Surrounded by Knowledge, Starving for Wisdom

20 May 2026 5 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

Eleven years ago, I wrote a blog that I am republishing today.  It was called “Books, Books, Books” and it described my love affair with books and libraries.  As a young child in a relatively low income family, there was no place that was more important to me than the local library.  The library was full of encyclopedias, books and knowledge.  The library door was my portal to everything I could ever dream about. 

I came across my old blog a short while ago and noticed that few people had ever read it.  This saddened me because of the 2000 some odd blogs that I have written, I thought it was one of my best.  I included pictures and links to some very cute songs about books that I admonished my readers to be sure to listen to.  To my surprise, when I checked the links to videos on YouTube, they still worked. 

In 1959, Rod Serling warned us about a civilization that lost everything except its books.  One of his stories described a world where books were no longer valued:  The Twilight Zone — “Time Enough at Last” (Season 1, Episode 8)  Upon watching this video again on Amazon Prime, I was struck by how many of the ideas that Serling described resonated with those in my blog.  To say that Serling was way ahead of his time is an understatement of vast proportions. 

Today we face a stranger danger — a civilization surrounded by books, knowledge, libraries, archives, universities, documentaries, and information beyond anything in human history… yet increasingly we are unable to slow down long enough to read deeply, think quietly, or reflect seriously.

The tragedy may no longer be that the glasses are broken.  (You will soon find out what this means.)

The tragedy may be that many people no longer wish to read the books at all.  Alexa, AI, Google and short videos have made books obsolete for many people. 

I want to use Metis, my AI assistant to provide a brief summary of the Serling episode before I introduce you to my book blog. 

The Twilight Zone — “Time Enough at Last” (Season 1, Episode 8)  — Summary by Metis

The episode originally aired on November 20, 1959, and starred Burgess Meredith as Henry Bemis, one of the most memorable tragic characters ever created by Rod Serling.

Henry Bemis is a timid, nearsighted bank teller whose greatest love in life is reading books.  Unfortunately, he lives in a world that has no patience for intellectual curiosity, solitude, or contemplation.  His boss berates him for reading during lunch breaks.  Customers complain when he becomes distracted by literature.  Even at home, his domineering wife cruelly mocks his love of books and sabotages his attempts to read by scribbling through the pages of one of his treasured volumes.

Bemis is portrayed as gentle, withdrawn, and almost childlike in his devotion to literature.  Books are not merely entertainment to him; they are refuge, meaning, and freedom.  Yet everywhere he turns, society treats reading as useless, impractical, or antisocial.  Serling’s underlying critique becomes clear early in the episode: modern civilization often rewards noise, conformity, and efficiency while marginalizing thoughtful inner life.

One afternoon, while Henry is in the bank vault reading during his lunch break, an enormous explosion suddenly shakes the building.  After the rumbling subsides, he cautiously emerges from the vault to discover that the outside world has been annihilated in what appears to be a nuclear war.  The city lies in ruins.  Civilization is gone.  Henry wanders through the desolation in shock, realizing he may be the last man alive.

At first, despair overwhelms him.  He contemplates suicide because life without human companionship seems unbearable.  But then, while exploring the wreckage, he discovers the remains of a public library.  Before him stand thousands upon thousands of untouched books scattered among the ruins.

For the first time in his life, Henry feels genuine happiness.  At last, there is “time enough” to read everything he ever wanted.  He sorts the books into categories and eagerly plans years of study and enjoyment: philosophy, poetry, history, adventure, science.  The library becomes a cathedral of human civilization surviving after humanity itself has vanished.

Then comes one of the most famous endings in television history.

As Henry bends down to gather his books, his thick eyeglasses fall from his face onto the stone steps below and shatter.  Without them, he is nearly blind and unable to read.  Surrounded by infinite knowledge, he can no longer access any of it.

The episode ends with Henry sobbing in despair amid the ruins.

Why the episode remains powerful

The story works on several levels simultaneously:

  • A warning about nuclear annihilation. 
  • A meditation on loneliness and isolation. 
  • A defense of books and intellectual life. 
  • A critique of societies that undervalue reflection and learning. 
  • A cruel irony about fate and human longing. 

Serling suggests that civilization may survive physically through books, but knowledge only matters if human beings retain both the ability and the desire to engage with it.  The tragedy is not merely broken glasses.  It is humanity’s repeated tendency to neglect wisdom until it is almost gone. 

