On the Banks

What's the Word for this?

 

It's not schadenfreude, because I'm not happy any of these people are dead. To be clear: Yes, they were horrible people. The things they said about us, and their unrepentant desire to force a medical treatment on the rest of us, are unexcusable. But did I hope they would DIE? No, of course not.

When I see posts like this - and there are many - the same feeling rises up in me, but I don't have a name for it. The closest I can come to is this: That I'm watching a terrible terrible accident unfold in slow motion, that some of the people in the "accident" are just asshats, but many are people I know and love, and even though many of us tried to warn them, spoke out about the dangers of the new experimental thing, about how it wasn't even needed, let alone safe, let alone effective... almost none of them listened.

So it's like watching a train roaring off an enormous cliff. And the people onboard had many, many chances to get off the train, many of us were screaming at them: "GET OFF THE TRAIN!" But not only did they not get off the train, they wished death on those of us who didn't get on the train, and they tried to have us silenced when we said they should get off the train.

And now, a whole bunch of them are dead - the idiotic numbskulls. And no, that doesn't make me feel vindicated, or good in any way. I'm not sure I'll ever have a word for how it makes me feel.

 

I have produced a video clip featuring a group of individuals, including Brian, who tragically passed away unexpectedly after mocking others. I invite you to watch this clip, which has already garnered an impressive 100,000 views. pic.twitter.com/OAqfNRKabn

— 🇦🇺OurVoicesMatter (@OV_Matter) May 13, 2023

More here. I wonder how many of these people are still alive.

Until the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s vaccination decree, he tried to demand that we fire all unvaccinated personnel – some of our finest people https://t.co/Li1E8Pif5M

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 14, 2023

WTMWD #85: What is a "Directed Evolution Experiment"? And Are we Living in One? - with Kevin McKernan

 

 

 

I speak with Kevin McKernan about the recent Project Veritas video in which a Pfizer employee claims that the company is contemplating directed evolution experiments with the SARS-Cov-2 virus.

Kevin walks us through the reasoning behind his view that we are already witnessing a massive directed-evolution experiment in the real world, as a result of the medical interventions introduced in response to Covid-19.

We also talk about the some of the fundamental problems that lie at the heart of the dysfunction in medicine and medical research that we've been living through – and some practical ideas for fixing it.

Kevin is CSO and founder of Medicinal Genomics. His Substack articles on directed evolution are here, here, and here.

The work on directed evolution by Tawfik and Griffiths that he mentions can be found here.

The John Goodman books Kevin mentions are here and here.

Kevin and I spoke about the responses to Covid-19 and problems with PCR testing here, here, and here. And about problems – and some solutions – with peer review here and here.

You can follow Kevin on Substack and  on Twitter.

...and if you want to support Project Veritas, you can do so here.

WTMWD #83: How the West Brought War to Ukraine - with Benjamin Abelow

 

 

I talk with Benjamin Abelow, author of "How the West Brought War to Ukraine."

Ben explains what's wrong with the narrative you'll hear on TV about this conflict, and gives a brief rundown of the decades-long history that led up to it. We then talk about the psychological and financial incentives that drive the war machine, and he gives his thoughts on the Nord Stream pipeline attacks, and what we might do to encourage peace in the world.

Abelow's book is here, and David Gordon's review of it is here.

His interview with Tom Woods is here.

His interview with Useful Idiots is here.

The books he mentions are:

"War with Russia?" By Stephen Cohen

"The War State" By Michael Swanson

"Nonviolent Communication" By Marshall Rosenberg

 

 

 

We Are More Free to Create than We Realize

 

I was on Tom Luongo’s podcast, Gold Goats 'N Guns, speaking about a range of topics, from parenting in an increasingly crazy world, to the exodus from California, and especially, my vision for a long-term living community for intellectually disabled individuals, using the Private Membership Association model - and how we all really have a lot more freedom to create alternative solutions than many of us realize.

If you don't already read and listen to Tom, you should. He's one of the most thoughtful and insightful commentators on world events and the economy that you'll find. And now especially, much of what he has been talking about is really coming to a head. This is one good place to start. And I've invited him to be on my podcast too - so look for that soon.

You can listen to my conversation with Tom here.

 

A Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Human Spirit - Butler Shaffer

 

 

I think this is my favorite of all of my dad's talks. I was there when he gave it, nearly 20 years ago, at a time when the post-9/11 authoritarianism was still fresh, still even felt like maybe it could be temporary. Surely people wouldn't just come to accept this as their "new normal", right? 

