Middle East Relations

My husband and I have developed a cordial relationship with a Syrian* man. He runs a local Middle Eastern restaurant. His food is an authentic slice of a small regional specialty and he does it right. As we have enjoyed his cuisine for the better part of a year the conversations that have ensued have been humorous, intelligent and uplifting. I see within this man the tradition of Middle Eastern hospitality. It is not unlike the hospitality that I saw in my own home growing up. My parents taught me to appreciate hospitality and to always extend it to others. Has a friendship begun? 

He is not the first Syrian man that I have gotten to know. There was a time when my husband and I somehow were the only non-Muslims to host some ill Syrian* children when they were visiting the United States to receive some much needed medical treatment. Many were shocked that as a Christian family we would be approved by the local Islamic center to do this. When God opens a door, he does so indeed!

Children suffering serious wartime injuries were brought to the United States for treatment by a wealthy and well-connected Middle-Eastern businessman whom I got to know better. He told me that it took him a total of five years working through numerous diplomatic, medical and governmental channels to accomplish this feat. His Islamic Center was interviewed about this story by a local newspaper. Local doctors volunteered to perform surgeries and they were now in the process of identifying host families for the children. As soon as I heard this story, I immediately called my husband at work to ask if we could offer our home. I asked him to think it over but, in the meantime I was already seeking a tutor to see if I could get some language basics. 

A quick fact about me. I have always loved languages. I love the history of them (all of them), the etymology and the process of learning basic communication whenever I travel or meet people who speak another language. This was inculcated in me as a child because my own family spoke French and Spanish as well as English. My grandfather, mother and my daughter are polyglots. My husband speaks German pretty decently too. He worked with a number of German-speaking colleagues over the years and was inspired to pursue proficiency. He always studies the Bible with his German Language Martin Luther Bible version.  He has made a few new friends who are native speakers in our new hometown and he enjoys practicing German with them.

My love of language is an extension of my enjoyment of people and the biblical role that I have in relation to others (Matthew 5:16-Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your Heavenly Father.) When you can find a friend, it is nice to be able to understand each other a little better don’t you think? Sometimes, I get complements like when an Israeli once told me that she thought I had a good sense of the pronouncation. Or, when my husband commends me on getting one of the many nuances of German pronunciation right. I  still have a long way to go.

As of late, it has crossed my mind to invite this Syrian man to our home for a visit. Zair* worked in his father’s rug business before starting a restaurant. My husband and he started a number of interesting conversations on the topic of rugs. About a year ago, my husband and I started learning to weave. This came about because I wanted to explore weaving in order to teach some lessons about it to my church craft group. My husband, who has never done a craft in his life, did not wish me to go alone to a workshop on weaving before my surgery last summer. I tried in vain to find a woman to go with me but many of them thought it to be a difficult craft to learn and were not interested. So, my husband felt compelled to come along with me but only to look out for me. To his surprise, there were a number of excellent male weavers who drew him in. Among other things my husband has quickly learned the rudiments of weaving and has also mastered the art of making a hand knotted rug. I know that my husband would love to have an opportunity to discuss this and to show Zair the first rug that he made. 

As for me, I would love to have a conversation with someone who truly appreciated Middle Eastern rugs and to showcase some of mine. Along with a mixture of Louis XVI antiques and contemporary pieces, I have what I think is a nice array of Turkish and Persian rugs. Oh, and a contemporized version of a Berber rug. Many of my rugs are hand-knotted. When my husband and I left Westchester County New York almost five years ago, I had the fun and excitement of decorating a new home. 

I had not redecorated in a while but, I had been reading and studying more on the topic for a long time. I had always admired Middle Eastern rugs but, the time had finally come for me to purchase them. As a result of the COVID pandemic, house prices in Westchester County New York had sky-rocketed. People escaping New York City during the pandemic fled to nearby suburban locations and mine was one of them. With the huge profit that I made in the  highly overrated Westchester County market, it was time for me to go shopping. I was lucky to find an Armenian rug dealer who had the sort of antique inventory that I had dreamed of. He had a long family history in the rug trade and the expertise to help me find some special pieces.

Friendship used to be so easy. Now, it seems like the world is at war and people hate each other. What seemed natural just a few short years ago, like visiting a friend in Russia or being invited by an Iranian woman to tea is fraught with anxiety these days. Now that we have established my love of Middle Eastern cuisine and rugs, it’s time to go over some crazy Middle East Relations that I have had in the past. Do I really want to risk that again? Is it even possible for the Middle East and West to meet somewhere in the middle? 

Let’s start in University. I did a few side jobs in high school and college and one of them were tutoring fellow students. With my family proficiency in French I found it a rather easy job to tutor some first year students on the side and make some transportation funds the easy way. One of my first students was in my first year French class. She was a Zoroastrian girl from Iran. She was very quiet and sweet. Noticing that I was doing well in class, she asked me if I would consider tutoring her for a fee. I told her that she did not need to pay me since we were in class together. Instead, I suggested that we form a study group. She took me up on this offer and soon she was doing better in her studies.

She mentioned that she had a few Iranian friends who needed some help in French. She also said that they needed some more help then our study group could afford and asked me if I would be interested in doing a tutoring job for them. I couldn’t resist and it was then that I started my little side college gig. No ads necessary, just Iranian word of mouth and the business was steady. I held all of my sessions in a quiet section of our university library. Because of my multi-cultural family, I am always hyper-sensitive to cultural and religious differences and tried to make sure and navigate different groups respectfully. If I was going to be alone with a bunch of Iranian boys, I decided it had better be in a very public place. I went out of my way to made sure that I dressed and acted businesslike and professional too. 

I think it’s a rule of thumb that on any job that I have that I will make one or two friends. So, it was that Ali and Majid tried to strike up topics of conversations with me outside of the French curriculum. Being ever so wary I made them say it in French making our conversations part of their lessons. One day Majid invited me to his birthday party (in French). I was quick to say a happy birthday but, I was surprised that he invited me to his birthday party at an off campus apartment. Normally in my university days, I went to a whole lot of parties. They were usually with my girlfriends or on a date with people that I knew or part of my student club’s activities. They was no drinking or drugs involved as I had given my life to the Lord. Somehow Majid’s invitation was a little bit different.

He noted that I was not very quick to respond. He became very sweet and told me that he really wanted me to come to his party and that he was quite grateful that I had assisted him in his studies. He gave me credit for helping him go from merely passing the class to being within sight of a “B.” He further told me that his father was pleased and that I had gotten him out of trouble with his father.  He said,”I want you to be my special guest because of all that you have done” He told me that he would not take “no” for an answer. I was a little nervous about this party but since he really strong-armed me, I agreed to go to his party. I very seldom go against my instinct but this is one of the times that I did.

I arrived at the door of Majid’s apartment. I could see nothing of his apartment or I would have fled. I handed him a gift and he ushered me down a long hallway into a large open living space. To my horror, I was the only woman in that room. I felt I was going to die or be raped.  As Majid was trying to take my coat, I immediately told him that I was the only woman in the room and that I was not comfortable in that setting. He countered, “you are under my protection.” The men danced, there was good Middle Eastern food but, I was not hungry and I was not going to dance. Why, oh why did I not bring a date? Oh yeah, I wasn’t dating anyone at the time, that’s why. Was I stupid because I thought Majid was cute. Oh no, I thought, I’m gonna die because of a momentary crush! Yet, that night, I was indeed under Majid’s protection and nothing bad happened to me. It was clear to me that Majid, just like me, was trying the best he could to negotiate two world’s and two cultures. 

My other student Ali was not so virtuous. At the end of the school year when students have many get-togethers and parties before summer vacation, Ali invited me to lunch before he was heading back to Iran. He told me that he would like to take me to lunch in gratitude for receiving a passing grade in French class. I agreed to met him at local restaurant. At first, we had cordial discussions of summer vacation plans, next year’s coursework and other casual topics of conversations. Then, out of the blue, he propositioned me in the most crude way imaginable. I was shocked and lucky that I did not choke on my food. I said, “Ali, how can you talk to me so disrespectfully? Haven’t I always been professional?” His reply, “ all you American women are like that.” I said,”no we are not. I am a Christian and I am saving myself for marriage.” I finished my meal and I left having very little to say to Ali and he to me. Ali was negotiating two cultures as Majid had been but, one was the good Muslim and one was the bad Muslim. Ali had very little respect for the country or the people where he chose to study. To this day, Ali holds the record for saying the crudest things to me ever. (2Corinthians 6:14- Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?)

After graduating and getting my first job in New York CIty, I decided to continue studying French but in a more informal way. I began to take classes at the Lycée Français de New York. It was there that I met my next Muslim friend. This time it was a Muslim woman from Mumbai. She and her husband were both lawyers working tangentially with the United Nations. She was a Muslim woman who went against the wishes of her parents and married the man that she loved. Their road to love was fraught with problems. He was a Catholic Indian whom her parents did not approve of. Clarence was of the highest character. Virtuous in every way. Extreme in intelligence but, he was not a Muslim. Ayesha loved and respected her parents and informed me that she would not have married without her parents blessing. She studied law and went to work. All along she was not interested in anyone but Clarence.. Many years went by and these two remained committed to one another but, living apart in an unmarried state. 