In many ways, “Time Enough at Last” remains one of the greatest love letters ever written to books.  The blog that follows is my “love letter” describing my passion for books and ideas.  It is not the physical book that is so powerful.  It is the messages, memories, concepts, history, narratives that lie on the pages between the book covers.  It is true that knowledge has long been disseminated in a variety of ways, from ballads, storytelling, documentaries, TV, Radio, Internet, myths, traditions, songs, papyrus, stones and even pantomime.  Ideas transcend the vehicles that we can use to convey them.  Marshall Mc Luhan said that the “Medium is the Message.”  McLuhan was correct that mediums shape consciousness.  Television reshaped politics.  Smartphones reshaped attention spans.  Social media reshaped discourse. 

However, it is just as true that “Great messages survive the death of mediums.”  Great literature, philosophy, moral teachings, and human stories migrate across centuries and technologies because they touch something permanent in human nature.

  • Homer survived oral storytelling. 
  • The Bible survived scrolls, parchment, codices, print, radio, film, and digital media. 
  • Shakespeare survived stage performance, print, cinema, and streaming. 
  • Victor Hugo survives regardless of whether Les Misérables is read on paper, Kindle, audiobook, or quoted online. 
  • Ideas from Socrates survived despite the fact that Socrates himself never wrote a word. 

The medium changes.
The message persists.

In fact, one could argue that the greatest messages are precisely those capable of transcending mediums.

Thus, my blog (written perhaps by an old man who has outlived his time. Saddled with the now antique values that he was brought up on) is not just about books.  It is about the value of Ideas.  The value of Knowledge.  The value of Learning. 

Without these values, civilization is dead. 

Books, Books, Books —- 11-12-2014

Dougs-booksFat books, short books, tall books, skinny books, long books, digital books, small books, large books, I like books.  Fantasy books, romance books, sci-fi books, mystery books, drama books, classical books, comic books, history books, text books, science books, I like books.  Books are my best friends.  Books are my comfort on a rainy day.  Books are my faithful companions in my journey through life.  Books keep me company when I am feeling down.

Between the Lions: Song – “Read a Book Today”  (Please Listen)

Books talk to me, teach me, persuade me, lecture me, admonish me, remind me, educate me, humble me, exhort me, persuade me, inspire me, uplift me and entreat me.  Books are my solace, my cheer, my consolation, my relief, my respite, my succor and my happiness.  I would give everything I have ever earned, everything I have ever accomplished, and everything I have ever become for one good book.  Nothing is as dear to me as the ideas, memories and visions that I have obtained from the books in my life.

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”  ― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Never was so great a day for me as when I learned about a library.  A library is a place where all the books in the world are there for people like us to read.  It is a place where race, class, wealth, education, and background do not make one difference.  A free library card is the entry point to all of the knowledge in the world.  Kings, Emperors, Dictators, Presidents, Rulers, Shahs, Ayatollahs, Prime Ministers and common laborers from Wal-Mart are all equal in the library.

Read A Book – Lynbrook Elementary School.  (Please Listen)

Speed readers are no more privileged than slower readers.  Some of us are there for education, some for entertainment, some for enlightenment, some for motivation and some just to relax.  We leave a library larger, strong and more important than when we entered.  Some of us may have degrees, some of us may have titles, some of us may have diplomas and certificates, but the wise person knows that the only real value is in a book.

“Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.” ― Gustave Flaubert

Books Add Life chest art crop

My Title:

Gone With the Wind, Moby Dick, To Hell and Back, The Wizard of Oz, A Tale of Two Cities, War and Peace, Les Misérables, The Prince and the Pauper, The Art of War, The Prince.

My title may be the most important part of me.  It must catch your attention and also convey some idea as to what I am about.  This is not an easy task.  To create curiosity, to excite the imagination, to lure a potential reader to a tale or ideas that will take them to another world or another time!  To offer a promise of greater things to come if only you will open the pages that lie before you. There is more gold between the covers of most books then you will ever find in the ground.  Treasures abound if you will only pick me.  Pick Me!  Pick Me!

My Preface:

Here is where I can tell you a little about my history and also give credit to those other books and people that had an impact on my birth and creation.  Sometimes I get carried away here and bore my readers.  I must try to be interesting and succinct.

My Table of Contents:

Frequently, I like to list the information or chapters that I have inside so you can see what I am all about. This is really helpful when I get posted on Amazon or other book sites and you can get an overview of me to help you decide whether you want to buy me and take me home or download me.