My dad's words here are as poignant as ever. This is audio only - if I can find a video version, I'll post it here.

 

 

WTMWD #81: Deep Work for Anarchists - with Starr O'Hara

 

 

I talk with writer Starr O'Hara about her journey to anarchism, her latest book "How to Survive Dystopia (With Your Humanity Intact)", and the work we can each to do to "conquer ourselves" so that we can move forward.

We also talked about her upcoming re-launch of a group she has started to support like-minded freedom folk actually get stuff done. The group is called "Extremists Being Awesome" - and it sounds like that's exactly what it is! They meet for two hours, five days a week, and she says the existing members have accomplished some incredible things since they started.

Starr will be opening the group up to new members in a few weeks - if you want to learn more about it, and be notified when the group opens up again, follow her Substack for updates.

Starr's book is here.

Her Substack is here. 

And she is also on Twitter.


P.S. Apologies for the audio skipping you might hear in this episode. We had an issue with the connection freezing up briefly several times. It didn't last long enough to disrupt the flow of the conversation, but I apologize for any annoyance caused.

 

Most of my Blogging is on my Substack Now

 

 

...just a quick note to say that you'll find more of my commentary and other posts over on my Substack Publication, "On the Banks."

I still keep this blog updated with big things, and podcast episodes, etc. but if you want all of my commentary, that's where you'll find it.

Thanks for reading!

When the Good Guys Get it Wrong

 

Image: Public Domain

 

From my article on LewRockwell.com today:

Toby Rogers has been one of the heroes of the medical-freedom movement since before most Americans knew there was a need for a medical-freedom movement. (His cost-benefit analysis of the Covid-19 vaccines is just one example of what he has contributed here.) He recently wrote a lengthy post in which he asks, essentially, “since both free markets and the progressive regulatory state have failed, what’s next for humanity?”

My reply to Toby follows.

Toby,

I hope you are sincere in welcoming corrections. Because there are some fundamental errors here, and I hope you will be open to hearing about them.

Let me start by saying that there is a story about free markets that is told to everyone who goes through a government school in America (and I imagine elsewhere). The story goes something like this: “Free markets are all well and good in theory, but in practice they produce monopolies that are no longer accountable to their customers and must be reined in by the government.”

This story is a lie. And if you understand why the government lies about all the other things it lies about, I think you’ll understand why it has an interest in perpetrating this lie too.

With that in mind:

1. You say: “The dirty little secret of classical liberalism is that it came to depend on both slavery and colonial empire to infuse wealth into the system.”

In fact, colonial empire was a drain on the British economy. Yes, it made a few people – “John Company”, and other cronies, along with the crown itself – very wealthy. But it did so at the expense of everyone else in Britain.

This book presents an accounting of all of this. From the description:

“…empire profits were earned at a substantial cost to the taxpayer. [The authors] depict British imperialism as a mechanism to effect an income transfer from the tax-paying middle class to the elites in which the ownership of imperial enterprise was heavily concentrated, with some slight net transfer to the colonies in the process.”

The reality is that both the ideals of classical liberalism, and the economic interests of the population as a whole, were very much at odds with British imperialism, and the mercantilist system – which was precisely what Adam Smith addressed in his “Wealth of Nations.”

2. You say: “…and “Adam Smith’s famed “butcher, baker, and brewer” got rich from being downstream of the enormous wealth generated when Scotland cornered the market for new world tobacco (which was slave-grown…”

I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make here. That markets cannot function without an assist from slavery? But that’s patently untrue. You must recognize that the world is overflowing with examples that contradict that claim. So what are you saying?

3. Your description of progressivism:

“Progressivism was a reaction by the middle and upper classes against the failures of both liberalism and Marxism while attempting to retain the best aspects of both — seeking to preserve individual liberties while using the state to impose limits on corporate power. Progressive muckraker Upton Sinclair described the disgusting practices of meat packing plants in The Jungle and this led to the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906. Support for anti-trust action to break up large monopolies was another hallmark of progressivism.”

To begin with, “The Jungle” was completely made-up fiction. Lawrence Reed has written a thorough expose of this book and the mythology around it.

