9/30/2025

My Dear Friend & POTUS, DJT, 

What’s the ideal balance between routine & spontaneity? How can we build healthy habits while being open to magical moments? Can each day be distinctive without creating a sense of overwhelm? Now that I have the freedom of retirement how should I prioritize my activities? Turns out I have an abundance of enticing opportunities & I’m wondering which to pursue. 

The arrow is pointing in the direction of leaning about reconciliation as so many of today’s news stories bring up the need for healing as a part of resolving conflict. 

You witnessed some reconciliation yesterday when you heard Bibi express his regrets to the Qatari PM about the Israeli strike in Doha on Sept 9. According to the Forward your 21-point plan includes some amnesty for Hamas members which indicates the need for parties on both sides of the conflict to find a way to coexist. 

Canadians are reconciling themselves to  the harms caused to First Nation’s people by governmental agencies by honoring their the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Many in the US will be wearing orange shirts in remembrance of the tens of thousands of Native children who attended federally sanctioned boarding schools, the goal of which was to "kill the Indian … save the man.” Even some misguided Quakers found this rhetoric persuasive & operated schools such as the Sac & Fox Boarding School (1872–1919), Fort Sill Indian School (1871–1980), & Tunesassa Boarding School (1852–1938). A group called “Decolonizing Quakers” aims to develop right relationship with native people by teaching this history & acknowledging the harm caused. 

I encourage you to help Sec Hegseth engage in this kind of reconciliation with the people he has harmed over the years, especially his X-wives. That will require he come to terms with his own daemons which lead him to have such a pessimistic view of the world. This perspective came through when he talked to the generals today about how war is inevitable & pacifists are naive. PBH seems to think muscle is all that matters & being mean will somehow bring security. The greatest people in history have said the opposite including Jesus, Ghandi, MLK & Nelson Mandela. All have reminded us that peace begins within so I am hoping that you & PBH can do some introspection & come to love yourselves. 

Please hold the people of Burma in the Light. 

BYBS,