In the meantime, they both had successful careers but, Ayesha’s parents knew she was getting older. Her parents finally acquiesced realizing that their daughter would indeed never marry if they did not give her permission to marry Clarence and they did not want her to be lonely in her old age. They finally gave their permission for her to marry. Some have asked why would Ayesha need her parents permission at her age? Yet, I admired and respected her love for her parents and Clarence. What an amazing love story these two had!  I even got a chance to meet Ayesha’s younger sister when she visited New York. I was invited to go on a trip upstate New York to Hechscher State Park. I had no idea how many Muslims hung out there until I went on a trip with my Muslim friend and her family. It seems that Ayeshs’s sister scandalized every Muslim at the park that day because she wore a pair of cut-off denim jeans on that hot summer day. I could easily see who was Muslim because they either gave her a disapproving glance or tried to talk to her family to tell them to correct this young Muslim girls’ attire. Note: I was dressed more Muslim than Ayesha’s sister that day. Ayesha was quite embarrassed that day. I told her that her sister was young and she was experimenting with Western garb. She wanted to fit in, she wanted to try western food and read western books too. It wasn’t like her shorts were too short, or that her arms were uncovered. She wasn’t flirting or making a spectacle of herself. From my perspective she looked comfortable, respectable and dressed to effectively cope with the hot weather but, for many that day Samina had crossed a religious line, not mine but theirs. 

Another Muslim girl I knew crossed a line. This time it was an Iranian high schools student who helped me learn some Arabic as she was fluent in both Farsi and Arabic. I hired her as a tutor but, she also agreed to work for me after school when I hosted Hamid and Zia, the two young boys that stayed with me before their medical treatment. I loved these two boys and wanted to adopt them but, the program that brought them to the United States did not want any of the children to stay in the United States after their medical treatment and that was a stipulation that the Syrian businessman had agreed to. My boys were going back to an orphanage even though I wanted to give them a better life. Their body stature and shape told me they had known starvation. Their injuries told me that they were in the midst of trouble. Zia seemed in a lot of pain but he still was always helpful to me. Some of my favorite moments with them were: seeing the glee and smiles that came on their faces when I pushed them on a swing or helped them rock on hobby horses. Or, watching them eat meals with gusto. They loved when I prepared tea for them too. They always looked forward to my husband spending time with them when he arrived home from work. My daughter was just a tyke then and completely learned their language quickly in order to get then to play the games that she wanted them to play. They always smiled at me and acquiesced to her. 

Special moments continued when I was able to assist the Syrian businessman in the children’s care. Since I was a Westchester Christian Housewife at the time, I was available to assist Fez* with managing the children during daytime events. Fez hired a bus to take all the children into New York City to a Middle Eastern restaurant and to go shopping. I went along as a class mother as I had on many of my own children’s events. Fez even complemented me on my handling of the children and compared me to a Saudi woman. Let’s make this clear, I have no idea what he meant. He thought a lot of my help and assistance and was very kind to me until one day when I went awry according to his sensibilities. 

One afternoon, Fez decided to take the whole group of visiting children to a McDonalds restaurant for a quick meal and to play in the playground. I happened to pass a television screen depicting the latest massacre of Jewish people in a synagogue and I made the mistake of showing shock and saying a word of support for the Jews. Fez immediately lite into me and starting yelling at me. He told me some terrible things about the Jews and a vein in his neck started popping out. I felt I was in some movie, where something bad happens to a woman. Even when I am afraid I will try to bring logic and my faith into the forefront of even a deeply heated argument hoping for a good outcome. In this case, Fez was having none of it. In fact, I went from being close to being a good Saudi woman to a “stupid American” who “has no culture.” Ouch. Plus, he told me he had thousands of years of history and I didn’t. I gently pointed out to Fez that I would not be talking to him if I did not have thousands of years of ancestry and culture too. Did I just arise on a shell out of the ocean or could this new country have integrated the experiences of the past into a new matrix? However, Fez was not going to let logic get in the way of his argument. I tried to stay cordial for the sake of the children and even called him about a year after the children went back to the Middle East to see how he was. The children’s hometown was again embroiled in bloodshed. I told him that I regretted not adopting the boys. He asked me not to remind him how he asked me not to adopt them for the sake of the medical exchange program. Sadly, the program ended soon anyway because people who were not connected to Fez took over regional government.* The program was unceremoniously dropped after that. 

As to their Iranian student who assisted me, as soon as she turned 18 years of age, she stopped wearing her hijab. Again, a clash of cultures. As she explained it to me, she told her mother that if she wished her to wear the hijab, she should have kept her in Iran. When she took off her hijab in my backyard one day, she asked me did she look American? She did indeed with her blue eyes and black hair. She almost looked like the black Irish!

Since all my previous experiences, I think the rift between the Middle East and the United States has only gotten worst. Should I wade into the waters of another Middle Eastern friendship or should I leave it alone? Is it even possible to bridge the huge divide that exists in our religious beliefs, culture and politics? There always comes a time when friendship grows with each Muslim person that the topic of their beliefs and mine comes up. It is inevitable that when you get to know someone and grow closer that you share your thoughts and your beliefs on a deeper level. Every single Muslim wished to share the Koran with me and I wished to share faith in Jesus Christ with them. I describe the moment when I first felt God’s presence. I talk about the direction my life has taken after I have decided to follow Jesus and the grace and mercy of Jesus. I talk about the times that I have failed to follow God and the forgiveness that is always available from the most high.

As a Christian and as an American what sort of friendships should I pursue? My husband always thinks that my conservatism naturally draws Muslim friends to me and he is probably right. There are some points of intersection that exist but, there will be limits as to how far the relationship can go too. Will we have a disagreement when a new Middle Eastern development occurs that we might see differently. If Zair comes to my house he might innocently peruse my bookshelves. He might enjoy looking at books that I have about Middle Eastern rugs but, what if he sees the book,”Hostage” by Eli Sharabi about October 7th told from the perspective of a man held hostage?

Here is one of the problems that I always run into with my Muslim friendships: can I ever truly be myself or must I watch what I say all the time? Should I take some books off my shelf, should I make sure that I take down my front door wreath before our would-be friend comes for a visit declaring,”He Is Risen” that I put up every Easter? I love the handcrafted wreath that I made in my church craft class and I keep it up until my daffodils fade and summer is on the way. I love the meaning behind it, Jesus is alive and he is present. Will I compromise my faith, will I succumb to temptation to not follow God? Will my friend feel the same way? 

What is very interesting is that while I find myself holding back on my faith at times in these circumstances I always feel my Muslim friends have always been the first one to bring up the topic of what it means to be a Christian. They want to know if I believe in many gods as the trinity makes them think I do. How can God have a son? And is Allah the same God that I believe in? Every single one of my Muslim friends in a way has forced me to do what I should and plant a seed of understanding into what the Christian faith and the road to heaven is. (2Timothy2:24-And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.) Lord, help me to be a blessing to all whom I meet.

* the names and some details have been slightly changed to protect privacy. The stories are true.

Resurrection Day Vs. Easter Bunny

I have a poster on my refrigerator door that I took out of the Dutch magazine Daphne’s Diary which pronounces “I love Cooking,” and I do. Each holiday has special meaning layered on it by the cuisine associated with that day. There is time and planning that goes into making each meal a special occasion. Then, there is the actual cooking and hospitality that must be attended to. Easter has many wonderful foods anssociated with it. There are Easter breads, lamb and ham. The classic spring vegetables are part of the meal too, such as radishes, carrots, Brussels Sprouts, and lettuce.

This year, I have decided upon lamb as my main course. My mother favored a crown of lamb with a mustard bread crumb crust and fresh kitchen herb flavoring throughout. My father loved ham as the centerpiece of the meal. I love all of the above but, I also love to change things up every year. My husband enjoys lamb lollipops so, I will marianate them in a homemade mint pesto sauce and keep some leftover to have as a dipping sauce. I will serve that on a platter with a pile of lamb sirloin steaks spiced with a blend of ground cumin, coriander, cinnamon and turmeric in the Ras el Hanout flavor style. Simple roasted vegetables will complement that. I let the oven do the work. I will also make an asparagus, Emmentaler Swiss Cheese, and ham bread pudding as a side dish. 

Dessert this year will consist of mini lemon Bundt cakes, homemade ice cream, chocolate covered cookies, individually wrapped candies placed in Easter baskets, and fruit. Cooking has been a lifelong adventure for me. Every year, I make different meals for Easter. I have many recipes to choose from so it never gets boring. I take my inspiration from around the world and have often went outside my own family traditions to add cultural and culinary interest. There have been Eastern European breads and deserts, German and French additions and South American Easter specialities. Do my recipes always come out one hundred percent authentic? Sometimes yes, and sometimes no, since every cooking technique takes time to develop. My aim is fresh, healthy and fun meals.

When it is time to serve dessert, I will offer a chose of tea or coffee. Over the years, I have received coffee carafes and tea pots as gifts. I picked up some from my travels too. I enjoy bringing them out when I have company. This would be a good opportunity to bring out my many tea pots for people to enjoy. I love all of my tea pots!