He writes:

“…historians with an ideological axe to grind against the market usually ignore an authoritative 1906 report of the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal Husbandry. Its investigators provided a point-by-point refutation of the worst of Sinclair’s allegations, some of which they labeled as “willful and deliberate misrepresentations of fact,” “atrocious exaggeration,” and “not at all characteristic.””

and:

“According to the popular myth, there were no government inspectors before Congress acted in response toThe Jungle, and the greedy meat packers fought federal inspection all the way. The truth is that not only did government inspection exist, but meat packers themselves supported it and were in the forefront of the effort to extend it so as to ensnare their smaller, unregulated competitors.”

It’s worth reading the whole piece by Reed, to get the full sense of the extent to which this novel really was nothing more than anti-capitalist propaganda. (There’s a reason it is required reading in so many government schools.)

More broadly, the myth that government regulation was borne of a desire to “impose limits on corporate power” is simply not true. The historical reality is that established businesses not only supported regulation of their industries, but were instrumental in setting up the regulatory state.

... Read the rest here.

 

WTMWD #80: My Mutual-Aid Vision for the Future, and Fighting Back Against Medical Tyranny - with Susan May

 

 

I was interviewed by Susan May, the founder of “RiseUP with Susan May” and the RiseUP community, and creator of the Facebook group “Gather and Get Moving with Susan May”, a "...safe place for medical freedom advocates to connect and be inspired to action."

Susan and I talk a little about my own history, and about my experience fighting medical tyranny while in the hospital with our daughter. We also talk about my vision for a Mutual-Aid society and community dedicated to caring for those with special needs.

My Freogan Fellowship website is here.

I'm Starting A Private Substack Publication - For Those Who Are Serious About Building Solutions

 

 

A few years ago, I had an idea. It was more than an idea - it was a compulsion. It was an urgently felt need to create a space where people who care about the human flourishing that happens when we are free could come together.

That was it. Not a plan for saving the world, just a place where we could hang out with each other, share our ideas, commiserate, and feel at home. And maybe, by virtue of doing all of this, we would come up with some ways to make a real difference in the world. Or maybe we would just feel a little less alone in that world.

I spent some time brainstorming with a friend about setting up some kind of platform for this, and finally decided to launch my idea as a podcast. And in March of 2020 - the week that California Governor Gavin Newsom decided to forcibly shut down our lives - I recorded my first episode, with Jeffrey Tucker, then with AIER, and soon to become one of the brightest lights in the battle against Covid tyranny. I’ve recorded many more episodes since then, with some of the best and most interesting advocates of liberty, at a time when human freedom is under unprecedented assault all around the globe.

I’m proud of my podcast. But it’s not quite what I set out to create. Mostly: It’s not very interactive. And so after a lot more brainstorming, I’ve decided to launch a new online community: Building Parallel Solutions. It’s a little different from my original idea, in that it is focused on creating solutions rather than just hanging out together. (Although there’s certainly room for that too.)

We’re starting out on Substack, as a private publication, I’ll be adding a private group on a social-media platform (probably MeWe), and we will also have occasional online video meetings. I will also be adding a paid membership option for those who want a little more direct support in creating solutions - I’ll post more about that later.

For now though, I think that what I said in my podcast manifesto fits nicely here:

It's the "nearly" that I'm interested in.

That–possibly very small, possibly not so small–number of people who can see and think for themselves. Who understand for themselves the difference between right and wrong, who don't need to have anyone else tell them that it is wrong to make another person your slave, or to lock another person in a cell when they have harmed no-one.

That's who I think of as the audience for my podcast ("What Then Must We Do?") You might call what I'm doing "preaching to the choir", but that's not it. I'm looking to reach the people who already recognize the problem, and who want to do something about it…

Maybe none of us is powerful enough to defeat the violence that is the state. Maybe even together we are not enough. But I am certain that if there is any hope for us at all, it lies entirely with this group of people.

Oh, and if I sound a little elitist, as if I think the "Non-Nearlys" are somehow inferior to the "Nearlys"… well, yes, I do. I do think that thinking for oneself is superior to not thinking for oneself. I also think that great masses of people who don't do much thinking for themselves, who don't have their own moral compasses, are one of the most deadly threats to all of humanity, and always have been.

But here's the thing about being among the "Nearly" (or, as Albert Jay Nock called them, the Remnant): it is a choice. Anyone can choose to start questioning what they have been taught their whole life. Anyone can choose to listen to their own conscience over the values and opinions that are fed to them by the people and institutions around them. Anyone can do this.