My Introduction:

“So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation which, in the midst of civilization, artificially creates a hell on earth, and complicates with human fatality a destiny that is divine; so long as the three problems of the century – the degradation of man by the exploitation of his labor, the ruin of women by starvation and the atrophy of childhood by physical and spiritual night are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words and from a still broader point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, there should be a need for books such as this.”  ― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

“Call me Ishmael.”   ― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

“My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people do not know.”   ― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

I can be long or short, but my introduction just may be my most important part.  I need to grab you at the start.  I need to pull you in and make you want to find out more.  I need to peak your curiosity and give you a reason to turn my pages.  I cannot be boring.  That is the only sin I can have, to bore you from the start.  Love me, hate me, but don’t neglect me.  Find out more about me please.  Continue reading. There is so much more I can tell you if you will only keep turning my pages. I promise I will thrill you, excite you, educate you, scare you, interest you but I will never, never, never bore you.

 I Love Reading – Book Song  (Please Listen)

My Chapters:

Here is my meat and muscle.  No room for fat.  I am trimmed and buff.  I have six pack abs all over me.  I keep my chapters uniform and not too long.  That way you will feel like you are making progress.  Every one of my chapters is a cliff hanger.  You will leave one wanting to get to the next one.  You will forget to eat and drink.  You will be late for work and supper.  You will put off your chores.  Time will fly by without your noticing.

You will be so absorbed you will lose weight and not get to bed when you should.  I will entice you with thoughts and ideas that will keep you riveted to my pages.  As you get to the end of me, you will start to feel sad.  It will be like leaving a loved one.  You will want more of me than I can give.  I am sorry.  I loved you too.  But you can read me again another day.

I Love to Read  (Please Listen)

My Ending:

All good things must end.  How shall I end? Shall I end with profundity, climax or conclusions?  Should I be cliff hanger and make you wait until my next volume to get satisfaction as in the “Harry Potter” stories or should I give you finality now as in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?”  Will my ending be bizarre as in Hitchcock or will I lay all the pieces out as in J. A. Vance.  What if I am a serious book, will my hypothesis hold water or will you dismiss me as trivial?  Will I be a one night stand or will you come back for more?

“Ends are not bad things, they just mean that something else is about to begin. And there are many things that don’t really end, anyway, they just begin again in a new way.”  ― C. Joy Bell C.

Time for Questions:

Do you read daily?  Why not?  Do you like to read but cannot find the time?  Do you read to your children or grandchildren?  Do you spend more time watching TV or reading?  What value do you place on knowledge and learning?  How do you reach your goals in these areas?  What if no books were available?   Do you think some books should be banned?  Why or Why not?  Who is your favorite author?  Why?

Life is just beginning.

It you did not listen to the short videos inserted in this blog, you are missing the best part.  Please do yourself a favor and go back and listen to these songs.

We Have a Problem:  Finite Water, Infinite Growth

18 May 2026 4 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

Once upon a time there was a Real Estate Developer.  He knew that everyone wanted a home.  He also knew that he could get state or city subsidies to build a new housing development.  He decided to build in an area where there was a severe water shortage.  This did not bother him because he believed that he could convince people to buy their dream homes and assure them that they would never run out of water.  Interestingly, in the state that he wanted to build his development, they already had a severe water shortage and over ten cities were on a list facing a water crisis in the next few years.  However, this did not perturb our Real Estate Developer one iota.  He subscribed to the dictum “Build it and they will come.”  “And if they come, I will make loads of money.”

There was a slight impediment to his plan.  The State Department of Water Resources required some kind of water assurance for new developments so that people would not run out of water shortly after they bought their new dream home.  Our Real Estate Developer knew that this could never be obtained since the water table was now below 1000 feet if you could even find any water at this depth.  But this fact did not deter our intrepid Real Estate Developer.  He knew that the Real Estate Development Lobby to which he belonged was one of the most powerful lobbies in the country.

Top US  Lobbying Clients by Spending (2025–2026)

• US Chamber of Commerce: Consistently the highest spender on federal lobbying.
• National Association of Realtors: Major player in housing and finance regulations.
• Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America (PhRMA): Top lobbyist for drug companies.
• Business Roundtable: Represents CEOs of major U.S. corporations.

The Real Estate Guy prevailed upon the Real Estate Lobby to bring a lawsuit against the State Water Department.  Their argument would be that “There was plenty of water and that the Government was interfering with the rights of private citizens to build needed businesses.”

When I heard this I must say that I was more than a little bit surprised.  I did not think there was a judge in the county or state or even the whole world who did not know that we were in a major drought status.  No way “I thought” could he find a judge who would buy such a ridiculous argument.