One of them is a tea pot from Uzbekistan with its’ vibrant cobalt blue and white pattern. The finish is extraordinary and the pot looks like it was made in a kiln, not commercially produced. I still remember my encounter with a group of Uzbeks at a Russian market in years past. My Russian translator stepped away for a few moments to help others in my group and I was left alone wandering a rural farmers market some distance from Moscow. 

As I looked around, I saw a collection of tea pots whose color and beauty drew my attention. I was a little nervous not knowing the language and stood at a distance admiring all the pots. The men selling them were clearly Uzbeks distinct from all the Russian faces at this farmer’s market. These pots bespoke the earth and traditions of their people. As I stared at the different sizes and patterns I realized this was the only souvenir that I really wanted to bring home and enjoy. 

I have been reading scriptures specifically associated with Easter but, upon reflection I realize the entire Bible always points to the eventual sacrifice, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ when you look really closely. Passover, which is now being celebrated by Jews around the world, describes a deliverance after a blood sacrifice from an unblemished lamb. The blood of an animal had to oft be repeated in recompense for the sins of the Jewish nation. “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats”-Exodus 12:5.

All over the world, people somehow intuited that this should be done. “I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you.”- in part, Exodus 12:13. However, an animal was not the solution but it pointed to the solution. It would point to and give understanding to the eventual blood of a sinless man being a final propitiation for sin forevermore. “By the which will we be sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”-Hebrews 10:10.

What can I do to make this Easter special after all that Jesus did for me? Nothing. There is nothing that I can do that is anywhere near equal to what he has done. I see what Jesus has done as I read the news headlines around the world. What a mess we are, all of us, if we would only draw nearer to Jesus some of this would get better. “For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves: its the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast”-Ephesians 2:8-9.

Just as I preview the meal and ready for its’ execution and try to anticipate the needs of my guests, I must also take time to think of their spiritual needs too. The people who will be sitting around the table are at different places with Jesus. There are those who don’t believe in him, there are some immature Christians who will be present and in need of guidance, as well as seasoned Christians. 

As I pull trays of perfectly cooked vegetables out of the oven, and I am satisfied that my light and airy lemon cakes will satisfy, I know that central to the event are spiritual matters. What do my guests think of Jesus and the Easter message? What questions will come up at dinner and in the next week or two when I welcome some guests for a visit?

I realize that while I put in a lot of time and energy to make sure that I am a hospitable hostess, that I have spent precious little time thinking about their spiritual needs. I am being like Martha in the story of Mary and Martha in the Bible. For a reminder of that story go to Luke 10:28-42 and John 11 and 12. Mary was more concerned with spiritual things and Martha was more concerned with the physical needs of her guests. So, after everything is cooked except the lamb dishes that I will cook after church, I decide it is time to open my bible. 

From year to year, the time of Easter brings discussions of the origin of the holiday. No, not the commeration of Jesus’ death and resurrection but the pagan origins of the term Easter and its’ background. There are many in the Christian world who would like to give up the name of Easter and instead use the expression Resurrection Day to point directly to what the meaning of this holiday is. 

Then, there are Christians who correctly point out the biblical directive not to celebrate holidays should mean we don’t have a Resurrection Day Celebration but instead have that celebration in our hearts throughout the year. It is hard to argue with any of these things since Catholics in effect did not allow people to decide if they wanted to follow Jesus or Eostre the fertility goddess whose spring holiday celebrated her arrival with eggs and bunnies. Instead, they simply overlaid the pagan practices with Christian ideas and because of that we have been living with compromise of Christian principles ever since. We have a mismosh of ancient pagan rituals mixed with Judeo-Christian beliefs. 

We have created some sort of Frankenstein monster by putting all these parts together thinking that we are creating something good but instead have compromised what God has said. It’s what we human beings do. So, I have learned to personally try and bring out different points to help people where they are in this battle between Resurrection Day VS Easter Bunny. 

We are all in a spiritual journey with God whether we know it or not. God desires that all should come to him. If we knock, he will answer but change often does not come easy and we wrestle with the principles of living a godly life. Of all the things we wrestle with, it is ludicrous to include the cult of the Easter Bunny with that. Don’t underestimate the dark forces behind this for the devil masquerades as an angel of light. “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily”-Colossians 2:8-9.

I have to allow the fruits of the Holy Spirit to shine through in my hospitality and in my discussions regarding the meaning of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control”-Galatians 5:22-23.

Harley Gets A Perm

What is a home? Does a nursing home qualify? I am determined to stand by Harley* after she’s been confined to a nursing home. Her life has gone downhill lately. She has had health problems for a while but, these health problems seem to be accelerating. Plus, she recently became a widow. Harley has gone down a black hole since losing her husband of fifty-six years. How could she not? The Bible describes a marriage as two people coming together to become one. If that is true, coming apart in death is like losing a part of yourself. It’s devastating. 

The Bible also has many verses entreating us to care for those in need. That was my goal last year when Harley had a medical procedure. That procedure should have been simple but, unfortunately, it lead to a stroke. Next, there was physical therapy and improvement. However, that improvement did not last as long as I had hoped before she contracted salmonella and was hospitalized again. That was a huge setback for Harley and all the progress that she had made in physical therapy was lost. I tried to visit her weekly. I pulled out my whole Mary Poppins bag of tricks which included books, magazines and homemade food in hopes of cheering her up. 

Throughout all of Harley’s ailments her husband Shane* stood by her magnificently. He visited her every single day. He washed her clothes weekly and brought her favorite foods to the rehabilitation facility. He cared for her many needs sacrifically and showed her unconditional love. That included helping her to walk, lifting her and helping her in the bathroom when necessary. He kissed her everyday and told her that he loved her. That old US Steelworker looked like Popeye when he was young and he proved his mettle during the contest of old age. He lived every moment with gusto, love and never waivered in his faith. He died suddenly while Harley was in a nursing care facility recuperating and now she will never come home again. 

Their daughter Vanessa* doesn’t seem to much care for her mom and was always closer to her father. Throughout the years, it appears Shane encouraged this little rivalry and did nothing to bring the two closer. Spousification? Or, did Shane have inappropriate boundaries with his daughter? He made some decisions with Vanessa that he should have made with his wife and I told him so.

Some Christian families let problems fester and don’t always seek godly solutions that are explicitly pointed to in the Bible. It sometimes seems easier to follow dysfunctional family patterns rather than to do it God’s way. But, God’s way is the right way. For Vanessa I feel that would mean a study of the biblical principle of honoring a parent.  

Somehow that concept didn’t come into play for Vanessa when dealing with her mother’s current needs. Shane died suddenly less than a month ago. It was a shock to all of us, especially Harley. He was living life to the fullest and then he suddenly died. Shane and Harley’s daughter Vanessa is a female entrepreneur who runs several businesses. She is always on the phone and busy as heck. She likes it that way, it’s convenient if you know what I mean. My first impression of her was she’s… well we have a name for that in Westchester which begins with a B but, I have to keep trying to uphold a Christian standard.

People like Vanessa do not make that easy. She seems to look people over all the time and it’s pretty clear that practically nobody makes the grade. She didn’t dare do that to me, instead she just acted bored. She pulled this when we ran into each other at her parents house once. I entreated her come on over to the table and hang out with your mom and I while her dad hung out with my husband. She was presenting anti-social but, my approach was to kill her with kindness. That did not work so much. She wouldn’t die to her bad attitude. She needed Jesus but, I thought that she already had him? 

When Shane died, Vanessa was on business in Florida, she did not even come back to be with her mother who was alone in a nursing home. It was Harley who called me and I came down to comfort her as soon as I could. Our Pastor was there too. Vanessa sent some of her sons to break the news to their grandmother but, they ended up making a mess of it. They were young men not yet fully equipped to handle the situation and for the most part muddled the whole thing. Vanessa should have been there. 

Speaking of Westchester County, I know CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies, and brain surgeons who made themselves available to their mothers under such circumstances. Vanessa had no excuses. Vanessa informed everyone that she was going to set up a memorial service for him at a more convenient time for herself. She left Harley out of planning her own husband’s funeral. Harley wanted a burial, Vanessa wanted cremation. Harley wanted a traditional wake and funeral but Vanessa literally did not care. Harley was asking for her dad to be put in a suit for his cremation. Harley said, “it doesn’t matter because it’s a cremation.” Vanessa has still not allowed her mother to see her own husbands’ ashes which are currently on her farmhouse mantle place.

When Harley had a stroke last year, Shane motivated Harley to beat the odds and return home. Harley worked hard at her physical therapy and somehow managed (with Shane in her corner) to walk and talk again. Even the rehab center was amazed. Until just two days before Shane died, he still was trying to get nursing care in the home so his wife could return there. That dream was kept alive by Shane this past year throughout Harley’s many health challenges. Shane and Harley are of a generation that did not put parents in nursing homes. I don’t think Vanessa understands that. Indeed, Harley’s mom died at home in about the same shape that Harley is in. She was never put in a nursing home. 

However, all those dreams died when Shane died and Vanessa just wants to park her mom in a nursing home, give away her things and have an end to it. Harley and Shane have a large family. Yet, Harley was mostly left to suffer the loss of her husband alone. Why is she being emotionally shut down by many who are close to her? The answer lies in selfishness, lack of empathy and also distaste for the aged. Harley has a lot of feelings about everything that she is going through. The nursing home that she will now call home is not one of the worst that I have seen. They have activities and even counselors available to help Harley deal with her loss. Nevertheless, Harley is not ready to concede that she will be unable to ever return home. She still can’t even believe that her husband has passed away. 

