A R C H I V E

One of the most widely known and quoted lines in modern English, "To be, or not to be" is the opening phrase of William Shakespeare's play, Hamlet. In the speech, Hamlet contemplates death and suicide, bemoaning the pain and unfairness of life, but acknowledging that the alternative might be worse.

Almost every conscious human being may have at least thought about the subject of suicide. In fact, every year, nearly 45,000 Americans commit suicide; by comparison, the number of violent homicides is under 20,000 per year!

This brings up the existential question: what is the meaning of life?

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Approaching old age, I find so much to be thankful for, from good health to financial security, but most of all I am thankful for my son Dustin who finds his immigrant father’s plans and ideas worthy of his efforts to manage and grow.

This brings up the question of how to let go of power, which is the classic issue of all father and son relationships; so complex it is the subject of many Greek tragedies and Shakespearian plays. Adding to this complexity is the reality of our working together sixty hours a week during a pandemic; a dynamic that on its own can rapidly devolve into conflict.

After decades of study and preparation for a time like this, I have decided to invoke George Washington as a role model. Washington was immortalized, not because he was the best tactical fighter since Alexander the Great, Napoleon and Eisenhower were better fighting generals. No, what made Washington eternal was his willingness and ability to cede force and thereby gain even more power. We are past the tipping point.

Dustin is now in charge and, with our succession plan nearly complete, Highland will be in good hands for another 43 years.

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In a speech on June 19, 1886, the then 37-year-old Lord Randolph Churchill (father of Winston) addressed the ambition and “racist hate-speech” of his opponent with a warning to his audience to “be aware of gratifying the ambition of an old man in a hurry.”

Since January 6, 2021, violent attack on Congress, even many diehard Trump fans were heartened by the man’s pending departure as they anticipated president-elect Joe Biden would usher in a period of peace and civility to our country.

The many Americans who voted for Biden did so in the hope that Biden’s mandate-less victory would translate into a sort of caretaker presidency and thereby allow the country to heal from its greatest period of divisiveness since the Civil War.

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“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”

— Winston Churchill.

Although the greed, waste, rape and pillage of our planet and its environment is a stain on Capitalism, its productivity makes it the best among all the other flawed systems. Rising tides lift all boats, no matter how choppy the sea. So the question is, how do we improve Capitalism, instead of trying to replace it.

Since the end of WW1 and, in part, due to the Great Depression, Americans have toyed with the idea of Communism and Socialism, striving to find a possible alternative to our current flawed system.

As we envision the ideal of a Peaceable Kingdom, where the lion and the lamb lay together, and the fox and the chicken coexist, we must also recognize the reality that the human condition is fundamentally flawed, as well as all the systems invented to date to govern ourselves.

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For two years in a row, US News and World Report has declared Boulder the most livable city in America. In addition to its three hundred-plus days of sunshine and its proximity to an international airport, Boulder’s diversity in culture and education are major factors in this designation. Scientists and athletes, artists and businessmen, socialists and communists, revolutionaries and anarchists, Boulder has them all, and more.

Revolutionaries and anarchists share a common belief that the current system is inefficient, unjust, and/or corrupt, and thus must be changed or replaced. Revolutionaries often envision an alternative system, however idealistic, for a better world and thereby recruit allies in an attempt to change the system, either peacefully from within, or by force from without. The American Revolution and the Boston Tea Party come to mind.

Anarchists, however, are driven by a notion that the system is so irredeemably bad, it should be brought down and destroyed at any cost, in the belief any alternative would be better than the existing one. Think of the French Revolution and the Guillotine.

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If we are lucky, the patina of life slowly develops as we experience losses, big and small. Each loss, failure or setback leaves its distinct mark, a collective sheen that eventually develops into the patina called wisdom.

Youth has a propensity towards ideals, purity and perfection. The young envision the ideal world of eternal happiness, constant progress, the ever-blooming garden, and the ageless lover. It is the storybook world of the handsome prince on a white horse carrying the beautiful virgin to a happy-ever-after utopia.

In the midst of planning our ideal life, however, life has plans of its own for us, often hard, and at times brutal.

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City Club is no longer the best-kept secret in town. When potential new members ask me to describe City Club, and the profile of the ideal member, I tell them “City Club is a Securus Locus where black sheep can feel comfortable being who they are.” Black, white, rich, poor, old, young, gay, straight, Republicans and Democrats alike feel safe here.

Imagine this scenario: There you are dressed to the T, as you and your spouse attend an elegant social gathering, spending most of the night talking with two very different invited guests.

The first is an almost too good looking guest who proceeds to tell you how great life is, that he graduated Harvard law, made a small fortune at Goldman Sachs, and then, having started a tech company in his four-car garage, exited that venture with a nine-figure package, all on his way to an anticipated net worth of a billion dollars by age 50. He, with his wife, have a real estate portfolio including six houses, from Main to Hawaii, each worth over $10M. He adds that they vacation at Martha’s Vineyard every summer with their golden retriever and their 2.2 kids.