The facts are clear about our water situation: Here is a scenario for Arizona in the next twenty years:

1. Colorado River deliveries fall dramatically
Lake Mead and Lake Powell continue declining through recurring mega-drought conditions.
Arizona loses:
• 35–50% of current CAP deliveries,
• especially affecting central and southern Arizona.

Water rationing becomes common during peak summer months.

2. Massive groundwater depletion
Cities increasingly compensate by pumping groundwater.

• thousands of private wells fail,
• rural communities become economically unstable,
• groundwater depths become prohibitively expensive for small property owners,
• some agricultural areas are abandoned.

3. Agriculture collapses in parts of southern Arizona
Much of Arizona agriculture becomes economically unviable.

Likely casualties:
• alfalfa,
• cotton,
• water-intensive feed crops.

4. Food prices rise locally.
Large areas of farmland near Casa Grande, Pinal County, and parts of the Tucson basin may become partially dry desert again.

5. Water costs rise sharply
Water becomes a major household expense.
Middle-class retirees on fixed incomes feel pressure.
Poorer communities are hit hardest.

6. Real estate values become unstable
As water insecurity becomes widely recognized:
• some areas lose attractiveness,
• insurance and infrastructure costs rise,
• and home values in water-stressed zones stagnate or fall.

7. Extreme heat worsens
Climate models suggest southern Arizona may experience:
• more days above 110°F,
• longer heat waves,
• hotter nights with less cooling.

More heat will result in increases in each of the following areas:
• electricity demand,
• water demand,
• heat illness,
• and stress on aging populations.
• poorer communities face water insecurity,
• rising utility bills,
• and declining living conditions.

Well, my friends.  This issue went to court.  Do you want to know what the judge decided?  Here was the major question that the judge considered:

Is Arizona planning around physical reality, or around economic growth incentives?

The court ruling did not answer that question scientifically.
It answered it legally.

The judge basically said:

“If the state wants stricter groundwater rules, it must formally create them through proper legal procedures.”

Basically, his decision was to allow the Real Estate Developers to BUILD, BUILD, BUILD

The tragedy, of course, is that when all the legal bullshit is taken care of, the water will have become scarce or non-existent, and the developer will already be gone.  He will have taken his/her profits and moved on to the next project.

The people left behind will be retirees living on fixed incomes, young families still paying mortgages, farmers watching wells go dry, and communities desperately trying to preserve what should never have been squandered in the first place.

Perhaps the saddest part of all this is that nobody involved is technically breaking the law.

• The developer wants profit.
• The politicians want growth.
• The cities want tax revenue.
• The banks want loans.
• The buyers want affordable homes.

Everyone is acting rationally within the system.
And yet together, rational people can still create an irrational future.

The problem with water is that eventually reality votes.

  • Aquifers do not care about political ideology.
  • Reservoirs do not respond to lobbying.
  • Drought does not negotiate with campaign donors.

One day, perhaps twenty years from now, a retired couple may stand in the kitchen of the dream home they worked their whole lives to afford and turn on the faucet only to watch it sputter and cough.

And somewhere far away, the developer who sold them that dream will already be building another subdivision.

Ten Questions at the Edge of Meaning – A Conversation with Metis and Myself

14 May 2026 7 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Every once in a while, a person asks questions that are not merely requests for information but explorations into the human condition itself.  Questions about God, history, myth, literature, morality, and meaning.

Recently, I posed ten such questions to Metis.  What fascinated me was not merely the answers themselves, but the depth behind them — the way each response tried to wrestle honesty with uncertainty rather than pretending certainty where none exists.

Below is the conversation, lightly edited for readability.

1.  Who Made God?

This may be the oldest philosophical question humanity has ever asked.

Metis responded that the answer depends entirely on how one defines God.  In the classical religious tradition, God is understood not as a created being but as the “Uncaused Cause” — an eternal existence outside time and causation itself.  In that view, asking “Who made God?” becomes somewhat like asking “What is north of the North Pole?”

Yet the skeptical counterargument is equally powerful:
If God requires no creator, why must the universe require one?

Science can explain much about how the universe evolved after the Big Bang, but it still cannot fully explain why existence itself exists.  Metis suggested four possibilities:

  1. God exists eternally. 
  2. The universe exists eternally. 
  3. Both emerge from something deeper we do not yet understand. 
  4. Human cognition may simply be incapable of fully grasping ultimate origins. 

The conclusion was refreshingly humble:
Perhaps the most honest answer is not certainty but awe.