From what I have gathered, Harley is experiencing two deaths. The death of her husband and the loss of her home all at once. That is a lot of trauma to process and it takes time and attention. So many of the people at our church and in her family are of the mindset that she should just be quiet and accept the reality of her situation. There seems to be very little sympathy for what she is feeling. I don’t agree with that.

My weekly visits to Harley have been gut-wretching as I have seen a woman lose everything in a very short amount of time. Loss of love, and loss of the place that she felt safe in. It’s now the whole new reality of living in a nursing home is beginning to set in too. From what I see there, she has no control over her daily life. There is no privacy and control over anything that she does. It is loud all the time, and the lights are always on. Plus, she is a shy person who has just been thrown together with  a group of people that she doesn’t know and is being expected to accept that.That is not easy for a naturally introverted person. I have tried to give her an outlet for the emotions that she feels and a safe place to contemplate solutions.

In so doing, I have gotten myself yet again into the whirlpool of family dysfunction. The family war seems to have headed in an unlikely direction in recent weeks as Harley thought about what she would wear and how her hair might be done for Shane’s memorial service. I have known for some time that Vanessa likes her mother in a short hairstyle and I have heard Harley’s repeated desire for a medium length permanent. 

Recently, out of the blue, Harley told me that her daughter had made arrangements for her to get a short haircut. I asked Harley did she “want to get a short haircut?” Her answer was an adamant “no.” Then, why are you getting a short haircut” I asked, wading into the warm whirlpool forming before me. Her answer was because, “I am afraid to stand up to my daughter.” A church member seemed to suggest that Harley was trying to manipulate me into taking her side. That could only occur if I am not aware that this family struggles in the area of control and passive aggressive manipulation. However, I was aware.

Here’s the bottom line for me. I believe that with all that Harley is going through why would you not let your mom get the haircut that she would like? Why is a women’s hair always a battleground? Aren’t there more important issues in the world? I offered to buy a gift certificate that is offered by the nursing home for a salon visit. Her birthday is less than a month away. She seemed to agree to it. 

However, when I returned the following week, Harley informed me that her daughter had gotten her that haircut. It looked awful. It was akin to the haircut that is given to prisoners upon entering jail. It was the haircut that she would have to wear when she attends her husband’s memorial service I thought.  I assumed that would be the end to it but, it wasn’t because Harley was not satisfied and informed me that she had made an appointment at the in-house salon to give her a permanent.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh goes the whirlpool. “Harley is your healthcare agency or your daughter going to pay for this?” Harley said,“I know my daughter refuses to pay for it.” I made the decision to support her in this. So, I purchased a nursing home gift certificate that is redeemable at their in-house salon. Today, was her appointment. I know her daughter will not be happy when she sees that her mom got a curly hairdo but, isn’t that almost laughable? Could this hairdo be a way that Harley is rebelling against her daughter? It’s possible but, I hope that at some point both mother and daughter can start acting like mature Christian ladies and work through these problems. God saw fit to take Vanessa’s favorite parent first and leave her to care for the one she likes least. I have seen this happen before many times. I think it is God’s way of giving everyone a chance to work things out. 

This past fall, Harley told me that she always wanted to have a Meyer lemon tree. I told her that I also always wanted to try and raise one too. These are the little things that girlfriends bond over. Unbeknownst, to her I procured two scrawny half-dead looking Meyer lemon trees after that and decided to nurse them back to health this past winter. They did well under my grow lights and seem ready for a spring revival but I am realizing that Harley is never coming home. Now, her Meyer lemon tree and mine sits outside my front door soaking in the new spring sun, growing and thriving, a vestige of Harley’s broken dreams. 

Harley just called me from the nursing home to tell me that she got her permanent done and she loves it. She feels respectable as she plans for her husband’s memorial service. I sort of think Harley will enjoy defying her daughter’s dictates too. Her daughter has finally planned a memorial service for her father. It will be in two weeks. Harley has asked me to stand beside her as she eulogizes her husband. I am sure that she is nervous about that and needs some moral support.I told her that it would be an honor to stand beside her. I believe that some in her family may not be happy about it. I will be praying for Shane’s family to find new avenues of connection in the days ahead. I pray that they could all listen more, compromise more and love one another as Jesus has loved them. Maybe then, a nursing home could qualify as a home.

* some of the names and stories are changed to protect privacy.

* the names were changed to protect privacy.

At War

It has been a long time coming but the bully of the Middle East has finally got its’ answer. When I was a kid, I remember a few fights breaking out on my walk home from school between boys. I remember kids lining up and choosing sides and cheering them on. A book of essays was written by Robert Fulghum in 1986 entitled, All I Really Need To Know I learned in Kindergarten.” I saw it one day as I perused a line of used book and I opened it up. It was a consideration of the good lessons that we learn when young. 

I learned a lesson watching those fights break out long ago. That lesson was that when someone has a big mouth and goads another boy on over and over that eventually they will come to blows. Words matter and some of those words were, “death to America.” If that was all there was that Iran had said to us, it is a threat. “Put up or shut up” would be the little boys answer. We should not be surprised if our words or actions are met with a response. That is a lesson that I learned when I was young.

Iran has been a rabid animal that needed putting down for a long time, forty-seven years to be precise. It started when they took American hostages in 1979. They stepped all over our flags then and now to show disrespect. A few years later, Iran was behind the suicide bombing in Lebanon carried out by the regime’s proxy Hezbollah. There was also the humiliation of the soldiers on the U.S.S. Cole. Iran never plays by Geneva Convention standards of wartime conduct as far as I can see. They also play the United Nations like a violin. All of the above actions were declarations of war against the United States and now they got what they were asking for, a wooping.

Iran clearly wants to commit genocide against the Jews because they have said so many times. How would you feel if they said it about your people? How many times do you have to hear an Iranian official declare that,”I would like to wipe Israel off the face of the map,” or hear about a Jewish school, grocery store or place of worship that was attacked before you see the crimes that the regime has perpetrated? There is literally no doubt that Iran has been paying for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis to slowly kill Jewish civilians (hint:war crime) so they can take over their land. I don’t know why they and we didn’t have this fight before. 

I believe that at this point the Democrats of the United States will no longer support the State of Israel. The party moved in this direction under President Obama. He began to pivot his political party and our country towards Islamic relationships. Don’t get me wrong, the Abraham Accords are trying to create shared values, and form business and political alliances in a new way, but that will take time and understanding on both sides if people desire to move in a civilized and constructive direction. The whole concept is done in a much more realistic way than President Obama ever did it. This kind of relationship could flourish once the Iranian regime is vanquished and would be capable of helping make a positive change in the Middle East and in the world. The Abraham Accords could do much to legitimately move the Middle East and the West closer and I pray that all parties could make strides in loving one another and making the world a safer place.  

Whereas, Israel and the United States don’t necessarily have to sign any papers due to some shared behaviors and religious history. Here’s why we should all support Israel. They are the only democracy in the Middle East, That’s hugely important and it should be a role model for other nations. They live in a rough neighborhood and they have had to address that. This explains why they have to have a tough guy demeanor all the time. It is either fight or die for them that much is clear. They must be vigilant.

Next, the Jewish religion is the base upon which Christianity built its’ house and it is foundational to Western Civilization. Another natural bond exists because of that. The Jewish people have made innumerable contributions towards the advancement of Western Civilization and it is time that we in the West finally acknowledge that and respect that more.

However, without a Republican as Commander in Chief, I do not believe that this Iranian regime change would be happening which is all the more reason that now is the time to correct this forty-seven year blot upon a civilized world. There can be no doubt that Iran was about to go nuclear and frankly, they are not mature enough to handle such a responsibility. Evidence: they are trying to shut down international trade and sending bombs and drones at civilian populations as opposed to military targets like the United States is doing. As of this writing, Iran has attacked twelve countries. Airports and hotels are their targets and they even misfired a missile on one of their own schools and blamed others. Anyone want international shipping lanes to be free for international commerce to continue? Raise your hands. They are crazy and any country,(cough, cough…Russia and China), that supports them are crazy too. Do not trust nations that stand up for evil. Of course, you must know what evil is before you can do this. I pray the world can learn from this situation. I hope that you and I can too.

The Middle East has gone through many power shifts throughout the centuries. The Assyrians, Babylon, The Medo-Persians come to mind. It is the backdrop for the story of Daniel in the Bible. The Egyptians had their kingdoms and their imprint upon the Middle East and the world. There was the Ottoman Turks. The modern kingdom of Saudia Arabia, and the kingdoms that formed on the Arabian Peninsula where vast resources of oil were discovered. Now, Iran is determined to interrupt middle eastern business with the regimes’ last dying breath. 

The Sunni-Shiite split in Islam figures into everything happening as this drama unfolds too. The nations which have a mixture of Sunni and Shiite populations seem to be destined to fight endlessly. It must be said that many Iranians in the West celebrated the recent events including in the United States which has the largest Iranian population outside of Iran. They all have thrived and benefited from living in the United States and other Western countries where they came to escape the Islamic Revolution. 

