August 2026

August is the time of the year I read teachers and students returning to school with hopes and dreams of what the future will hold for them.

Older students are already aware that artificial intelligence will reshape, and in some cases replace, many of the jobs that exist today. They are growing up in a world of rapidly changing political, social, scientific, and geophysical influences that shape the future.

Many young students don't remember a time when Donald Trump wasn't a constant presence in the headlines, surrounded by personal controversies and global dramas. To them, the traditional Republican and Democratic establishments can appear increasingly disconnected from the realities of today's society, and they are correct.

"Change" is the key even when they don't know what door that will open.

What is often difficult to understand is that changing the way a country is governed - or how humanity evolves - will never eliminate conflict and uncertainty. There will always be competing ideas, opposing forces, personal ambitions, unexpected events, and problems for which there are no simple solutions. Perhaps that is one of the fundamental conditions of our existence as the humanity experiment exist in a bipolar (physical) reality, where opposites continually interact - order and chaos, creation and destruction, hope and fear, progress and resistance, etc.

Every generation enters the future believing it can create something better. Parents hope to create a better future for their children than that in which they grew up.

Hope may be one of humanity's greatest assests - but it can also become one of its greatest failures when mistaken for certainty.

The human brain is programmed to learn from the day someone is born - through observation, repeating what they see and hear, playtime, and more - it is all built into the human experience.

Triggering all of this is the need to remember who we are, why we're here, and where it's all going ... sometimes at the forefront of someone's consciousness, both mentally and emotionally.

Physically, you know your highest level of education - unless you are still in school.

If you were to look at yourself emotionally ... what grade would you be in?

For many the answer would take them to elementary school when something physically and emotionally broke - abuse, loss. They never moved past it - defining them to this day.

Some would answer middle and high school because that's when emotions and hormones rule and are often out of control - the bullying years that are often very traumatic.

Mental illness highlights generally after high school - having nothing to do with higher education, but more to do with emotional programming in the human experiment.

It would seem that mental illness is increasing in today's world, but I don't believe that to be so. It was always there, but now more and more young people are acting on it in a way that attracts the attention of society - such as mass shootings - often influenced by social media.

Becoming aware and actually finding a solution to those who are mentally ill is a long and tedious process of trial and error. Not everyone finds a solution or one that is long lasting. I find this very sad, especially for those involved, and those who love them, or are responsible for them. A prime example of that would be Rob and Michelle Reiner - murdered by their schizophrenic son, Nick.

To consider yourself emotionally at the university level means - at the very least - to peripherally understand how things work and are waiting for the human experiment to finish. It also means you're lucky enough to have good programming.

Reality ends with the eclipse of consciousness in the alchemy of time.