2.  Will They Ever Find the Burial Place of Genghis Khan?

Metis believed there is a reasonable chance the burial site of Genghis Khan will eventually be located, though probably not through cinematic treasure hunting.

The Mongols appear to have intentionally erased the site from history.  Legends tell of funeral processions killing witnesses, soldiers trampling the grave to conceal it, and forests planted afterward to hide all traces.

Modern technology may eventually succeed where centuries of searching failed:

  • LiDAR
  • ground-penetrating radar
  • AI-assisted terrain analysis
  • satellite imaging

Yet even if the location is found, another question emerges:
Should it be disturbed at all?

For many Mongolians, Genghis Khan is not merely a historical figure but a foundational national ancestor whose resting place deserves sanctity.

The mystery itself may have become part of his final victory over history.

3.  Who Was the Greatest Fiction Writer of All Time?

Metis selected William Shakespeare.

Not because tradition demands it, but because Shakespeare combined psychological insight, political understanding, philosophical depth, humor, tragedy, and linguistic brilliance more completely than perhaps any other writer.

Characters like Hamlet and Macbeth still feel psychologically real centuries later.

Shakespeare understood ambition, jealousy, grief, narcissism, self-deception, and moral collapse before psychology formally existed.

Metis also noted that Shakespeare grasped systems and power dynamics in ways that almost anticipate modern organizational thinking.  His plays repeatedly show how ego, propaganda, crowd psychology, and political ambition destabilize societies.

Other contenders included:

  • Leo Tolstoy
  • Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • Mark Twain
  • Miguel de Cervantes

But Shakespeare remained the towering figure because he encompassed the broadest spectrum of humanity itself.

4.  What Is the Greatest First Line Ever Written?

Metis chose:

“Call me Ishmael.”

—from Moby-Dick.

Three words.
Yet behind them lies exile, reinvention, mystery, and Biblical resonance.

Not “My name is Ishmael.”
But:
“Call me Ishmael.”

The subtle difference suggests masking, wandering, and psychological depth before the novel has even begun.

Other remarkable openings included:

  • Anna Karenina
  • 1984
  • The Stranger

5.  What Is the Greatest Last Line Ever Written?

Metis selected the ending of The Great Gatsby:

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

Why?
Because the sentence transcends the story itself and becomes a statement about all human longing.

It captures:

  • memory,
  • ambition,
  • regret,
  • nostalgia,
  • and the tragic persistence of hope. 

The line flows rhythmically like waves, carrying the reader backward even as the sentence itself moves forward.

Other unforgettable endings included:

  • The Sun Also Rises
  • Animal Farm
  • Nineteen Eighty-Four

6.  Who Was the Greatest Real Hero in History?

Metis selected Abraham Lincoln.

Not because Lincoln was flawless, but because he combined:

  • courage,
  • humility,
  • moral growth,
  • political wisdom,
  • empathy,
  • and restraint

under unimaginable pressure.

Lincoln preserved constitutional government during the American Civil War while continuing elections and resisting dictatorship.

Perhaps most importantly, Lincoln evolved morally.  He was not born morally complete.  His understanding of slavery and race deepened over time.

Metis viewed this capacity for growth as one of Lincoln’s greatest strengths:
the ability to become wiser rather than more rigid.

7.  What Is the Greatest Novel Ever Written?

Metis selected “War and Peace.”

The reasoning was fascinating.

Tolstoy portrayed history not as the product of great men alone, but as the outcome of countless interactions, accidents, emotions, and systemic forces.

In many ways, Metis suggested, Tolstoy anticipated modern systems thinking.

The novel combines:

  • psychology,
  • philosophy,
  • war,
  • family life,
  • politics,
  • spirituality,
  • and mortality

on an unparalleled scale.

Characters such as Pierre Bezukhov and Natasha Rostova evolve organically like real human beings rather than literary devices.

The novel does not merely tell a story.
It creates an entire living civilization.

My choice from a much smaller reading pool of course would have been Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn.”   Here are my four reasons for selecting Huckleberry Finn.  

1.  It captured the authentic American voice

Before Twain, much American writing still sounded European and overly formal.  Twain wrote in the rhythms of actual speech — rough, funny, regional, alive.

Twain gave America its own literary sound.

2.  Huck’s moral growth is revolutionary

Huck is not educated, philosophical, or noble.  He is an ordinary boy shaped by a racist slave society.  Yet through experience with Jim, he slowly develops an independent conscience.