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Saigon 1975; Tehran 1979; Kabul 2021; Taiwan….

In July of 64 A.D., a great fire ravaged Rome for six days, destroying 70% of the city and leaving half its population homeless. Rome’s emperor at the time, the decadent and unpopular Nero, “fiddled while Rome burned,” forever acting as a poster child for all incompetent leaders in times of crisis.

The American Exceptionalism, gained by and paid for with much blood and treasure, is once again at great risk. At a time of great need for unity and Socratic discussions, our political, corporate and university leaders promote “Cancel Culture,” and “Critical Race Theory.” While Anarchists start deadly riots in our streets, some advocate defunding our police. While our economy struggles with inflation and labor shortages, our Government pays people not to work, continuing to pump Trillions of dollars into our economy, hoping to put out inflationary fires by throwing more money at it.

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All politics is local.

Charity starts at home.

Don’t get mad; get even, through your engagement.

Global warming is real, is here, and is hugely disruptive. We just saw a devastating thousand-year flood in Belgium and Germany. The Chinese are drowning in pollution, but China keeps adding one coal-burning power plant per week. Siberia’s current 190 wildfires are bigger than all the world’s other blazes combined, and the resulting pollution will soon affect Alaska. Last week, our own Colorado air was so toxic, it was hard to go outside, yet depressing to remain indoors.

The feeling of helplessness, anger, and victimization helps no one or solves anything. Personal action, however, regardless of its immediate effectiveness, is the key to empowerment. It makes us feel involved, in charge, and a player.

After months of planning and preparation, we are honored to host Congressman Joe Neguse to speak to us about Climate Change Induced Infernos: A Call To Action. This online-only live broadcast event will take place from 6 pm to 7 pm next Tuesday, August 31st, 2021.

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The past 18 months have certainly been “interesting times” in the world, and at Highland.

No one needs a reminder about the negative effects of the Pandemic, which has resulted in social isolation, supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and price inflation. Highland, of course, was not spared the effects, from the radical change in the way we serve food to the fundamental changes in the way our members live and work. These rapid changes forced us to question the way we go about doing things, and to readjust the roadmap for our future.

On the positive side, we were fortunate to have had the financial resources to not only weather this terrible storm, but to complete multiple major construction projects on the way to transitioning Highland from a luxury office into a private social and business club. We were also fortunate to retain a sufficient number of tenants, members and employees to allow us to focus on the growth of both our management team and our membership.

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Multiple studies have shown we are most open to forming lifelong friendships upon entering high school, and again, college.

Multiple longevity studies confirm that the five key ingredients of a long and happy life are good food, proper hydration, adequate sleep, exercise, and community.

That observation raises the distinction between being rich and being wealthy, i.e. while many rich people feel isolated and lonely, wealthy people are distinguished by their friendships and their supportive communities. Humans, being social animals, need one another to survive. But in today’s hermetically sealed, fully airconditioned, 72-and-sunny environment, how do we establish deep and long lasting friendships, especially in later life?

In the introduction to his Member Monday topic this week, Steve Smith posits, through the featured article, that the key to forming meaningful relationships later in life is by means of “radical collaboration: the openness to being persuaded as much as an eagerness to persuade.”

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Hermann Hesse was born in 1877 and raised in a missionary household on the edge of the Black Forest, Germany. Destined to study for the ministry, Hesse experienced a religious crisis, often recorded in his novels. A failed suicide attempt led him to travel to the East, where in 1922 he published Siddhartha, a novel about the Buddha.

In this novel, Siddhartha, as a young man, left the comforts of his family in search of a contemplative life. Restless and bored, he discarded the life of contemplation for the pleasures of flesh and comfort. Sickened by lust and greed, he moved on once again to meditate on the bank of a river as he contemplated enlightenment and a life journey marked by suffering, rejection, accumulation of knowledge, attainment of peace, and eventually, wisdom.

The essence of the book and the two pillars of Buddhism are:

The cause of all suffering is attachment, and that to which we are most attached is our life.

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Metamorphosis

Met·a·mor·pho·sis: the process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form in two or more distinct stages.

On the 130th anniversary of Highland, and the 43rd anniversary of my acquisition of the facility, I would like to share some thoughts about our community, and where we are headed.

First, though, for some context, let us review Highland’s long and colorful history including survival of the 1894 flood that destroyed our downtown, two World Wars that changed our country, the Great Depression, along with multiple technological innovations, all the while serving as an elementary school for kids, a Free School for adults, home to luxury offices, leading to the private social and business club we have today.

Simply stated, Highland has been able to dodge the sad fate of many similar buildings by adopting the Darwinianian survival strategy of adapting, staying technologically current, and rapidly changing with the times. This goal has required effort, determination, long-term vision, and an unwavering commitment.

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"What is thy bidding, my master?"

"There is a great disturbance in the Force."

"I have felt it."

"We have a new enemy, the young rebel who destroyed the Death Star. I have no doubt this boy is the offspring of Anakin Skywalker."

―Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine discuss Luke Skywalker[src]

One need not be a trained Jedi to detect a great disturbance in the force.

Start with a potentially man-made global pandemic that has resulted in millions of deaths so far. Flood trillions of dollars into a global economy that was already overburdened from 2008’s recession, hoping to prevent the collapse of the economy. Add major inflationary forces eroding the purchasing power of the average worker. Factor in major Labor Force disruptions evidenced by the onset of “The Great Resignation,” wherein 70% of respondents to a survey said they are looking to leave their current job. Recognize major supply chain disruptions evidenced by the double-digit increase in the cost of raw materials and shipping. Factor in the fact that a third of Americans are suffering from anxiety and depression, resulting in the highest number of drug-related overdose deaths in American history.

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This 17th Century Persian carpet sold for a record price of $33M at a Sotheby's auction. While an art lover can look at, admire, and pay a fortune to own this piece of art, an economist will look at it as “Proof of Work,” verifying that in fact some 300 years ago an entrepreneur bought the finest wool, secured the best vegetable dyes, hired a talented designer, and employed a master craftsman to weave this masterpiece.

Money is nothing more than the means by which society measures proof of work. But when a currency gets debased from reality, inflation sets in, slowly and legally robbing people of the value of their hard-earned work.

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Life has a way of living us unless we live it.

So how do we go about living life?! Whom should we consult? What roadmap should we adopt?!

Enter the philosophers.

And, who, you may ask, is a philosopher?

Most people sleepwalk through life, not fully living, but merely existing, their reptilian brain constantly striving to secure food, shelter, security, and sex. In order to live life well, one needs to know how to live like a philosopher. In fact, the Stoics believe it is a grave mistake to give philosophy our life scraps, something to be addressed only after the workday is through.

A philosopher is not someone simply focused on static truths buried in ancient books. Instead, a true philosopher constantly strives to create, not just discover, the wisest and most workable path forward -- imagine the honeybee moving from flower to flower in order to sample the nectar on the way to creating its own unique honey.

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Happy 4th of July.

This National Holiday affords us the opportunity to celebrate the birth of our great nation, and take inventory of how true we have stayed to the founding principles of our Republic.

America is akin to a great tent capable of holding a diverse crowd. On the Left we have critics like Howard Zinn, along with publications like New York Times, always quick to point out America’s past crimes, and re-write history by declaring 1619 as the founding of our nation.

On the Right, we have the 1776 Hamilton Boys, and publications like Wall Street Journal, with their greed-is-good orientation, and worship of the Dollar to such an extent, we are left with the burden of a $30 Trillion National Debt.

Instead, on this 4th of July, I would like to invite all of us to move beyond these factions and experience the 245th anniversary of the birth of our nation through the eyes of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a great American patriot, in his poem titled "The Building of the Ship."

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Elon Musk’s recent quip that we are potentially living in a sophisticated matrix brings to mind Shams informing Rumi he is sleepwalking through life. Talking about speaking truth to power!

The Matrix, loosely based on social-philosopher Jean Baudillard’s book Simulacra and Simulation, describes a future in which humans are on the verge of enslavement by intelligent machines. And, so, the humans adopt a scorched earth policy of burning down the planet to shut off the source of the master machines’ solar energy; think of our own global warming and the destruction by fire of the Amazon forest. The machines, in turn, start industrial farming humans in order to sustain their existence by harvesting human energy; think of the way we raise animals on industrial farms for meat consumption.

In the movie, the industrially-farmed humans are permanently plugged into a sophisticated matrix such that each human is outfitted with a unique customized software, creating the illusion they have free will when it comes to what they eat, their profession, whom they marry, and the number of children they get to have.

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A Jubilee means a re-start, a new beginning, as in Webster’s definition: a year of emancipation and restoration provided by ancient Hebrew law to be kept every 50 years by the emancipation of Hebrew slaves, restoration of alienated lands to their former owners, and omission of all cultivation of the land.

Nature provides many examples of finite existence, such as the disappearing dinosaur species. Great empires rise and fall with uncanny regularity. Even the whole world was not big enough for Alexander The Great, who died like every other mortal and ended up in a small coffin.

Once again, our world is in a precarious position, and the post-WWII era of American dominance is being challenged. The Dollar is but the latest in a long line of international fiat currencies, each of which was thought by the host countries to be everlasting. Climate change and global warming represent existential threats that demand collective action, and we have yet to truly understand the effects of new technological innovations like CRISPR and artificial intelligence.

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Since time immemorial, every philosopher worth his salt has tried to define freedom, yet we struggle to understand it, let alone live it.

While the precise definition of freedom may prove elusive, perhaps the concept is best understood in terms of duality, the interaction between opposites, in the sense of the Yin and Yang symbol, the Star of David, or a coin featuring two sides. Freedom may thus be regarded in terms of freedom from, and freedom to, the latter somewhat dependent on the achievement of the former.

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