"What then must we do?" I honestly don't know. The forces arrayed against individual human beings just living their own lives as they choose seem more powerful and more entrenched than ever before. So, do I know how to change that? To defeat the people and institutions that wish to (and do) rule over us? No, I don't. But I do believe that between us–between all of the "Nearly"–we can figure this out.

“Building Parallel Solutions” is an invitation-only publication for people who are serious about - you guessed it - building parallel solutions. If that’s you, and you’d like to be a part of this, just drop me a line at [email protected], with “Please add me to BPS” in the subject line.

I look forward to seeing you there!

WTMWD #79: Can Liberty Dollar Save the World?

 

 

 

I speak with Wayne and Kathy Hicks of Liberty Dollar Financial Association, about Liberty Dollar's history, and its rebirth as a Private Membership Association.

If you're looking for solutions to state-controlled money and financial systems, and if you're not entirely sure that Bitcoin (or any cryptocurrency) is the answer, then you need to listen to this episode. Liberty Dollar's new incarnation is truly revolutionary - and it doesn't stop at money and finance.

We talk about food security, the Liberty Dollar social network platform, and how the "outside-the-box" nature of LDFA can help to reclaim the economy from the world of crony corporatism.

You can find Liberty Dollar Financial Association here. (This is my affiliate link, so if you sign up using this link, I will get a little something.)

And LibertyNet, the social-network platform, is here.

It's Easter Again and Always

 

 

I don't know whether or not Jesus rose from the dead after he was crucified.

There, I've said it.

It's one of the reasons I don't call myself a "Christian" - even though I believe in a "higher power" (which I am reluctant to call "God", only because I imagine it looks very different from what most people mean when they say "God"), and I believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ. But that's for another post.

Whether or not the actual Jesus actually came back from the dead - a possibility I don't discount (because I also believe in miracles) but about which I don't have certainty - the story of his rising is of tremendous importance to humanity, perhaps now more than ever before.

Why?

Because what we humans are, what we are at our essence, is not something that can be destroyed by death.

What we are is not defined by anything of the material world – despite the increasingly deafening (and fearful?) roar to the contrary. It's hard, even, to define it with words. But if I had to define it, I would say that it is love. Or maybe: the marriage of love, intelligence, and the power to create.

Many have said that we are in a spiritual war, and we absolutely are. It is a war against the forces of darkness and for those of us who are committed to the light, it can feel overwhelming and frightening and even hopeless. It sometimes seems inevitable that the powers of darkness will win.

They seek control of every aspect of our lives, everywhere on the globe, and it seems they will get it; They are able to convince our friends, neighbors, relatives, that it is in their best interest to take whatever experimental medical concoctions they come up with, and we have no choice but to watch as our friends, neighbors, relatives, go along unquestioningly; They tell us we are nothing but physical beings, machines, and that we should let them make us more machine-like, and it seems that they will.

But here's the thing:

The forces of darkness have only a very limited set of weapons at their disposal: Fear, lies, and violence. That's it.

These may seem like formidable weapons. They may seem impressive and frightening. But here's what we've got:

Love, truth, and the power to create.

The darkness can't create anything. It is the opposite of creation. Its tools can't be used to create anything worthwhile or lasting. You cannot build a flourishing civilization on lies. Or on fear, or on the threat of violence. That is not to say that those tools are not powerful or cannot accomplish anything at all. But they are not generative. They are not creative. And a society built with those tools does not allow for creativity, or real flourishing.

It is more important than ever to cultivate the tools of light. If you've never understood the importance of "turn the other cheek", understand it now: Feeding vengeance, hatred, and violence only feeds the darkness. Feeding love and forgiveness feeds the light and helps it to grow.

This is how we will win.

Because our powers are generative, and in accordance with the principles of life. The powers of darkness are only ever destructive. Darkness can control, and it can consume, but it cannot create.

The way we win is by remembering who we are.

My Christian friends may laugh at me for saying this, or they may shake their heads and despair for me, but I don't believe one needs to have certainty about Christ's rising from the dead in order to appreciate the meaning of Easter:

We humans are not simply material beings. What we are cannot be reduced to our physical bodies or the chemistry they are composed of. We are made of love and light, and our souls transcend our earthly existence. By knowing this and honoring it, we achieve victory over death, and victory over darkness.

Happy Easter.

