A R C H I V E

Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Elon Musk is all over the news, and many see their reflection in this complex man: wealthy, genius, charming, polarizing, combative, and mercurial. Quoting Shakespeare, Mr. Isaacson sees Musk as a man “molded out of faults.” While Musk’s Asperger syndrome and his “demonic modes” make him hard to deal with, it gives him a voice, which is why he bought Twitter.

In the book, Musk quotes Albert Einstein, who lived during the McCarthy era, as saying that American Democracy seems pretty resilient and has an internal gyroscope that makes it right itself when it looks like it’s about to go off the cliff.

Looking at these gyrations at the global level, we see China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea aligned against America and the West. Domestically, we are at each other’s neck, facing two bad presidential choices in 2024. Locally, our streets are littered with the homeless, many of whom are mentally ill, addicted to drugs, and/or are outright criminals….

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Ernest Hemingway’s description of his main character’s bankruptcy in The Sun Also Rises, “gradually, then suddenly,” is aptly relevant to the aging of the American leadership and its consequences. 

President Biden, who is 80, frail, and accident-prone (both physically and verbally), is running for another term. The 81-year-old Mitch McConnell, the powerful Senate Minority Leader, keeps freezing up like the software glitch in The Matrix. The 83-year-old Nancy Peloci, the powerful 52nd speaker of the House, just announced she wants her old job back. The 77-year-old ex-president Trump oscillates between the prospect of a jail cell and visions of the White House. 

This trend compels one to ask, what is going on? What are the consequences of an aging American leadership as we consider the role of experience and wisdom in the context of the vitality, grit, and tenacity required of a leader in today’s complex world?…

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One need not be a Stoic to realize life is hard, and then we die. In between, there is a lot of pain and suffering due to societal pressures to conform, get an education, get married, raise kids, pay off the mortgage, and save enough to retire. But the Stoics also teach that while pain is the flavor of life, those who thrive in the face of hardship focus on what they can control and, act as if the obstacle is the way.

As such, life is meant to be an active engagement rather than a passive experience; as per Benjamin Franklin’s observation, “Many people die at 25 but are not buried till they are 75.”

Thus, we bear witness to that rebellious minority who buck the system to remind us we want more than just to live, but to feel fully alive. Not just survive, but thrive. In 1969, this was the impetus to gather in Yasgure’s 300-acre farm for Woodstock or, follow Jimmy Buffett to Margaritaville. And, more to the point here, annually gather in one of the most inhospitable deserts in the world to Burn The Man…

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I feel honored to be an American and am fascinated by the diverse reactions to Donald Trump’s mugshot. 

Donald Trump once claimed he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue, shoot somebody, and not lose any voters.” Many Democrats are thus celebrating Trump’s four indictments, 91 criminal charges, and the prospect of him going to jail. Many Republicans believe Donald Trump won the 2020 election and is being wrongly prosecuted to disqualify him from running again as the Republican candidate in 2024. Although I am not in either such camp, I was heartened to see Trump’s mugshot for the following reason:

We live in turbulent times and, as a Middle Eastern-born Jew who has lived through revolutions and upheavals, I am especially sensitive to security as the most important life quality after perhaps food and shelter…

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Great Empires die not by murder but by suicide.  Arnold Toynbee

On a stroll down Pearl Street Mall the night before leaving for Greece to attend a family wedding, I ran into City Club member Brett Berry and casually mentioned that I still did not have “The Book” to take on my trip, so I was planning to read The Fourth Turning Is Here. 

More intellectual and passionate by nature than I am at the top of my game, Brett waxed philosophic at length as to why, instead, I should read End Times by Peter Torchin. 

Having slugged through Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations, The Rise and Fall of Great Empires, and The Fourth Turning, which City Club member Steve Smith has reviewed, I was not sure I wanted to spend my vacation reading End Times. Half an hour later, Brett showed up at our house with a new book copy. Case closed; I had my book…

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Are you looking forward to the upcoming 2024 elections?! Me neither.

