We are being consumed by threats to democracy, deportations, tariffs, conspiracy theories, Ukraine, Gaza, price of tomatoes and government layoffs, corruption, abuses of power and on and on and on. We think we are stuck in a downward spiral run off of relevancy by AI and drowning in social media. But, hark, a light shines on the hill!! America handles this drama well. It looks like we will never have our normal back or even our less than normal back. Instead we are experiencing the necessary shakeout while we create new or modify our existing institutions. It is an extreme shake out but this is what we do every 80 years. We are looking at what we have created since the end of WWII. This includes all the agencies created since that time, including the social programs we have created, the economic as well as the financial programs we have created. It has been the age of the experts and now we wonder who are the experts and can you trust them?
This is a one-term period of disruption so that we can reinvent ourselves once it ends. It will end. We will come out the better but it seems right now that we are fatally ill and there is no cure for our disease. Not true but we have to still get through this period. There are many exaggerations, embellishments, lies, and general bad behavior. We are experiencing the worst in 2025 and 2026. Things begin an unusual course change in 2027. We finish up this extreme stuff in 2028 and start the recovery in 2029. Ten years from now we won’t even recognize that we focused on all this crazy stuff including swollen ankles–the latest medical alert from this administration. Does anybody really remember what you will paying attention to in 2015? That’s just 10 years ago. Just look at the last 10 years and you realize that you couldn’t understand what you would be going through 10 years into the future. Go back 20 years. Do you remember the day-to-day headlines of 2005, what you were doing and your response to the social and economic changes? We didn’t even have smart phones.
The point being that as bad as things may seem and how scary it may appear, we survive. We survived the Civil War and managed the important Industrial Revolution. We survived the Depression and the enormous rise of our power after World War II. We must ask ourselves what do we want to create going forward. Up until now, it has been all about the past and destruction of the present to move backwards into some old realities. In reality, we are disrupting to move forward. The power is in the people. Leaders come and go. If the people don’t want the leader they have, they will change, rebel, protest etc. America has to reinvent itself to survive. It couldn’t continue to move forward on the institutions created during the last 80 years. It will make constructive changes but they take time. The process is laborious. Many of these executive orders will end in a few years or sooner. The rule of unintended consequences is always at work. The parallel tracks of power and force are always in play. One is invisible but runs right along side. If you can, keep a long-term perspective.
In his thought-provoking book “Hurtling Toward Oblivion” by Richard Swenson, M.D, speaks of being ready for whatever comes down the road “Your generation will surely witness interesting days. My advice: don’t quit…..just live ready. Conduct your studies with diligence, your work with perseverance, and your relationships with grace. Seek authenticity at the highest level, for one of the great gifts of authenticity is that it leaves us continuously ready for ‘what comes next'”. Live ready.
This is wonderful. Thank you for helping us.
Truth. Thank you Gail. My idea for living ready is to be the love, the peace, and the kindness that I want to see in the world. I especially give encouragement and financial support to the artists, writers, painters in our world that bring light, beauty, and laughter to this moment. This is a bulwark to the darkness. Rave on, everyone, rave on!
Hello Aileen, Thank you for commenting. My contact information is always on my website http://www.gailminogue.com. My 800-600-0256 gives you the option to leave a message or speak directly to me. My email address is gail@gailminogue.com.
Dear Gail… thank you for your wise words… have been following you for a long time…
Realized tonight that a session with you is a must for me personally…
Please publish your contact information here in this forum…
Again thank you…
A. Seed
Thank you Robert. Your words are great reminders of all the things we have learned to let pass as we move forward.
Thank you, Gail, for your always-timely words of wisdom.
Your message stirred something deep in me. It brought me back to the 1980s—a time that shaped me forever. I survived the AIDS pandemic, a crisis that swept through my community like a wildfire. I buried more friends than anyone ever should, and I lived through a time when it felt like the world had turned its back on us.
But even then, in the face of unimaginable loss, we stood strong. We showed up for each other. We found ways to laugh, to love, to protest, to live. Resilience wasn’t a choice—it was a lifeline.
I remind my friends today and those who walked through that fire with me: we’ve been through the worst and we’re still here. We are resilient. We carry that strength with us every day, and we keep moving forward—together.
Thank you. I needed that perspective and I love the idea of live ready. It makes so much sense in this crazy time.
Thank you for these comments. I’ve been saying the same thing to friends as you did: “What do we want to create going forward?” We’re crying over spilt milk and things past. The ground has been scorched and we need to replant. So let’s focus on those ideas.