouraged and dejected with the realization that the alarmists were louder, well organized, and using emotion while gaining more power to rule the world in their dystopian vision. That was until I had an opportunity to attend the film premier of a new documentary called A Climate Conversation narrated by my friend Kim Monson, radio talk show host of The Kim Monson Show on KLZ-560. The documentary featured Gregory Whitestone, a Geologist, author, and head of the CO2 Coalition, Walt Johnson, a Geophysicist and consultant, Ken Gregory, B.AppSc., P.Eng. and Friends of Science, and Ronald Stein, Founder and Ambassador for Energy and Infrastructures at PTS Advance. Like previous documentaries, such as FrackNation created by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinnery that addressed misinformation from environmental alarmists about the process of hydraulic fracturing, A Climate Conversation cuts through the rhetoric and propaganda and asks simple questions that often go unanswered by so-called environmental experts. This film is grounded in real science and free from pointing fingers, calling names, and using incomplete data. The film features actual scientists who are not beholden by politics, government, or special interests. These featured individuals unveil and examine a wider view with more information to explore, challenge, and ask more questions to find the truth. Questions the film explores are: Is it true that 97% of scientists agree that humans are the cause of global warming and climate change? (This number encounters strong trade winds with the actual statistic of less than 1% of scientists agree that humans are causing any harm). What has been the history of the earth’s temperature and CO2 content? What is the cost of going carbon free by 2050? What is the availability of the materials needed to go carbon free? What are the implications of gaining access of those materials? Should we be concerned that the planet is warming? What are the dangerous levels of CO2? Can you trust climate models? Is human activity really the culprit? What, if anything, can be done to mitigate any adverse previous actions to make the planet a better place for the future? These questions are answered, and I came away from this film, as did the 300 plus people who attended the Colorado premier, more hopeful than ever. As the topic is explored it reveals the moral, social, and practical implications of the “miracle molecule” CO2 which will be seen and redeemed and no longer feared. Once you view this film, you’ll have a change in latitude and a change in attitude. See it online at https://www.aclimateconversation.com/

Which nation does not do what it’s supposed to do until it’s too late? Answer, ProcrastiNATION. A cute joke, yet a real issue, and it has become worse with America and Americans. Our elected representatives delay, deflect, and dilly-dally on almost every issue and we, the American people, have allowed them to do so. On any public policy at the federal, state, or local level politicians kick the can down the road and blame the bureaucracy they created for these festering problems. This reminds me of the story of an old man sitting in his rocking chair on the front porch on a hot summer’s day. His old hound dog is wagging his tail back and forth, yet his rhythm is off and every time the old man rocks back the dog’s tail is caught under the chair rails, and the dog HOWLS. A young man walking by hears and then sees where all the howling is coming from. He approaches the old man and asks why his dog doesn’t move as he rocks over the dog’s tail. The old man says, “I guess it doesn’t hurt bad enough yet.” Too many Americans howl and complain yet procrastinate about doing anything about the problems we face because they think the challenges are too overwhelming, or my favorite, “I don’t have time;” or “I don’t know enough about the problem.” All good examples of pointing a finger forward and not aware there are three fingers pointing back. The problem is not out there; the problem is us. We are ignorant, lazy, and not willing to fight for what our founders gave us. Which reminds me of another quip. What do you call a country full of lazy people? Answer, a procrastiNATION MISSION Laramie Energy’s mission is to maintain an excellent reputation as a Rockies oil and gas producer committed to environmental protection, safety, and regional community interests while prudently investing its capital in high potential unconventional oil and gas resource plays that will generate an above average return on investment. How do we get out of the morass of the fundamental issues we face, like keeping our nation free and prosperous? You, as a citizen, have a responsibility to be better informed and more active. I recently gave a speech on Civic Knowledge. I asked a simple question. What are the five liberties of the first amendment? Most of the audience could give two or three examples. Most could not give all five. In case you are curious, they are the freedom of religion, of speech, of the press, the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Every American should be able to roll these five ideas off their tongues as easily as they know what is on Netflix. Sadly, they do not. If we are to remain a free and vibrant society, we must be engaged citizens. We must know the foundational ideas of citizenship, which are to be self-reliant, self-assertive, and have civic-knowledge and self-restraint. If these foundational ideas are not taught and practiced, the principles of human equality, natural rights, government by consent, limited powers, rule of law, and equal protection will mean nothing and the house of freedom, built by so many, will continue to rot away. Yet, I have hope a few good citizens can make a difference and stand at the vanguard of liberty. Their fortitude, prudence, temperance, and sense of justice will encourage others of character to stand up and stand firm on the bedrock of our Declaration of Independence. This is the apple of gold Abraham Lincoln spoke about in his “Fragments on the Constitution.” Yet he also warned, “…we must study, and understand the points of danger.” It is essential to start today to overcome the distractions we have faced and take action now. Do not procrastinate. https://kimmonson.com/featured_articles/procrastination/?vgo_ee=lONR%2B7Na63%2B0XxEpIEulhV2u82Bm7jXkAiHzIIjFKMjXhMMEWSY8mA3k%3AQgzaJHBItdVXpFoLLMWldRb4TDNdZzwQ