Birth and death are nature’s way of renewing itself. Creative Destruction is Capitalism’s saving grace. Similarly, our Constitution’s flexibility to form new political parties, watch them grow, die, or morph into new parties is key to the continuing health and longevity of our democratic system.

A good example of this process was the birth of the Know Nothing Party in the mid-1850s. Having started as a nativist political party, it morphed into the Whig Party, the Constitutional Union Party, the North American Party, and eventually today’s Republican Party, which is very different from Lincoln’s Republican Party.

Forced to choose between two geriatric presidential candidates accused of sedition, corruption, and influence peddling, our nation is in the process of reshuffling our political parties to better reflect the Founding Fathers’ vision to continuously reinvent ourselves as we strive to reach the Shining City on the Hill…

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Certain life events may become so deeply etched into our psyche that they can be triggered by sight, sound, or smell, e.g. the first kiss, leaving home, or our first love. Religious rituals and cultural holidays are examples of how such visceral reactions can be integrated into our daily lives.

A personal example was my initial arrival in America, a virtual nightmare with no family, language skills, or cultural familiarity. Contrast that with the euphoria I felt ten years later when I finally received my Green Card and, with it, the certainty of knowing I was here for good as a newly minted American.

This feeling of freedom reemerges every Fourth of July and every election cycle, as I imagine how our Puritan forefathers must have regarded their immigration from England as a re-enactment of the Jewish exodus from Egypt. To them, England was the equivalent of Egypt, the King that of the Pharaoh, the ocean crossed the Red Sea, and America was the new Land of Israel…

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Duality is the nature of the universe. Just as every coin has two sides, there is an inherent attraction and tension between male and female, rich and poor, producers and consumers. 

One need not be an adherent of Ann Rand’s philosophy outlined in Atlas Shrugged to detect the potential tension between the producer and the consumer, capitalist and socialist, the sometimes-flawed producer who pays taxes, versus the sometimes-corrupt power-hungry politician who believes s/he knows better how to spend our hard-earned money. 

When the pendulum swings too far to the right, the capitalist might become a robber baron and monopolist. When the pendulum swings too far to the left, society leans toward socialism featuring holier-than-thou virtue signalers…

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For over forty years, my family has had the good fortune of living a comfortable and fulfilling urban-pedestrian life in a modern house we designed and built in 1984 along the south bank of Boulder Creek. 

Our neighbors include the homeless, the drug addicts, and the mentally ill, who have been known to die from knifing, clubbing, shooting, drug overdose, drowning, or freezing. 

In 1973, psychiatrist Darold Treffert coined the term “dying with their rights on.” This term perfectly describes what we are experiencing in Boulder, San Francisco, LA, Portland, Chicago, and many other urban areas: the laws have gone too far in protecting the rights of individuals at the expense of their safety and well-being…

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As a kid, I struggled with existential questions such as life’s purpose and my place in it. My exposure to many cultures and religions taught me how to think for myself and strive to express myself clearly. This was a real challenge, given that Persian and Hebrew are written from right to left as used in poetry and spirituality, while English is written from left to right for use in science and business. 

I eventually decided to study philosophy and comparative religion. The dictionary defines philosophy as “the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence.” Perhaps a simpler definition of philosophy is the “love of wisdom.” Whether one is a doctor or farmer, lawyer or engineer, one can still become a philosopher through the accumulation of wisdom.

The picture above is a facsimile from the Papyrus Prisse, the oldest book in the world, dating to 2500 B.C. Written by Ptahhatp, the Vizier to the eighth pharaoh of the Old Kingdom’s Fifth Dynasty, many consider “The Teachings of Ptahhotep” as the first book on philosophy as it contains such pearls of wisdom like “As your reputation is immaculate, you need not speak.” Or, “No one will be born wise, so consult with the simple, as much as the educated.”…

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Do you remember the Harry Nilsson song that goes, “Everybody’s talkin’ at me. I don’t hear a word they’re saying. Only the echoes of my mind.”?

