July 2, 2025- Four good men spent their Wednesday bringing supplies to a collection point in Window Rock, AZ, for transport on to the two shelters at which people dispossessed by the Oak Ridge Fire are staying. By nightfall, the blaze itself is 6 % contained. Several other fires around northern Arizona are not presently posing a threat to communities, so we end the day with a sense of control, however tentative it is in this Fire Season.

Working for safety, and for justice, is an ongoing process. There will always be natural threats, in a complex environment and there will always be those who would take things away from others to feather their own nests, so to speak. Life is not a zero sum game, though, and the people who are expected to suffer the loss of health care coverage, and even the right to vote, in silence, are very unlikely to accept that state of affairs. I am not among those who would suffer, but that does not mean I think it is right to take things away from those who are vulnerable-especially children, the disabled and the infirm elderly.

Each of us has a choice to make, every single day-to exercise self-control or to indulge self, at the expense of others. That choice-making affects everything from what we put into our bodies to how we interact with others. Those choices, in turn, will determine the quality of our lives-and may affect how long those lives are. One can be self-centered or inclusive of those around.

I know what my choices are, in various aspects of life-and prefer to include others, in both planning and in activities. I also have come to prefer proactivity and discernment, over reactivity and inattention. The difference that has made is immeasurable.