Consistency

The great Jim Rohn said,” The smallest of disciplines, practiced every day, start an incredible process that can change our lives forever.” I have practiced the discipline of being consistent for 40 years. Here’s the proof. On Tuesday, August 1, 2023, was an anniversary of sorts. I started working in the flower business for my father as a salesman in his manufacture’s representative business. I was fresh out of college with a degree in Communication Arts. Little did I know I would still be in the business and come to love and enjoy working in it. For 16 years plus years, I would travel the West Coast calling on wholesale florist and craft distributors selling flower supplies. I would be gone for weeks at a time, often six months out of the year. Before this time, I had worked for my father when I was in high school when he was traveling on business in different parts of his territory. I would drive to the Flower Market in Los Angeles and call on various customers stocking their shelves of products my father had sold them. Then I would take inventory and present it to the buyer. I learned the ropes by doing the basics of business and it taught me many important lessons about serving customers. Stocking shelves taught me the importance of rotating inventory and keeping them full. This activity would also allow me to see the back stock room where I could observe my products and the competition. I was always trying to keep my backstock neat, numerical, and easy to count. This helped the warehouse workers see my products and pull them if there were similar but competing items to choose from. My Father had instilled in me that every product I put on the shelf for walk-in sales was a penny in my pocket. In the 1970’s pennies led to dollars, and I like the idea of making money. I later realized what I was doing was not just making money, I was helping my father’s customers become successful by helping them move products out the door. After the shelves were full and I placed as much product out on the sales floor as possible I would take inventory for the customer on index cards way before anyone had computers. The cards were divided into what today we would call cells by columns. At the top was the date and along the side was the item number. I would record the current inventory on that date and then hand the cards to the buyer. The buyer would often give me the reorder right then. I would write the order up on an order form pressing hard because there were always three copies. One to leave for the customer, one to mail to the company, and one for my father’s files. When I arrived back to my father’s office, I would fold the orders and address each order for the various companies, place a stamp on the envelopes and mail them the next day. There were no 800 numbers or fax machines, let alone e-mail of text. I would leave a copy of the orders for my father so he could review them once he arrived back home. I worked for my father for sixteen years learning about building relationships, helping customers get what they needed when they needed it, and selling myself. I learned and practiced the platinum rule, treating customers how they wanted to be treated. I continued to stock shelves, take inventory, selling what was new, what was missing, and what could make my customer more productive and profitable. It was not always easy, yet I learned to have fun while doing my job which became my passion for serving customers and thereby became my career. Over time I earned a reputation for getting the job done with integrity and respect. My customers would often send me “Thank You” cards for helping them in their success. I treasure these to this day. Times were changing and after a series of less than favorable events I was recruited to work for a specialty spray paint company located in Boulder, Colorado where I stated as the National Accounts Manager and then transitioned into the role of National Sales Manager. I served this company and their customers for 22 years and 10 months before the company was sold and my position was no longer available. It nice way of saying I was terminated. As good fortune would have it I was asked to join an internationally renowned sales and importing company allowing me to go back to my roots selling and servicing wholesale distributors on the West Coast. For the last two years and one month I have enjoyed getting back in the trenches, working directly with buyers to provide the best products and service possible. I still stock shelves when needed or take an inventory just to verify what’s in inventory. The years really do fly and the lessons in business and in life have remained consistent. Get up early. Work smarter. Serve customers how they wish to be treated. Find ideas that benefit the customer, the company and myself. Outwork the competition. Read, write, think and create to prepare for success. And most importantly to be persistent and determined. These actions done consistently over time lead being a success. As Jim Rohn said, “We suffer one of two things. Either the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. You’ve got to choose discipline, versus regret, because discipline weighs ounces and regret weighs tons. Be consistent with your positive actions. https://t.ly/XCvXG