 

 

I speak with Kerry McDonald about Freogan Fellowship Learning, and our escape from California

 

Image: Public Domain.

 

I spoke recently with Kerry McDonald, Senior Education Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education and author of Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom, for her newly launched “LiberatED” podcast.

We spoke about my family’s reasons for leaving California, the challenges in pulling up roots - even for someone like myself, who has picked up and moved to new places and new cultures more times than I can count - as well as why it is so important to speak up and fight back from where we are too.

Kerry asked what advice I would give to families contemplating leaving one of the more tyrannical jurisdictions… and I do my best to give a helpful answer.

I also talked about my independent education venture, Freogan Fellowship Learning (the education arm of my private membership association, Freogan Fellowship), and how we’re helping to revolutionize education.

You can listen to the whole thing here.

 

 

 

WTMWD #77: Can Poetry Save the World? I Ask Joyce Beckett, Professor of Literature for Freogan Fellowship

 

Image: Public Domain

 

 

Joyce Beckett is an Oxford-educated professor of literature who will be teaching a class in English and Irish literature for Freogan Fellowship Learing - the education arm of the private membership association that I recently started.

Here, Joyce speaks about the experience of poetry as a bulwark against the cultural and spiritual "colonization" that is the effect of mass media and culture.

Most of Freogan Fellowship Learning's classes are designed for teens - however this one is also open to adults. As Joyce says:

"Anyone, at any stage of their lives, with an interest in the profound effect
of words on the senses will be most welcome."

Joyce will also be offering a free sample class on Tuesday, January 4th at 5:00pm Pacific Time. To sign up for that class, or for more information about her full-semester class, visit Freogan Fellowship Learning.

 

We're Already There

 

 

From the Freedom's Phoenix Online Newspaper.

 

"Paradise is exactly like where you are right now… only much, much, better."

Laurie Anderson

 

What if I told you that we're already living in Galt's Gulch?

What if I told you that we don't actually need to find a bunch of like-minded people and go in on a big piece of land together, far away from everyone else, and build our own societies from the ground up?

Not that there's anything wrong with that of course.

But it's not necessary. We already have the tools at our disposal - most of them anyway - to create and maintain free societies right where we are.

COMMON LAW:

Volumes have been written, some of them very very good, about how a stateless society might operate, how rights might be protected and crime dealt with in the absence of a monopoly on violence and the justice system.

But we already have a body of law that upholds the rights of individuals, protects their property, and defends contracts. It exists in stark contrast to the multitudes of laws created by politicians and their cronies – laws that often directly violate this older and more fundamental body of law. And it is enforceable.

Dale Brown, founder of the Detroit Threat Management Center, understands this. When he saw police failing to protect people from crime in one of the worst neighborhoods of Detroit, he moved in and started doing it himself. As he told Tom Woods, back in 2016:

"Any citizen can take someone into custody if they commit a violent act,” said Brown. “(I’ve learned better ways of crime prevention) because I have to. I'm accountable. I have no qualified immunity. That means, if I put my hands on someone it has to be legal. There has to be a way for me to explain it as a civilian. As a result, we've had no court date in 20 years. No lawsuits... in 20 years.”

Brown's methods rely on common-law principles. He and his Threat Management team only take action against those committing genuine crimes against people or their property. Because they are not agents of the state, they do not enforce laws against drug use or other victimless "crimes." And they employ the power of citizens' arrest, which is available to all of us.

Imagine how our world might look if there were Threat Management-like operations in every city. With the abject failure of police departments to protect people and property, their willingness to commit violent actsagainst those they are sworn to protect, and their inherent lack of any real accountability, private solutions like this have never been more necessary.

Others are using principles well established in contract law to hold accountable those in positions of power, using tools such as the Notice of Liability to stop city governments, school districts, and other entities from committing acts of trespass, for example; or

We do not need to establish a brand-new system of laws in order to begin protecting ourselves from political aggression.

PARALLEL INSTITUTIONS:

Likewise, we do not need to isolate ourselves in order to create parallel institutions and services to replace the crumbling state-dominated ones. Nor do we need to isolate ourselves geographically in order to build real, in-person communities based on a respect for individual liberty.

For many years, alternative-medicine practitioners and others have operated under private membership associations (PMAs), serving members only and not the general public. Their PMA status places these operations outside of the jurisdiction of much of the regulatory state, creating a space within which free-market activity can flourish.(For more information about PMAs, or to establish one yourself, see here and here.  Here's ours.)

