June 16,2025- The cuff on my trusty Blood Pressure Monitor has been giving way, nearly each time I use it, over the past two weeks. The velcro has lasted fifteen years, through countless travels across the continent and across the globe. I have used it in my Home Bases, first in Phoenix and then in Prescott; in Chula Vista, Northglenn (CO)), and Saugus; aboard a Navy Destroyer, on a Tiger Cruise and on a picnic bench in Pie Town (NM); in South Florida and southeast Alaska . It has been faithful in Canada, across western Europe, in South Korea and in the Philippines. Now, I have a back-up monitor, with a new cuff. Life goes on.

It is the hot part of the year, close to 100 F, here in Prescott and 115-6, in Phoenix. Thankfully, I need not go outside for extended periods of time, at least not after 10 a.m. or before 5 p.m. Soon, the rains will come, and the air will be a bit sweeter. Life goes on.

The nation made it through the weekend, with its varying rallies-either questioning authority or mildly validating it. Attempts at violence, by those at either end of the political spectrum, received their just condemnation-and where they resulted in death, arrest and arraignment. Heat and humidity are no excuse for killing one’s political opponents, throwing concrete or engaging in a fire fight, in the midst of innocent people. Life will go on.

The fruits of ignorance, oppression and intransigence are now coming ripe, both here and in western Asia. Those who have lived by the sword are now finding out what that brings. Those who dwell in a blinkered dreamland, based on a skewed interpretation of Scripture, are finding that others have a very different take on the same Scripture and that there is simply no room for basing an ever more heightened threat of nuclear holocaust on that Word of God. Life trembles, but goes on.

Tempers are far too frayed, and only the stern voices of the People-in every country so afflicted-can bring leaders to the table, and the cool waters of sensibility to bear on their insistent passions. Life must go on.