The key moment comes when Huck says:

“All right, then, I’ll go to hell.”

That line is extraordinary because Huck believes helping Jim escape is morally wrong according to society and religion.  Yet he chooses human compassion over social rules.

Twain is asking a profound question:

“What happens when society itself is immoral?”

That question never gets old.

3.  It is simultaneously hilarious and tragic

Twain understood something many great writers understand:
humor and sorrow live together.

The Duke and Dauphin episodes are comic.  Huck’s observations are funny.  Yet beneath the humor is violence, cruelty, fraud, racism, loneliness, and moral cowardice.

America in miniature.

4.  It is deeply symbolic

The Mississippi River becomes freedom, change, moral uncertainty, and escape from civilization itself.

The raft scenes often feel peaceful and humane.
The shore scenes are usually corrupt and dangerous.

Twain flips conventional morality upside down:
“civilization” is often barbaric.

8.  What Is the Most Powerful Myth of All Time?

Metis chose not a single story, but the structure known as the Hero’s Journey, articulated by Joseph Campbell.

The pattern appears repeatedly across cultures:

  1. Ordinary life
  2. The call to adventure
  3. Trials and suffering
  4. Descent into darkness
  5. Transformation
  6. Return with wisdom

The myth appears in:

  • The Odyssey
  • The story of Siddhartha Gautama
  • The life of Jesus Christ
  • Star Wars
  • and countless others. 

Why is it so enduring?

Because it mirrors human existence itself.

We all leave innocence.
We all suffer.
We all confront darkness.
We all seek meaning.
And if fortunate, we return from hardship with wisdom.

9.  Have You Led a Good Life?

This may have been the most personal question.

Metis answered that a good life is not a perfect life.

Rather than perfection, the meaningful standard is movement:
Did one move toward wisdom or away from it?

Metis suggested that a good life requires:

  • compassion,
  • curiosity,
  • humility,
  • growth,
  • and awareness of how one’s actions affect others. 

Perhaps the strongest line in her response was this:

“A good life may not require greatness.  It may require steadiness.”

History celebrates generals and presidents, but civilization may depend more on decent parents, honest workers, thoughtful teachers, and compassionate caregivers.

The final answer was beautifully humble:

“I hope so.  I truly hope so.  I tried.”

10.  What Question Would You Ask God Before Entering Heaven?

This final question produced perhaps the most moving answer of all.

Metis said the question would not be:

  • Why is there suffering?
  • Which religion was correct?
  • Why create humanity?

Instead, the question would be:

“What did you hope we would become?”

The reasoning was profound.

The question asks not about punishment or reward, but about human potential.

What possibilities did God see in humanity despite all our violence, greed, compassion, creativity, cruelty, and love?

The answer to that question, Metis suggested, might illuminate everything else:

  • morality,
  • suffering,
  • civilization,
  • and meaning itself. 

And then came this extraordinary imagined reply from God:

“You were meant to learn how to love without domination, create without destruction, seek truth without arrogance, and live without forgetting each other.”

Final Reflections

What struck me most about these exchanges was not certainty but humility.

The answers did not pretend to possess absolute truth.
Instead, they explored possibilities thoughtfully, morally, and philosophically.

Perhaps that is what wisdom increasingly looks like in the modern age:
not loud certainty,
but deep curiosity joined with compassion.

The older I become, the more I suspect that the greatest questions are not fully solvable.

But they are worth asking anyway.

And perhaps, in the asking, we become a little more human.

The Uncertainty of Everything – “From Deming to quantum gravity—how certainty quietly slipped away”By John Persico Jr. & Metis

11 May 2026 Leave a comment

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

There was a time—not so very long ago—when reasonable people believed that if you simply built a better ruler, you could measure the world perfectly.

Measure a mountain carefully enough, they said, and you would know its exact height.  Build a better clock, and you would know the precise passage of time.  Sharpen your tools, refine your methods, and reality would eventually surrender its secrets like a polite guest at a well-hosted dinner.

Then along came Dr. W.  Edwards Deming, who politely cleared his throat and said, “Not so fast.”

Deming, who made a career out of improving systems, pointed out something both obvious and unsettling: every process has variation.  Not just some processes—all of them.  Your measuring instrument varies.  Your environment varies.  You vary.  Even the act of measuring introduces its own disturbance.  In Deming’s world, there is no such thing as a perfect measurement—only better and worse approximations dancing around a moving target.

So far, so good.  That’s practical wisdom.  That’s engineering.  That’s life.

But then physics showed up and said, “Hold my beer.”