Once again our country feels as divided as it was in the 1960s period, characterized by riots and assassinations. Rather than practice the Greek art of dialogue, people tend to shout, point fingers, and argue in what amounts to a dialogue of the deaf. As a result, we end up frustrated when we do not feel heard.

Nearly half of all American marriages end in divorce because we fall in love with our projection of an ideal mate rather than engage in the hard work of getting to know our partner. Employers place ads aiming to attract the ideal candidates for a job opening rather than take the time to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate in the context of the true job requirements…

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Like fish swimming in water, we swim in politics, consciously or not. Politics is all about the way we conduct ourselves at the local level, not something we just do every four years at the national level. Since we live in a participatory democracy, we should either participate or stop complaining about how bad things are. 

No one needs a reminder as to how fortunate we are to live in Boulder, nestled at the base of the great Rocky Mountains. We owe much of this good fortune to our forefathers who had the vision, and the political foresight, to land the University of Colorado, Chautauqua, over thirty national labs like NCAR, NIST, and NOAA, along with the will to establish the Greenbelt, the Blueline, the Pearl Street Mall, and more.

Judging by my 53 years living here, Boulder has never faced more opportunities than we do today. How and the extent to which we take advantage of these opportunities will depend on who we elect to lead us through these exciting and turbulent times, determining whether Boulder has peaked or its best days lie ahead…

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Most people are so busy earning a living, parenting, and trying to stay healthy, they have no time to think. The smart ones perhaps read the New York Times and/or the Wall Street Journal to educate themselves about the issues. Fewer are blessed with the resources and time to deeply contemplate the significance and source of such matters. One particular issue, the rate of human expansion, is worthy of analysis, trusting that the definition of the problem is half the solution.

The slope of human expansion on our planet is simply not sustainable. The global population has grown more in the past century than in our recorded history. We are at eight billion and projected to grow to eleven billion before any meaningful decline. It thus makes sense that our population will eventually reach its limits and then decline. But how? 

We might speculate: an asteroid?; a plague?; nuclear war?; or something else entirely? My hypothesis is that it might be technological innovation, somewhat ironic given technology’s role as the main driver of our population explosion in the first place. From the steam engine to the industrial revolution, from electricity and cars to computers and cellphones, technology has improved the quality and quantity of human life…

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Complementing the fine cuisine and eclectic artwork for which the historic Highland building is so well known are its award-winning gardens, which we started in 1979. In fact, by now we have probably invested more time, energy, and resources in these gardens than the typical Boulder homeowner has invested in their entire house. 

This is not to brag, mind you, but to make the point that we believe gardens are an essential feature in creating a shelter from the storm – a psychologically safe space if you will, which is one of our community’s primary goals. 

This journey has been an arduous one: last year we dealt with the consequences of a 105-mile-an-hour wind that took down a tree we planted 44 years ago; this was followed by a fire that burned a 100+-year-old tree and storage shed. We recovered from both setbacks and, in fact, used them as an opportunity to build the Neapolitan fountain you see in the picture above, add new sculptures, install additional outdoor lighting, and plant exotic snapdragons in the fountain planters…

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Fifty percent of all marriages in America end up in divorce, and many others turn into marriages of convenience. One need not believe in metaphysical life after life to be curious about the idea of soulmates, or twin flames merging into one. Here’s one take after forty-six years into my own exciting and arduous relationship:

It all starts with chemistry. Good chemistry is defined less by physical attraction than by the ability to experience comfort with oneself in the presence of another. As the saying goes “We only fall in love with our mother twice,” like when a man feels as safe and comfortable in the company of a woman as he was with his mother and thereupon can be himself again. Obviously, the same goes for daughters and fathers.

Contrast the fairytale version of a soulmate – Prince Charming appearing on a white horse to take the princess away to live happily ever after – with the simple reality that life is hard and full of intermittent curveballs that help us grow. Children, financial challenges, health concerns, and natural aging all play a part in a typical decades-long relationship…

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Writing the Introductions for City Club’s Weekly Newsletter is the highlight of my week and one of the hardest things I do each week since English is not my native language. Writing a weekly 350-word essay is a process by which I try to research an important topic I do not fully understand, hoping to further my understanding by putting pen to paper and engaging our diverse and thoughtful membership to participate and offer opposing opinions and perspectives.