The question is why did they not go to other Islamic countries where shared customs and religious beliefs could have made for an easier transition? It is because the United States is a more peaceful place, free from the endless wars that seem to continue in their place of origin. There is more opportunities for economic success here than in Iran too. The Iranian people need to respect that and stand up for the United States especially when fatwas are put out on the United States.  Many Sunnis have struggled with Iran but, did not move to counter the direction that rogue nation was taking the Middle East and the world into. They need to do better in the future to secure a better life for their countries and region.

War figures largely in humanities history but, what does the Bible say about it? Is there such a thing as a just war? Is war something Christians should completely refrain from as some Christian demoninations do? If war is necessary, what constitutes proper conduct? Let’s start with the cause of war. The cause of war is sin. Sin is an offense against God and one another. If war is occurring, someone, somewhere, sinned. If you would like an example of this, look at the story above again and think it over. 

It is not a sin to stand up to evil and it is even something that God himself will do at the end-of-times. He will do so in a very dramatic and violent way. He must or else he is not a God of justice. Heck, even little Seamus had to stand up to Dylan on my childhood streets or else Dylan would never stop embarrassing him, and stealing his lunch money. The Bible says that God can not tolerate evil forever and there has been and there always will be times when a tipping point is reached and he will once again intercede.

Only God is Holy, and we are not. Therefore, when God Himself acts in destroying something that action is Holy and when we wage a war or destroy something our aim is for that action to be “just.” A “just war” would not include hitting civilian targets on purpose. A just war is hitting military targets and the ability of that adversary to wage war. Collateral damage is not the same as hitting a kindergarten or a hospital on purpose. Unless, the adversary has chosen to house weapons or military facilities in those places. In that case, the enemy has acted to bring its’ own people into jeopardy and have acted cowardly and unjustly. Making someone into a “human shield” is the same thing and does not meet the standard of righteous. 

It is a shame that I have to say this in 2026 but, it is not just to rape and steal big screen tv’s during a war. The buzzer goes off as unjust to an exponential degree at this point. Hurting and killing children because you hate your fellow human beings so much….buzzer is sounding again, monstrously unjust. If you look at a child and wish to harm them because of your dispute with a neighbor then God is not within you. There is nothing Holy in any of these actions that I am discussing so, stop calling them okay. What about killing 30,000 of your own people? Is that okay that the Iranian regime is alleged to have done that? If, they were behind groups such as Hamas who had a plan to rape and kill women, children and humiliate male enemies then, a righteous nation or world should and must stop such a people. Nations acting thusly are legitimate candidates for delegitimization. It would seem evil not to stop all of these actions. 

Do I hate my enemy and is that okay? No, I have learned in my walk with the Lord to work through my feelings of hatred and make those thoughts line up with godly principle. It is one thing to be happy that Seamus is not being bullied by Dylan anymore but quite another to hate him for it. So to, the hatred of people who have hurt us and nations which we have grievances with, must be worked through. The Bible instructs us to even pray for our enemy. I have always found when I pray for my enemy eventually forgiveness can come into my heart about the matter and a genuine desire for their well-being blossoms.  

Another aspect of a just war would entail honest diplomatic attempts to work through issues before going to war. It must be examined if a nation is making a good faith effort towards solving a dispute or just wasting time as they keep enriching uranium or amassing more of a disputed territory. Just sitting at a diplomatic meeting does not mean that you are serious about trying to reach a fair solution to a problem. 

There are nations who are giving intelligence to Iran in order to hurt the United States or Israel and by doing so to advance their own agendas such as weakening our defenses. Unfortunately, before God this makes them co-conspirators in the rape, and civilian slaughters. They are a blood-stained nation before the Lord. The Bible tells us that God will judge the nations because of the evil they have done. The United States like all the nations of the world is not perfect. How can any of us say our nation is right before God? But, for all the above reasons it is acting justly in holding Iran accountable for their actions. This has been a longtime coming. Eventually, it will be up to the Iranian people to show what kind of nation and people they want to be. God is watching. 

Something Wicked This Way Comes- Part 3 the anti-Christ & A.I.

A.I. & WAR:  

Revelation 16:12-14 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. 

Did you see those recent reels released by China of their military robots? If they were real and that’s a big “if” with today’s A.I. image fakes, they are frightening. They were massive, like giants of old in the Bible. Besides being large of stature, they could do martial arts moves that would out-maneuver any master of those arts. Then there were the soldiers that were shown in what looks like a military training camp going through a shooting exercise with power, precision and accuracy. Way to go China, you make the Judeo-Christian end-times scenarios so believable that even my atheist friends can see it. Oh sure, now all I do is read end-time bible verses, which previously seemed like a fantasy to them and now they believe. Instant conversions by a few of them even after years of conversion attempts on my part. 

These demonstrations of A.I. humanoid prowess were shown on China’s popular TV show, the CCTV Spring Festival Gala which means a large viewership by the Chinese public. I was perplexed and initially thought these videos to be fake because of the huge leap of flexibility and ability levels these robots seemed to achieve. What huge breakthrough did the company UNITREE make? So huge I am wondering if they had help. Stealing more U.S. technology or worse, some anti-Christ help? 

When I was a high school student, a family member gave me a subscription to a World War II magazine. This gave me insight into the weapons and strategies of war. Just for the record, I did not ask for this subscription for my birthday or anything like that. Honestly, I was not that interested in the topic at the time. I suspect that my family may have been trying to push me towards a military career or perhaps it was to enhance my education on a topic that was sure to enter the typical high school curriculum that I had already begun. I’m not sure.

It appears from this humble housewife’s prospective that every age has a weapon that wins wars. At one time it was the crossbow or the knight’s armor. There have been cannonballs and muskets. On an on, until our present day. What will be the weapon that dominates in the days to come be and who or what will control it? Will it be the A.I.? Is the anti-Christ going to use this technology? It all seems highly likely.

Just a decade ago, people warned of the rise of the machine and they were either hailed as crazy, unintelligent or a conspiracy theorist. Some science fiction writers had the vision to see this coming and made some money off of the idea. Christian leaders and conservatives saw it coming too. They were all hopelessly lampooned by the so-called intellectuals.

Today, Tech CEO’s, scientists and others in the computer field are sounding the alarm. Even while they try to win the A.I. war, scientists seem to feel the Faustian implications of what they are doing. Who can forget Elon Musk famously referring to the rise of A.I. as the summoning of demons. He declared the technology more dangerous than nuclear weapons. 

Are you listening yet? Oh, I think you should because it is going down whether you or I like it or not. For the record, I don’t like it but, I see passages in the Bible which are highly suggestive of such a scenario so, I know that it will come about. The seemingly insurmountable armies described in an end-times battle could quite possibly be an A.I. robotic army. A.I. could explain how the one world tyranny of the anti-Christ could even arise. If he is in the driver’s seat of the A.I. that would explain a lot of what the Bible predicts will happen.

A.I. & Control:

Revelation 13:16-17 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.

I love the way scientists tasked with the responsibility of A.I. risk analysis seem to all get hysterical sooner or later. The latest is an Oxford educated man from Anthropic who just resigned from his position at that firm. He wrote a scathing analysis of just where all this technology might lead. Can the A.I. already detect programs that are trying to monitor it? Yes. What will the A.I. entity do with this information? Will it seek to thwart intervention when we tell it, for example,not to launch the bomb? Perhaps it won’t like us interrupting its’ sequence. 

Or, is the anti-Christ that spark of consciousness that some are afraid may happen with artificial intelligence, the so-called singularity? What kind of weapon could A.I. be for world-wide domination? If the bible is right, and it is, the anti-Christ will have all the tools that he needs to control the world. I imagine the Chinese police state is the role model, in microcosm, for what is to come. 

China helps me to imagine what it would be like to live under the complete control of an anti-Christ. The monitoring of its’ vast population is much simpler than it was during the time of Mao Zedong’s Communist takeover because of technological advances.The unlimited data storage of the computer means that no matter how many people in China or in the world that you need to monitor and control that it is an easy project. 

The A.I. is eminently capable of sorting and manipulating any of the data that it is amassing on us every day. Your medical data, your employment data, your genealogical and genetic information. You and I either are or soon will be recorded as we drive, as we speak. Sooner or later we will have to do everything the government says, if we don’t already. Eventually, if we don’t do what the anti-Christ bids us do, well you must know that when it gets to that point you must choose the Lord because it will be your last chance for salvation. 

If A.I. is the tool of the anti-Christ that would clearly make him capable of going well beyond any of the empire’s of the historical past. Just imagine what Alexander the Great or the Roman Cesear’s would do with the A.I. What about the emperor’s of China or Genghis Khan? The Ottoman Empire or Napolean? The story of the Russian Revolution and the eventual Iron Curtain over Eastern Europe would be a much more tragic story, if that was possible, had the A.I. technology been available.

A.I. Reeks Havoc:

Ephesians 2:2 In which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. 