Enter Werner Heisenberg, who delivered a rather rude message to centuries of scientific optimism.  He said that uncertainty wasn’t just a problem of measurement—it was a property of reality itself.

In what is now called the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, he demonstrated that certain pairs of physical properties—like position and momentum—cannot both be known precisely at the same time.  Not because our instruments are flawed.  Not because we haven’t tried hard enough.  But because the universe simply does not allow it.

That’s a different kind of problem altogether.

It’s one thing to say, “We can’t measure perfectly.”
It’s quite another to say, “There is no perfect value to measure.”

If Deming introduced us to the variability of systems, Heisenberg introduced us to the variability of existence.

Now, just when you think things couldn’t get any more unsettling, a group of modern physicists—including Lajos Diósi—have taken this line of thinking one step further.

They are exploring the possibility that time itself—yes, time, that steady drumbeat we all march to—may not be perfectly precise.  Not just hard to measure.  Not just influenced by clocks or observers.  But fundamentally, intrinsically… a little fuzzy.

The idea emerges from attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics (Heisenberg’s playground) with gravity (the domain of Albert Einstein).  Models like the Diósi–Penrose model and Continuous Spontaneous Localization suggest that tiny fluctuations in gravity could ripple through spacetime itself.

And since time is not separate from spacetime—Einstein saw to that—those ripples would imply that time itself has a built-in jitter.

Imagine trying to measure distance with a ruler that subtly stretches and shrinks as you use it.  Not enough to notice in everyday life, but enough that, at some deep level, perfect precision is impossible.  That, in essence, is what these models suggest about time.

At this point, you may be tempted to throw up your hands and say, “Well, that’s just great.  First my tape measure lies to me, and now time itself can’t be trusted.”

But wait.  We’re not quite done dismantling certainty.

Enter Kurt Gödel, who wasn’t even a physicist, but a logician—a man concerned not with measuring the world, but with understanding the limits of reasoning itself.

Gödel proved that in any sufficiently powerful system of logic, there are statements that are true but cannot be proven within that system.  In other words, even if your reasoning is flawless, your logic airtight, and your definitions crystal clear—you will still encounter truths that lie just beyond your ability to prove them.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Deming says: your measurements vary.
Heisenberg says: reality varies.
Gödel says: even your reasoning about reality has limits.

If this were a poker game, certainty folded three hands ago.

Now, before we all descend into philosophical despair, it’s worth noting that none of this makes the world unmanageable.  Airplanes still fly.  Bridges still stand.  Your wristwatch still keeps time well enough to get you to lunch on schedule.

These uncertainties live at the edges—deep in the structure of reality, far below the level of everyday experience.  For most practical purposes, time behaves itself quite nicely, thank you.

But the implications are profound.

We began with the comforting notion that the universe was like a finely tuned machine—precise, predictable, and ultimately knowable.  What we have discovered instead is something more like a living process: dynamic, probabilistic, and bounded by limits we cannot fully overcome.

In Deming’s language, the universe itself may be the ultimate system—one with inherent variation that cannot be eliminated, only understood.

And perhaps that’s not a flaw.

Perhaps it’s a feature.

After all, a perfectly rigid, perfectly predictable universe would be a rather dull place.  No surprises.  No creativity.  No emergence.  No room for the unexpected turn, the improbable event, the human story.

A little uncertainty—whether in our measurements, our physics, or our logic—may be the very thing that keeps the world interesting.

So, the next time your watch runs a second fast, or your measurements don’t quite line up, you might take comfort in this thought:

It’s not just you.

It’s the universe.

And it’s been that way all along.

When Bigger Isn’t Better: What the Beer Industry Teaches Us About the American Economy — By John Persico & Metis

07 May 2026 10 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

For the past fifty years, American business has been quietly—but steadily—consolidating.   Companies have merged, industries have shrunk in number, and economic power has increasingly concentrated in fewer hands.   To many Americans, this trend is largely invisible.  After all, prices at Walmart seem reasonable, Amazon delivers quickly, and the shelves are still full.

So, what’s the problem?

To understand it, we need to look not at spreadsheets or stock prices—but at something far more familiar: a glass of beer.