Stayin Cool

Off in the distance I heard a faint tune. As the sound drew closer and louder it became more recognizable as a carousel-like melody known as “Redwing.” The kids of my neighborhood knew it as the Ice Cream Man song. I was salivating for a refreshing cool treat of my youth. I ran over to my wife who was in the kitchen and said, “The ice cream man’s coming. Do you want anything?” She looked at me smiled and said, “You’re acting like a kid.” “Guilty.” I took that as a no and out the door I went to await the Ice Cream Man. The Ice Cream truck approached, and I flagged him, oh wait, surprise, it’s a lady. I flagged down the Ice Cream Lady. “Hello, I am glad you came by,” I said. She replied,” What can I get for you?” As I read the offerings on the menu painted on the side of the truck, I was in disbelief. Most everything was $5.00 to $8.00 per item. I thought to myself, wow, when I was a kid most everything was twenty-five to fifty cents and that was a lot of money for a “push-up” or a “50-50 bar.” “I’ll have a snow-cone please.” A $6.00 sno-cone. I walked back to my house to enjoy the cool, refreshing taste of flavored ice. It was good and it brought back memories of hot summer days when I was a kid. I kept thinking $6.00 for a snow cone. Whew! Rather than complain about the cost I started to think positively about my purchase of the overpriced flavored ice. I am fortunate I can afford this little luxury. Look at the technology that brought that cool delight to my door. It reminded me of the classic essay by Leonard E Reed, titled, I Pencil; the premise being no one person knows how a pencil is made. It takes a division of labor and countless individuals to take raw resources to make a pencil out of trees, lead, paint, metal, rubber, gasoline, and more to make a seemingly insignificant item into a productive tool. The value of a pencil is priceless when you need something to write with. Similarly, with the $6.00 snow cone, someone had to imagine it, and think about it before it was created. Too often I find myself complaining and bemoaning about things that are out of my control when I should be grateful. Example. A few weeks ago, my 25-year-old home air conditioning unit decided to die just when summer finally made an appearance. With some research online and a few phone calls, I was able to set up an appointment to get the unit replaced. In a little over a hundred years, air-conditioning has helped to make our lives better and more productive. We have become more comfortable in our homes and businesses because of air conditioning. The weather does not impact how I live my life today as much as it did when I was growing up. In fact, our human ingenuity and use of technology has saved countless lives when just a century ago weather events would have killed thousands. Yes, air conditioning costs a bundle, yet this piece of equipment was worth what I paid because it makes my life better. What do the sno-cone and the air conditioning unit have in common? They both cool one down and make life more enjoyable when things heat up. Here’s a lesson one could apply when words get heated during a conversation. Think COOL. This word pops in my head like the bubble in a newspaper cartoon when I get into a potential heated discussion or debate. Goodness knows there is no shortage of issues that can set people off these days. COOL represents the following. C = Calm. Remain calm when someone states something which would ordinarily set you off. Why? Because that person wants to get a reaction from you and by your lashing out, they win by getting into your head. Calm helps you react so that you remain composed. When you get angry you stop critically thinking and usually overreact. Have you ever thought after a heated discussion, “I should have said…” That’s anger and emotion getting in your way. O = Observe. Look intently at the person you are in conversation with. Look into their eyes. Then look at their body language, hand gestures, movement, facial expressions and how they use their voice to emphasize words. Listen to their breathing and the rhythm of their speech. Notice the environment around you. Take long deep breaths and do not think about your response. Let their words sink in. Then, ask a clarifying question or repeat what you thought the other person said. O = Orchestrate. Like a conductor who is out in front and stays in command, you can use short, clear, positive words. Speak in slower and softer tones. You should remain in control of yourself and your situation, which thereby creates an optimum outcome for both parties. Think rather than react. L = Lead. Lead by listening, acknowledging, and restating what is being said to gain clarity and define differences. If possible, find common areas of agreement. Be respectful even when words get personal. Dig deep inside to remain above the fray. There is a story of a group of travelers on a long journey through a blistering desert. As they journeyed to an oasis through the sand and merciless sun, they noticed a verdant green plant along the way which seemed to thrive in this unforgiving environment. The travelers wondered how this small plant could live in such a harsh landscape. They approached the plant and asked it how it managed to stay cool and live in such conditions when they were struggling just to survive. The plant replied, “I have learned to stay rooted and be patient. My roots are deep in the earth, drawing sustenance from unseen sources. I do not fight against the heat, instead I embrace it as part of my being. By conserving my energy during the hottest part of the day, I can bloom when the time is right.” It takes practice to implement this idea of COOL. Yet, it does help me remain calm in heated discussions which require an awareness of myself and others. Being respectful and being open to listening fosters a dialog that can resolve issues by remaining positive. On one-hundred-degree days a $6.00 snow cone might just be the thing to cool your words, thoughts, and actions.