A.I. is a dangerous thing yet it seems like it is a do or die kind of thing now. I don’t think that we have a choice. My belief is the USA needs to have it because China and Russia leading in that technology would be a tragedy waiting to happen. I think A.I. is already beginning to destroy our world in a prelude to the anti-Christ. Have you considered these vast data centers that will be needed to work with this technology? What about the vast amounts of energy and resources and its’ blot upon the land? One farmer in the United States describes his experience with a representative from an A.I. company as nothing short of harassment. They wanted to buy his land and even after he declined their offer they would not except no for an answer.

He was offered a great deal of money to give up a 254 acre farm but, he refused to do it and instead gave the land at a much reduced rate to an agricultural land trust. He didn’t care about the money. He wanted the land that had been in his family and that he had farmed all his life to continue to produce for generations to come. I sure hope that Elon Musk is right and he can get these monstrous data centers into outer space because they are so freakishly dystopian on earth. 

This technology is here. After all, many of our children already can’t think, read or write without it. They are already attached practically on a brain level with their devices which are powered more and more by the A.I. They are growing up with this technology and encouraged by parents and teachers to use it for too many things. Some seem to prefer mommy’s phone to her, other playmates or the world around them. I see little kids asking the A.I. questions next to the adoring gaze of their parents. I wish I could get the A.I. to check on their physical and intellectual development. “A.I. how’s my child’s brain development going?”

A.I. and the Image of the Beast:

Revelation 13:15 And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.

Revelation 13:8 And all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

Then, there is the image of the beast that is mentioned in Revelation. I think of this as sort of an advanced Alexa, Siri or a chatbot. The move towards creating partners for people, companions for the elderly has already begun. We are just looking for something or someone to meet our needs for emotional, physical and spiritual well-being but, is this really the way to go? Mark Zuckerberg thinks so. He even said that artificial intelligence might be better than a real friend. While this may seem insane to me or you, this man helped usher in social media, so this is real. Tragically, people are buying this hook, line and sinker. No more working through the trials and tribulations of relationships. What for? After all, you can create the perfect chatbot friend, partner or mother. People are so self-centered that they would prefer that.  No fuss, no muss. Creating the perfect husband or wife, then why not create the perfect god? The quest for rewriting God’s story will ultimately lead towards the creation of a false god that is Satan himself. I feel the way things are going it seems to me like many people are ushering the anti-Christ in whether they know it or not. 

Now is the time to connect in a more meaningful way with the people around you. They need you and not a chatbot meeting their needs for relationship. Go to a good Bible centered church and read a hard copy of your Bible. Learn something new by doing it and talking about it with others and not by watching a YouTube video.Teach your children to investigate the world around them by using their five senses. Teach them to read and write cursive. Teach them about God. Try to use the A.I. as a tool for good and not for evil. The time will come when A.I. will take a turn for evil but until then, like any tool A.I. can be harnessed for good. 

Something Wicked This Way Comes-Part 2, the anti-Christ explored

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that anti-Christ shall come, even now are there many anti-Christs; whereby we know that it is the last time-1 John 2:18

The Chasm is deep and wide. It permeates every corner of our lives: government, church, schools and universities, and the main stream media. The Winter Olympics is marred by it. Hey, it even touched my Alma Mater and my weaving supply store this week! Crazy right? As time goes by and wickedness has been allowed to grow, everything is polluted by it. I wish I could just live in a world free of such problems but, that’s not the world that Adam and Eve left us with. 

The weeks since Winter Storm Fern occurred has been a battle with the winter elements. The weather was and is dangerously cold. You can get hypothermia very quickly without the proper gear, your plumbing pipes can freeze and machinery can stop working.. Having grown up in and around New York City I have procured the skills for working in this type of weather but, I am constantly fussing after my husband who grew up in a warm weather climate. He would say that he has learned to navigate the northeast American climate after living here for some time. 

However, I always feel the need to watch out for him in winter. I believe that if you did not grow up in this kind of climate your instinct is never the same as a person who did. My husband grew up in a sunny and frost-free environment so the notion of going to war with the winter elements is something he might read in a book but never might one hundred per cent get. He unconsciously thinks the weather is his friend. Ha ha! So did my father, who was also born in a warm climate. Hey did I marry my father? I digress.

This week as I look out my bedroom window I see icicles so big and long that I feel like I’m trapped in the palace of the Snow Queen just waiting for spring to come and rescue me. My husband had to be cajoled to zip up his jacket and put on a hat. See what I mean. I imagine him being taken captive by the Snow Queen and taken to her cold, cold lair. I would have to rescue him if I remember that story correctly and battle her to save his life.

Trapped in the palace of the Snow Queen until spring with my first winter head cold gives me time to think about all that is happening in the world. The Winter Olympics have begun in Italy. The Italians had to deal with Russian hackers. The Russians aren’t too happy that they were not invited to the party. The Americans were booed at the Olympic Games because they do not want open borders and have acted to arrest people who are illegally within those borders. Just a refresher, this is what the American people overwhelmingly voted for. It is great to have a President who is doing the job that he was elected to do.  

The Europeans don’t agree with our immigration laws. They are entitled to their opinion. Their policies show what they believe. The Islamic population in Europe in the year 2000 was 500,000 and now it is close to 50 million. That did not happen by accident but, by design. People who voted for Trump did not vote for that sort of paradigm shift. However, didn’t the Olympics have goals of bringing the world together and finding something to unite about?

Maybe the Olympics can’t achieve that goal anymore. Is it time to give that dream up? The Iranians have killed their own citizens, the Syrians are wiping out the Kurds, and the Nigerian and Somalian conflicts continue in Africa. We know why the Russians aren’t at the party. Do we finally have more that divides us than unites us? Do we really hate each other too much to come together for a short sporting event without throwing shade at one another? Something Wicked This Way Comes-Part 2, the anti-Christ explored is looking at this question. Achoo! Excuse me.. 

The Wicked Thing that has been revealed to the world as of late is the Jeffrey Epstein Files. I can barely read any of those stories because it is too deep and too dark. It almost seems like sin unbounded. The Bible tells us who’s behind it all. That would be Satan. Jeffrey Epstein, anarchy, wars and rumors of wars are all just the tell-tale portents of the person who is the puppet master behind the scenes. 

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one-Matthew 6:13

In my little world, institutions such as my Alma Mater are showing signs of what is to come. My university used to be a place known for its’ moral code but now, it goes along with the winds of every popular leftist movement instead of the timeless doctrines of the Bible. I learned through sources involved in the University that it’s gone LGBTQ and become anti-Turning Point USA. I wrote them an email decrying recent decisions that they have made in favor of the former and in opposition to the latter. If that isn’t enough while I was enjoying my morning cup of coffee and checking my emails the other day, I received a message from my weaving supply company that disturbed me. Their emails used to be fun and mean seeing new yarn offers, patterns for weaving, and educational weaving opportunities. Expecting something like that, I happily opened an email only to find out that the company I had enjoyed so much had gone crazy. It was now encouraging people to craft secretly coded anti-ICE and revolutionary messages into their next woven textiles and to donate money to the anti-ICE movement.

Dropping a whole lot of money in a short amount of time meant nothing to this new brand of businesswoman. The maxim that “the customer is always right” did not apply. When I sent a letter supporting the law enforcement community and the President of the United States she let me have it. Ouch. Next, I let loose with premise, argument and logical conclusion and she in turn went illogical hog wild crazy on me. This has happened to me before. Seems the craft world is full of lefty anarchists. Who’d a thunk? This is not my mother’s craft world anymore. I wish it were. 

Today, you find that companies are more interested in politics than in making or selling their product. There was a famous online knitting company who refused permission for knitters to post a pattern depicting messages of support for Donald Trump on hat patterns. However, they allowed the democrats to post a pattern supporting their candidate. Does that seem fair to all their customers or just outright biased? Pussy hat patterns and anti-ICE hats sure, but MAGA hats no.  I won’t subscribe to this very popular online knitting resource as a result. A European knitting company that has great knitting kits also made no secret of their left leaning politics a while back and so I had to stop ordering from them too. This is a world that is rapidly lining up on one of two sides and I know who is behind it all.

The whole thing about the anti-Christ is that the world gets to the point of bringing him onto the scene  because they have lost all moral clarity. We call evil things good these days. So, we will call the anti-Christ good at some point and we will follow him instead of God Almighty. It’s no different from following a cult leader because we think they are telling us something good. It’s no different from following political parties that end up doing evil things. It’s no different from dating someone who is anti-social and wondering why they are a terrible mate. 

There are several passages in the Bible that reflect some of the things we have been pondering. So just who is the anti-Christ? The name anti-Christ has two meanings. It refers in general to anyone who is in opposition to the Lord, Jesus Christ. The name also refers to Satan and his role in opposition to God in the end of days. The Bible is clear that a person will appear who convinces people that the dream of peace in our day is possible. 1 Thessalonians 5:3- While people are saying,”peace and safety” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. Eventually, he will seek to rule the world and we will be in danger of a one world government. 

So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.That is why it was called Babel-because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth-Genesis 11:8-9

One world government had its’ day in the early part of the Bible and is explored in the story of the Tower of Babel. This story seems to embody the dream of a complete world unity. The unity that we keep trying for is a fiction. Is the United Nations all that great? The Olympics? The idea of worldwide cohension is a naive fantasy that will ultimately work against us when the anti-Christ uses it against us. It has always been my impression that God opposed the idea of world unity in the Tower of Babel story because a one world government is one of the conditions that must be met before the anti-Christ’s arrival. He will step into a position of a world leader just when we are all ready to give up national sovereignty. In other words, when we embrace complete open borders.