The recent debt-ceiling negotiation in Washington is one such topic, which to me was a political circus to distract the American public from the real problem: As a nation, we have more debt than the rest of the world combined. The $31.4 trillion that got all the attention in the recent debt ceiling debacle is small potatoes in the context of the additional ~$80 trillion of so-called unfunded liabilities representing Social Security, Medicare, and other programs.

Since no rational person can reasonably argue we could organically grow out of such a gargantuan debt with our $23.6 trillion GDP, the looming question comes down to what follows. What does history tell us?…

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United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy recently published a personal article in the New York Times calling attention to the public health crisis of loneliness, isolation, and lack of connection in our country. 

“When people are socially disconnected, their risk of anxiety and depression increases. So does their risk of heart disease (29 percent), dementia (50 percent), and stroke (32 percent). The increased risk of premature death associated with social disconnection is comparable to smoking daily — and maybe even greater than the risk associated with obesity.”

Loneliness, like depression, can chip away at our self-esteem and erode our identity. Having experienced my fair share of both, I feel compelled to wax philosophic on the topic, hoping to start a dialog to help erase the stigma associated with depression, and equating loneliness with being a friendless loser…

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“City Club is a safe place for passionate and caring people to discover our differences, find our common ground, and make the world a better place, while having fun.”

Eighteen years after its launch, City Club’s vision statement is still as fresh and robust as ever.

In a world where most major universities strive to isolate students rather than expose them to new ideas, where opposing views are judged, not on their merits, but summarily dismissed as inherently immoral, City Club strives to create a safe place where one is heard, not shamed; where discussion is honored and measured in the sense of a Jeffersonian dialogue, rather than being one marked by chaos.

Since our inception, City Club has expanded from the modest south portion of historic Highland’s basement to encompass the entire building and is now featuring delicious and healthy lunches that are the best value in town, gardens that provide shelter from the storm, and a safe place where members can unequivocally show up as their authentic selves…

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In my late-stage years, accomplishments count more than pipe dreams. A few stand out, such as the creation of City Club; the ten days I spent at the Bohemian Grove, reputedly more difficult to enter than Fort Knox; my recent Camino de Santiago pilgrimage walking 165-mile through Portugal and Spain; and the recent design and installation of Highland’s new Neapolitan central fountain, something I have coveted for over a decade.

Today, I am excited to share another bucket list item, which is our recent launch of Highland’s new Idea Lab, a long-time dream come true. Last Thursday evening fourteen presenters who we call “Ideators,” passionately shared their incredibly diverse ideas with over sixty interested potential “collaborators.” Thanks to the vision and hard work of members Todd Minnis and Matt Harder, and with Dustin’s able assistance, we are now positioned to support, nurture, help fund, and accelerate certain of these ideas to fruition.

The point is, instead of feeling frustrated and powerless in the face of the world’s many problems, or being envious of others who may be better positioned, we have adopted a philosophy that it is better to try and fail than to sit on the sidelines and complain….

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Americans fought a civil war to settle the slavery debate. Once again our country is being torn asunder, thereby inviting foreign adversaries like Russia, China, and Iran to challenge America’s global leadership.

Abortion is currently the most important and emotionally charged issue dividing us; the Right stands for an outright ban, and the Left stands for the mother’s right to choose throughout her term.

Gender and its definition is another divisive issue. The question is whether gender is established at birth, as the Right claims, or a personal choice and a state of mind, as the Left claims. Should boys be entitled to use the girl’s bathrooms and compete with them in sports?

While I can relate to both sides of the above issues, the issue that baffles me is the way we are divided between the rights of criminals, drug addicts, and the mentally ill on the one hand, versus the rights of victims and society at large…

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