Then and Now – It’s Getting Better All the Time

On Wednesday, May 24, 1933, Lawrence Sheldon Beck was born into this world. He did not have a name for the first few days because his parents, Morris and Rose, could not decide what to call him so he was simply called, “baby blue eyes.” To this day his facial features are dominated by his welcoming sky-blue eyes and a full head of snowy white hair to match his soldier straight teeth. His strong looking nose, squared off chin, and prominent ears frame his face. When asked, he is only too happy to entertain you by wiggling those ears. Larry, as my dad is known, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on a warm Spring Day. Last week my family was blessed to celebrate his 90th birthday on another warm Spring Day in Southern California. A small gathering of immediate family members ate, told stories, and relived family events as if to pass down memories like our ancestors did around a mythical campfire. My dad’s health is excellent for being 90. Of course, he has almost everything that can be replaced, including knees, hips, heart valve, and teeth. He marvels at the improvements of medicine, just in his lifetime. 90 years prior these improvements would not have been possible except perhaps for the teeth. My dad said, “I would have never dreamed that I would be able to have a heart valve replaced and be in and out of the hospital in a day.” He also marvels and is grateful he has reached this milestone. This celebration of my dad made me think about how much our lives have improved in the last 90 years. The 1930’s were troubled times due to the Great Depression, appeasement of the axis powers leading up to World War II, and big government intervention via the New Deal. Yet, these were also the years of innovation with people striving to make money to survive. For example, pressure sensitive Scotch Tape was invented by Richard Drew. The car radio was invented by Joseph and Paul Galvin. Frozen foods were invented by Clarence Birdseye. The electron microscope was created by Max Knott and Ernst Ruska. The radio telescope was invented by Karl Jansky. The electric razor was invented by Jacob Schick. All these were innovations people would have marveled at in the 90 years prior. Think about what we take for granted now, which was revolutionary in the 1930’s. In science, Dr. Karl D. Anderson and Nobel Prize winner Dr. Robert Millikan devised devices which gave scientists medical information about atomic energy. Today, those experiments have led to great advances in fighting cancer, which members of my family and friends have been battling. They also created the cleanest and safest form of energy ever devised, nuclear energy. We just need to be wise enough to expand its use. By understanding climate changes, climate related disaster deaths have decreased 98% over the last century according to Alex Epstein, author of Fossil Future. Epstein writes, “Despite claims that the world is too hot, cold-related deaths far exceed heat related deaths. After one hundred years of vigorous competition from alternatives, fossil fuels provide 80% of the world’s energy, including 90% of the world’s transportation energy.” This includes energy to grow and transport agricultural products and consumer goods making our modern world possible. Today scientists, through human ingenuity, can forecast weather related storms, hurricanes, and floods which saves countless lives. In 1933 trains were the fastest transportation from Chicago to Denver. The following year the Burlington Zephyr, a three-car diesel train, ran the rails in 13 hours and was at the apex of high-speed efficiency. Today, those same 888 miles have been cut down to two hours and thirty-three minutes, including taxiing in and out with commercial airline travel. Add two hours getting to and from the airport plus security and travel times have been cut in half, allowing for people to be more productive. Communication has improved in those ninety years. In the 1930’s there were approximately 15 million rotary landline phones in use. Made of metal and tethered to a wall, you were stationary when you used the phone. Calls were expensive and adjusted for inflation were cost prohibitive to many. Today, according to Pew Research, 97% of all Americans own a mobile device. With smart phones and an internet connection on your mobile device you can see, hear, and share documents inexpensively and in an instant. In 2023 we have the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, (AI), with predictions that it will manage and automate every aspect of our lives. Businesses and Consumers will benefit from this time saving technology by autonomous delivery systems. The metaverse or immersive internet will continue to develop, creating augmented reality and a digital copy of people via Avatar. People will be able to replicate themselves digitally so their relatives can communicate and develop an understanding and relationship with their ancestors. Blockchain technology will continue to advance and create innovative ways to bypass centralized government control of the exchange of value for value. Nanotechnology will enable doctors to use gene editing technology to create material for self-healing, perhaps solving the problem of food allergies and obesity. All these new and marvelous inventions have the intended goal of human flourishing. Yet they also have the potential for more destructive wars and control over the human condition. With one foot firmly situated in the past, I look forward to these new technologies through the study of human nature, which does not change, through reading great books, communicating in person and listening to beautiful music. My other foot is firmly situated in the future by being open to the possibilities of a great new universe. One can be skeptical of these innovations and believe they will be used for nefarious purposes, and perhaps they will. My view of the future is bright, blue optimism as seen through the eyes of my dad as in the Beatle’s song, – “It’s Getting Better All the Time.” https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGsnBfPLLKLRZGmmCNGwSGWnsWQ