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God-2 Thessalonians 2:3-4

NEXT WEEK: Something Wicked this Way Comes-Part 3, the anti-Christ and A.I.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Is it the upcoming “Winter Storm Fern” that has me on edge, is it the Middle Eastern paradigm shift, Minnesota madness or something more ominous? The title of this blog post “Something Wicked This Way Comes” is taken from a Ray Bradbury novel, who himself got that title from a line in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. All in all, the title captures something of the general apprehension that I feel at the moment. 

They say there is something in the air before a storm. In the case of a snow storm, it is even said that due to a barely perceptible change in humidity and colder temperatures that a person could actually have a heightened sense of smell. Is that what I am feeling?

All this week, I have felt the sense that there is more going on than meets the eye. I sought to squelch this thought and feeling because it seemed to be distracting me from my list of things to do. But, I haven’t had such a pervasive sense of foreboding in a long time. I have often said that I always follow my instincts and the occasional times that I do not, it is a mistake. My instinct is part Holy Spirit power and life experience, all of which God wants us to be aware of and utilize when necessary. 

In Ray Bradbury’s tale we are introduced to two young lads who are busy living the life of boyhood pleasures and innocence unaware of an approaching storm and the underlying spiritual nature of life. The sense of worse things to come like growing up, death and the spiritual realm is almost palpable from the first page of the novel. There is something about this novel that captures the essence of an ordinary life that senses and contacts the spiritual undercurrents of their life when least expected. Am I having a Ray Bradbury moment? 

I must be because, here I am doing what ordinary people do everyday like cooking up a storm during a storm, having a blast with my newest craft hobby weaving but, crazy things are going on all around me sort of like that crazy carnival coming to town in Bradbury’s novel. Yes, I think the crazy carnival with all the freaky things that happened is a great metaphor for our world right now. Are we all like the innocent and not so innocent people in the story who get caught up in the drama when wickedness comes to town?

Iranian revolution, what’s going to happen with that. I’m on the edge of my seat with this. Is the regime about to end? Has the Iranian Revolution of 1979 run its’ course? Will the Peace Board make the United Nations go the way of the League of Nations? Will Gaza go from being a hell-hole to a world class center of something or other? Is NATO falling apart, or is it still relevant? Will a Greenland deal keep the fed-up United States on board and happy with those petulant Europeans? Is the Anti-Christ about to make the scene?

Something Wicked This Way Comes as the world changes rapidly before our eyes. The character of Mr. Dark in Ray Bradbury’s novel could be played by any number of candidates currently on the world scene. If I remember my high school reading correctly there is a side-kick too. Hmm, whom could that be? Could the approach of the Biblical anti-Christ and his false prophet be on the horizon? There are so many reasons to think that the answer to that is “yes.”

For instance, the Gospel of Matthew 24:6 tells us before the end of days, there will be “wars and rumors of war.” I would say affirmative to that. This will put the world on edge and make it long for a more peaceful existence. The history of this planet has included awful and deadly conflicts. The desire to finally overcome our bloody past will lead the world into the clutches of the anti-Christ.

The anti-Christ will come in with promises of “no more wars.” There will be those who support him and one sponsor in particular will be the so-called “false prophet.” This concept follows the notion that any movement in history that was of any significance always had a philosophical, politcal and spiritual system in place. Every society is based upon that and the anti-Christ system will be no different. Let’s get into some scriptures to give us guidance on the matter.

On the topic of peace deals and the anti-Christ, Daniel 9:27 begins by stating that, And he (meaning the anti-Christ) shall confirm the covenant with many. This seems to point to countries coming together in agreement in a peace deal. The deal had to be in existence already or else they could not confirm it. So the question arises is the peace deal currently being discussed for Gaza, THAT DEAL? Is the United Nations or the new Gaza Peace Board going to be instrumental in bringing THAT DEAL into existence, and will the anti-Christ being involved in that process be a springboard for his evil career? 

This mysterious anti-Christ figure will promise the peace that has alluded humanity since the beginning of time. The anti-Christ will not come in as a warrior king to subdue the world. He will eventually move in that direction but not at first. So, it will be hard to see him coming because he will not be what he appears to be at first. That happens in Ray Bradbury’s novel too. 

This is not surprising since most all of Western Civilization’s literature is a commentary on the Bible. Judeo-Christian beliefs are an important foundation of Western Civilization and consciously or un-consciously author’s test its’ precepts. So, perhaps unconsciously as this long ago read book comes to my mind, I am really examining world events in light of the biblical principles of good versus evil as Bradbury did.

I am disturbed by the moral breakdown of society. Minnesota riots are part of it. A certain segment of the population thinks it okay to disregard the legal system of the USA and they are well-organized and funded. They are formenting a revolution. The latest killing that some are outraged over entail a man bringing a loaded 9 mm. high-capacity handgun to confront ICE agents with. Let’s sum this up, literature teaching how to disrupt law enforcement, encrypted messages, weaponizing vehicles, biting off fingers, and bringing handguns are the modus operandi of this group. Some of the group even disrupted a church service with Communist 101 rhetoric. Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to relive it. Lucky for me, I have read a lot of history plus my bible so, I am not buying any of this. 

The moral front and the anti-Christ- I want to join the voices who are calling for a boycott of the upcoming Super Bowl LX Game on February 8th. Every year the half-time show gets dirtier and dirtier. It reminds me of the debauched carnival depicted in Ray Bradbury’s novel. When someone calls himself Bad Bunny where can you go from there? I mean he gives bunnies a bad name. This Puerto Rican singer is supposed to come out in a dress. No pun intended. The entertainment is heavily weighed in this direction and that is by design.

Jesus states that the end times will not come until there is a falling away. The scriptures in various places tell us that people will not listen to the moral teachings of the church any longer in the lead up to end time events. It is the prophesied falling away of the church. That time is surely now. Just look around at all the moral decay and situational ethics that abounds. Anything goes as far as sexuality, right and wrong has been turned upside down. Greed and narcissism has replaced the concept of emulating Jesus and serving one another as he taught us to. 

Peace deals, moral decay, Winter Storm Fern all heightened my sense of preparedness for what comes ahead. As I complete this blog post, we are all cleaning up from the storm which has dumped 10- 15 inches or snow in my area. The icicles and snowbanks will be around for a while as an extended cold weather advisory is in effect. 

The issues of peace and morality portent something wicked in the future. It’s not Wicked Good, it’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. During the winter months when I am indoors more than usual I try to go through and discard various documents that I no longer need whether they are physical pages or in the document files on my computer. I know some financial instruments are coming due and I have to make decisions about future investments. Cooking and cleaning out closets is also a winter activity for a housewife such as myself. Will my feelings of foreboding wane now that Winter Storm Fern has passed or will I be blogging, Something Wicked This Way Comes Part 2-The anti-Christ explored?

New Year’s Revolution

No, that is not a typo. I did not mean to name this blog post New Year’s Resolution. The name of this week’s blog post is New Year’s Revolution. I began writing this post very early last Sunday morning. Sunday is the day that I set my alarm extra early in the morning in order to prepare to worship the Lord collectively in a church worship service. I take a forty-five minute drive over hilly terrain and past now deserted farm fields awaiting warmer spring days to come. I behold the aspects of the winter landscape stretched out before me on my drive to the little church in the country that I attend. 

It seems a lot is happening all over the globe as I ready to head out the door. What the heck is going on because the morning headlines are full of revolutionary protests and actions? Iranian citizens are having a revolution.They have endured rolling blackouts in their country on a daily basis, water problems which impede their everyday life and their currency has to be wheeled about town in wheel barrels like pre-World War II Germany. Their economy is a disaster and people have lost hope for a better future. 

Instead of tackling these problems and allocating money towards ameliorating those problems they chose to fund Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthi's in the regimes plan to destroy Israel. The Iranian regimes quest to be a regional superpower has bankrupted their nation. They were oil rich and they used that money in an irresponsible and incompetent way. The sanctions are their fault because decisions have consequences. The Iranian regime is fighting a losing battle and every merchant and housewife in the country knows it, and that's the formula for a New Year’s Revolution.

I have been talking about the shifting world situation for several years at least. The Middle East is now in a new normal since I began to explore this topic even though skirmishes break out from time to time in the region. What’s certain is that the Assad dynasty is dead as a door nail. The Arabian peninsula has shown their shift to a diversified economic model, traditional Islamic / world culture mix, plus brave political pivots working to outmaneuver the Iranian model. 

The Abrahamic Accords show that the Middle East has made a gesture towards trying to live in peace with their neighbors in a nod to the historic roots they share as evidenced in the naming of this treaty. The Iranian regime might be the last one to know this though. Polymarket agrees with me too. Is that why Russian planes are picking up Iranian gold and helping some in the regime to solidify an escape plan should one be necessary. I wonder will the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps slaughter their wives, mothers and teenage nephews on the street as they cry out for a better life? What do you think? I pray that the answer is no even though there is early evidence that the army is firing indiscriminately at its’ citizens. 

