Looking Back, Looking Forward

 We come to the end of another year. As I've noted in previous years, things seem to be getting crazier by the year. I'm not going to go through the specifics, but we all know that there has been too much violence in wars, assassinations, riots, etc. There is also too much of a tendency in some circles to try to suppress thought and speech that challenge the conventional wisdom on major cultural and political issues. This only causes deep distrust of many toward the news and entertainment media, government, academia, and other entrenched cultural institutions.

There is hope in that truth and information are like water, seeping around the attempts by government and corporate entities to censor information and commentary that varies from their preferred narrative. Continuing economic hardship and uncertainty also adds to the sense that old alliances may be breaking down and that the political and social direction of society is truly up for grabs.

The start of the second Trump Administration brought sweeping change to Washington, America, and the world. Sometimes there may have been more chaos than necessary, but the change in direction is clearly needed to reverse much of the inertia and outright corruption over the years that continues to be revealed even now.

Meanwhile, the pace of advancement and innovation in science, technology, medicine, etc. continues to accelerate. The work of SpaceX, Blue, Origin, Rocket Lab, and other companies are rapidly enabling economical access to space, new capabilities in space, and the harvesting of resources beyond Earth for the benefit of future generations. The advance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a primary focus of attention this year. AI presents tremendous opportunities yet also challenges that must be addressed as we move forward.

Looking forward to 2026, we have a lot to look forward to, good and unfortunately, bad as well. One particularly epic event could occur as early as February, when the Artemis II mission sets out to loop around the Moon. Four crewmembers (three Americans and one Canadian) will be the first humans to voyage to the vicinity of the Moon since the final Apollo lunar mission in December 1972. (Some of us have been around long enough to remember those days.) Artemis II will not only pick up where Apollo left off but will hopefully be a precursor of the age of permanent and economically sustainable human activity on and around the Moon, which in turn will lead to human expansion and settlement beyond Earth and the Moon.

January 6 will mark the Feast of the Epiphany (Jan. 6 being the traditional date of observance (aka Little Christmas, Three Kings Day). The Magi were men who studied the stars and followed one star to encounter God Become Man. May our celestial journeys now, and in the future, bring us closer to God. And may we continue to make headway in protecting life and defending liberty while respecting the dignity of every person despite our differences. And may God's blessings and peace be upon you and yours and wishing all the best in this new year of 2026 and the amazing decades to come.

Have a Holy and Merry Christmas!

    

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus
that the whole world should be enrolled.
This was the first enrollment,
when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town.
And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth
to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem,
because he was of the house and family of David,
to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
While they were there,
the time came for her to have her child,
and she gave birth to her firstborn son.
She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger,
because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields
and keeping the night watch over their flock.
The angel of the Lord appeared to them
and the glory of the Lord shone around them,
and they were struck with great fear.
The angel said to them,
"Do not be afraid;
for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people.
For today in the city of David
a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.
And this will be a sign for you:
you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes
and lying in a manger."
And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel,
praising God and saying:
"Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

Luke 2:1-14

Hanukkah and Our Attitude about the Future

                                

Standing under the Milky Way/ public domain (goodfreephotos.com)

 

(This is a post I originally made in 2003 and feel is worth repeating each year, especially in light of some very dark anti-human views of the future vs. ongoing and emerging developments that can provide resources from the Earth and from other locations in the Solar System and beyond for future generations.)

Rabbi Daniel Lapin has a provocative column on WND on a message of Hanukkah that is relevant to people of all faiths. He shows examples, ancient and modern, of how a pessimistic Malthusian worldview has been repeatedly disproved by the Creator's providence of material resources and the ingenuity to utilize them to provide for the future. Rabbi Lapin says:

It only seemed that we lacked sufficient copper, whale oil or wood. In reality, our God-given ingenuity developed exciting new technology that eliminated our need for each commodity just as it was becoming scarce.

Hanukkah's miracle was that, day after day, the Temple's menorah just kept on burning in spite of an apparent shortage of fuel - a metaphor, surely, for all apparent shortages that can be overcome with faith. Hanukkah invites us all to express gratitude to the Creator whose beneficence is boundless. It stimulates discussions that can spur our spiritual growth. It reminds us that with His gift of creativity, challenges become optimistic opportunities to partner with God in creatively solving all material shortage.