Meanwhile, creative ways are emerging to assist people in exiting broken systems, forging new ones, and connecting with others who wish to do the same.

 

 

Read the rest here.

 

 

Looking Forward to Appearing on Millenniyule 2021!

 

I only found out about Millennial Woes because my friend Radical Liberation was going to appear on Millenniyule 2021. I checked out Millenniyule, and what he was talking about really seemed to fit with a lot of the things I'm doing and writing about, so I wrote and asked if I could be on this year, and... Woes signed me up to come on the show on Dec 28th!

Now, after listening to RadLib's Millenniyule episode, I'm even more excited. Nearly everything (of course not EVERYTHING because that would just be spooky) they talk about resonates with me, and much of it is stuff I've written or spoken about over the years. For example, this, and this.  This,  this, this and this. Also this. And especially THIS!

...and it just reaffirms my belief that this is a time when many of us are finding our true tribes. Not necessarily the ones we were born into, or even the ones that we thought lined up with our ideologies or spiritual beliefs... but the ones that really DO line up. And what I think it is is that a whole lot of us have a pretty good idea of what the big problem is. Maybe none of us perceive it completely, but a whole bunch of us have a good rough idea. And we are passionate about finding solutions. So here we are, coming from different directions, right, left, libertarian, Christian, not Christian... and we're all aiming at the same thing while at the same time trying to formulate in our own minds what that thing looks like. And it's pretty awesome.

Anyway, this is well worth listening to:

 

 

...and be sure to listen to my episode on Dec. 28th UK time, (4pm the 27thPacific Time.)

 

 

Mike & Vanessa Colomb on PMAs for Healthcare, and "Healing Hubs" Starting up Around the Country

The Freedom Angels spoke again with Mike and Vanessa Colomb, of Renegade Ranch. (Their earlier interview with the Colombs is here.) This one is very much worth listening to if you're interested in building parallel structures in areas such as healthcare especially. They talk about some projects they already have going, and about how others can get involved:

 

 

 

"A Change in the Weather", Video

Thanks to Pam Popper for reading my article "A Change in the Weather" in this video back in October:

 

 

WTMWD #73: In Case You're Not Scared Enough... I speak with Canadian Earthquake Researcher Brent Dmitruk

UPDATE: A seismologist has replied on my Twitter thread about this episode, and you can see her comments here. (As I mention in the episode, I had written to four different seismologists before speaking with Brent, asking for their take on what he has to say, but had not received a response from any of them.) I'm guessing there will be some back and forth here for a few days at least, and I'll post my thoughts after that has run its course. 

--------

You may have seen "Canadian Earthquake Researcher" on Twitter, posting about the unusual tectonic "blocking" he is seeing, and what he thinks it means: A massive seismic disruption that will shake the entire world in a way humans have never seen before.

But he's just a guy on Twitter, right? He's not even a seismologist, right?

Right. But he also has a string of eerily accurate predications spanning the past couple of years.

Join me as I speak with Brent Dmitruk, AKA Canadian Earthquake Researcher. You can also find his videos on YouTube, here.

Brent's website is here, and you can see his list of predictions here.

The USGS earthquake monitoring site is here, EMSC is here, and Tertremo is here.

And here is the article about the Japanese research that Brent mentions.

"Dutchsinse", who he mentions in the interview, is on Twitter here.

 

A Change in the Weather

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had an article up last week over at LewRockwell.com last week, about the work that needs doing, the urgency of doing it, and the very strong possibility that we just might win. Check it out.

As I leave my friend, the wind blows a lone cloth mask in front of me and it rolls across my path like a tumbleweed.

This wind. It’s tearing apart old alliances, old tribes, even long-held friendships. Even families.

But it’s also sweeping people into new groupings, pushing us together out of necessity, whereupon many of us realize: These are the people we should have had in our lives all along. These are the right alliances, better tribes. And it seems crazy that it’s taken this wild windstorm to bring us together.

By afternoon, the wind is in a real fury. Our giant inflatable pumpkin family has been blown across the yard and now sits huddled around our tiny weeping cherry tree. I go out and corral  them back into place next to the giant inflatable Halloween tree, and for a while anyway, all seems as it should be.

I don’t mean to suggest that any of this is going to be easy, or that there’s nothing to be afraid of...

 

Read the rest here.