The Israelis have also busted some moves after October 7th. The “never again” sentiment just grew exponentially after October 7th. The Jewish nation is now in regional supremacy over Iran. I think Egypt has quietly settled into an economic approach towards improvement. Good idea, Iran should have done that. I think change is happening in the Middle East because of brave new thinking and because of the possibility of a new silk route venture. People are turning away from war plans and are instead imagining and focusing on new and brighter economic and educational opportunities for growth in the region.

My title New Year’s Revolution also refers to what has been going on in Venezuela. Last Saturday brought news of Maduro’s regime being toppled. I cried tears of joy knowing how the mess that once thriving Venezuela has become was slowing coming to an end. There has to be better things on the horizon for them. Venezuela was once a thriving, cultured and prosperous place but as of late it had become the new Cuba. Speaking of Cuba, how bad is it over there? I got this recent update from a Puerto Rican man that I know named Manny*. Manny, who is a good Christian man ran into marriage problems shortly after converting to Christianity. He did not want a divorce and was very lonely after his wife left him. He did not meet anyone at church or in the community that he liked. Honestly, he likes Cubanas. So, he somehow managed to get a mail-order bride from Cuba. I don’t want to know the details of that. He went there to meet her and gave me a summary on just how awful things were in that country. He said they are beyond dismal.The above description of Iran is also how Manny describes the current situation in Cuba. It helps explains how Manny and Mariela,* two desperate people, have recently come together. It may also somewhat explain the alliance of Iran and Venezuela too. There’s a theme here, i.e. Communism, Socialism or Dictatorships don’t work.

Yeah, but you ask what does this have to do with my January relationship reset theme? I do have another tip this week for you and I to improve our personal relationships but first, yikes the world is in a paradigm shift! I will finish with my thoughts on South America and get to it, I promise! South America is in play again, more so than it has been in a long time. They are at a moment of pregnancy and what will be born is up to them. Will the baby be born healthy? Free of drugs? China and Russia prop up dictators, and facilitate the drug trade in that region. This allows them to work their agenda against the United States including to stultify any possibility of unity in the western hemisphere or even in South America. Weapons can be pointed at the United States too. But, are China, Russia and Iran really looking out for South American interests? At this moment South American success is within its’ grasp finally but, they have to have a vision for what it could be and stay the course towards democracy and capitalism. I know they have it within their collective religious, cultural and intellectual capabilities to make it this time.

For the first time in a long time I can see hope on the horizon for that region. There have been false starts and then backward trending. There has been romance with the socialist / communist model. There has also been a dream and experimentation with freedom that the Venezuelans, Bolivians, Colombians and others have flirted with. I see an openness to it in the region again. Benjamin Franklin cleverly remarked as he and others engaged in setting up the United States system of government that, “It’s a republic if you can keep it.” That advice would be wisely adhered to in South America if a stable future is to be built there and the region to move forward. Stay the course. I am also hoping that we in the United States could again take Franklin’s advice seriously too. 

That’s because in the United States a non-grassroots movement is looking for and manufacturing opportunities to protest and bring down the U.S. government where no such reasons exist. Even after an election victory too big to rig occurred, and the majority of Americans voted overwhelmingly to bring President Trump and the Republican Party into office, the well-funded and relentless revolutionaries are still continuing to try and bring a Marxist revolution to the United States. Law enforcement is under attack in their homes, and on the job. This has never happened in this country before. Their families are being harassed, stalked, assaulted and even killed. Politicians too. Our duly-elected Vice-President J.D.Vance’s had his home vandalized this past week. His family and the President’s family continue to be harassed by the violent and hate-filled leftist movement. It’s not an accident that Minneapolis is trying to use a situation of their own diabolical making to begin riling up the uninformed, unwell and ungodly and trying to get a revolution out of it. 

There are many well-organized groups right now training people on the finer points of how to harass police and other law enforcement. Legal, duly sworn agents who are following the moral and legal frameworks of the United States of America are being cast as the bad guys even though that’s not the truth. They are turning everything upside down. They are calling right wrong and wrong right. Who does that? The Bible says that is what the end-time warriors will do. The group in Minneapolis are called “ICE warriors.” They are called that because they are fighting the agency (ICE) tasked with stemming the flow of criminals who flooded this country during the Biden presidency. The ICE warriors are not nice people. They are the dregs of society: anarchists, haters of the Judeo-Christian faiths, democracy and violent extremists. I pray for them constantly.

Unlike Venezuela or Iran where people are desperately trying to get free elections and economic improvement, the United States already has that. It’s like these ICE warriors are fighting some sort of a Don Quixote windmill. This crowd is trying to bring chaos and thereby use a well-known technique for bringing in a New Year’s Revolution. Their organizers are well-versed in the methods of Che Guevara, Marx and 1960’s radical movement. Their revolution will bring destruction to anywhere where they can succeed. They are crazy and think they will bring in a utopia but they would really make the United States the new Cuba. With all this going on how’s a Christian Housewife gonna focus on giving  another relationship tip for January or finish putting my Christmas decorations away? It’s hard but it’s important to do the things we must accomplish every day.

Our God is a God of order, not chaos. The author of chaos is the devil. We all have to decide whose side we are on in 2026. Those who are trying to bring chaos are not of God. God brought the universe into being out of chaos. His model is harmony with himself, nature and one another. Unity and godly order begins at home and extends to our world. We can not bring utopia to this world, only God can. The Bible tells us in the end we will be so unsuccessful that God will have to bring judgement on the nations and eventually God Almighty will have to stop this craziness. 

So what can we build in our homes and in our earthly government? The founding fathers of the United States created a system of government with enough checks and balances on government power to be able to successfully bring control towards a citizen rule. These men understood their bibles and out of an abundance of biblical wisdom understood that since mankind has a sin problem it must be mitigated by taking that into account when building any nation. They understood there is no such thing as a utopian nation, only a nation which gave its’ people a fighting chance to stay free. It took 250 years before their system would begin to falter and that happened when the United States started to lose sight of their faith. 

When the United States began to abandon its’ faith in the Judeo-Christian God that was officially the beginning of the United States New Year’s Revolution. Those who have thoroughly studied American history know that the early founder’s said as much and cautioned that only a godly populace could continue the ideals of freedom that they had envisioned. So where are we now? Half the population believes in God and half do not. Half of the country supports the god-fearing ICE agent who had to defend himself when a crazed woman refused to follow his directions. This is the second time that illegal or illegal supporting godless people have used their car as a weapon against this agent to thwart the legal laws of entry into the United States. The left are teaching their activivists to do this. It has also happened in another bastion of liberal politics, Portland, Oregon recently. 

If this woman had understood the rule of law, the right to a peaceful protest and what that means, and had chosen the right way to change laws, she would still be alive today! All indications are that she was out looking to foment Revolution. If her car had been in parking mode and she was poised to follow law enforcements’ directions her car would not have rolled when she got shot as the video shows. She had that car in drive and treated the officer’s life as if it was of no value and she would have run him down had he not protected himself. They would then treat her like Luigi Mangione in short course.

She and many like her stop traffic not for legitimate change and growth (because they already have power to do that) but because they are trying to wreak havoc.They can simply tell voters what they believe in, run for office and then allow the citizens to decide the winner. They don’t want to do that though.They lost the election and they don’t want to wait for the next election they would prefer to take control illegitimately before then. Even in New York, my former home, we see communism taking root through elections. New York City has elected a communist mayor. They have AOC too. I was born and raised there and I no longer want to live there because New York has become a stronghold of all that is wrong with my nation. They will go the way of Cuba as time goes by or return to sanity. 

The half of the country who ridicule God and call harassment, stalking, and even justify murder if it further’s their cause, is currently supporting the leftist uprising in Minneapolis. Their crazy and soundly defeated Governor Walz who lost his bid to be a Vice-President of the United States and is currently at the center of a billion dollar scandal has called for others to take to the streets in solidarity with the revolutionaries in his state. Of course he did. Wag the tail maybe? Or is it by “any means necessary Tim?” I know as a Christian the means by which things happen are paramount for me to contemplate. There is a difference between legitimate change and illegitimate change. There is a difference between self-defense and murder. Only God has given us true clarity on that. So, I know we are fighting those who don’t understand those principles.

Today, I wanted to finish packing and putting away my Christmas decorations until next season’s holiday, I wanted to write a blog highlighting a story with relationship tips but my husband made me feel better when he said that “some things are more important than putting away your Christmas ornaments. You might have to put that task off for another time.” The New Year’s Revolution in our homes and relationship is just as important as everything else going on unless of course the revolution comes to our own doors. Then, we are swept up in it. I pray that we do not face that test.

Relationship Tip of the Week: We all should decide this week to practice receiving feedback from our boss, partner, friend or family member in a mature way. In order to have any good relationship we need to be able to take constructive criticism when it comes. We should also practice giving or receiving such information in a way to others that shows respect. No sarcasm, no name calling just a mature discussion about whatever the issue is. We must begin with letting down our defenses with that person that we seek to be in relationship with. That is what real friendship, love, or family relations require. Defensiveness often creates communication problems and blocks problem-solving solutions. Just ask the Ayatollah and President Pezeshkian.

* the names are changed to protect the privacy of others.