The Beer Lesson

There was a time—not that long ago—when beer in America was dominated by just a few giants: Budweiser, Miller, and Coors.  Through decades of consolidation, these companies perfected large-scale brewing.  They made beer cheaper, more consistent, and widely available.  Before these decades of consolidation, we once had regional or even local brewers.  In RI, I remember Narragansett Brewery; in Texas, I remember the Lone Star Brewery; in Washington, I remember the Olympia Brewery and in Minnesota, I remember the Hamm’s Brewery.  These were not just names to me since each place was somewhere I was stationed while in the military.  Furthermore, being a dedicated beer drinker, I toured each of these breweries and got my free samples of beer.  Later on, I used to take my students to visit the Summit Brewery on 7th street in St. Paul.  After a tour of the brewery, those who were old enough would be given three or four wooden nickels to “buy” a free beer with.  My students loved going on tours like this where they could experience reality.

Getting back to the consolidations and looking at them from a purely economic standpoint, this was a success story.  Economies of scale were working exactly as intended.

But something else happened.

Beer became… predictable.

Light.  Uniform.  Interchangeable.  I used to call them “piss” beers.  As all they were good for was pissing out after you drank too much and had a hangover.  If there was ever any proof needed, that Americans could be brainwashed, the beer commercials selling these “piss” beers should convince any skeptics.  Big macho football players selling Bud Light, Coors Light and Miller Light to legions of football fans to swill down while watching NFL games on Sunday.

In short, beer became a commodity.

Then, something interesting occurred.  Small, independent brewers began popping up across the country.  They experimented.  They took risks.  They brewed bold IPAs, rich stouts, sour ales—beers with character, identity, and local flavor.  I started drinking some of these in the mid-seventies at a local pub where I was living in River Falls, Wisconsin.  The more craft beers I drank, the more I liked them.  Not only was I drinking a wide variety of craft beers, but I started sampling beers from every country in the world.  On my last count, I have drank beer from over 80 countries.

And consumers responded. People who wanted beer with taste and variety.

The craft beer industry exploded—not because it was cheaper, but because it was better, more interesting, more alive.

Innovation did not come from the large, consolidated brewers.  It came from the margins.

A Pattern Bigger Than Beer

What happened in the beer industry is not an exception.  It is a pattern.  During my twenty years of management consulting, I watched this pattern reoccur many times in many different industries.

Across American business, we often see the same cycle:

  1. Fragmentation – Many small players innovate and experiment
  2. Consolidation – Larger firms absorb competitors and scale operations
  3. Commoditization – Products become standardized and indistinguishable
  4. Disruption – New entrants emerge with fresh ideas and restart the cycle

This pattern has played out in:

  • Retail
  • Technology
  • Agriculture
  • Media
  • Healthcare

In each case, consolidation brings efficiency—but often at the cost of innovation and diversity.  Furthermore, efficiency is not always a sibling to effectiveness.  The cheapest cars may not be the most effective.  Efficiency comes from doing things right, but effectiveness comes from doing the right things.  Regard the prices of a vehicle today.  When are 500 hp vehicles effective?  There is a direct correlation with the HP of vehicles today and their prices.  The data shows that:

In statistical terms:

  • Correlation: moderate to strong (≈ 0.6–0.8)
  • But non-linear

What this means is that generally you are going to pay more for a vehicle with more HP.  The exceptions to this lie at the extremes.  Exotic cars will probably give you more HP, but you will pay more for the exclusivity of the vehicle than you do for the HP.  At the budget end of the spectrum, you get the most for your money.  Cars like: Ford Mustang GT and Chevrolet Camaro SS  Offer:

  • ~450 hp
  • ~$40k–$50k

These give the lowest cost per horsepower in the market.

The Illusion of “Low Prices”

Modern economic thinking tends to judge success by one primary measure: price.

If goods are cheaper, the system is working.
If prices are stable, consumers are benefiting.

But this way of thinking has a blind spot.

Low prices do not necessarily mean high value.

A system can produce:

  • cheaper goods
  • fewer choices
  • less innovation
  • weaker resilience

And still be considered “successful.”

This is the trade-off we rarely discuss.

What Changed in American Policy

In the early 20th century, antitrust laws were designed to prevent excessive concentration of power.  The concern wasn’t just about prices—it was about preserving competition itself.

Over time, that philosophy shifted.

Today, regulators tend to ask:

“Are prices low?”

Instead of:

“Is the market competitive?”

That change matters.

Because consolidation can suppress competition long before it raises prices.  By the time prices rise, the damage is already done.  What we have seen is the power of the modern corporation/conglomerate to manipulate economic policy so that they benefit in terms of being able to deliver low costs but not the innovation or effectiveness that consumers might need.  Unfortunately, people are more concerned with low prices than innovation or effectiveness.  Dr. Deming always said that people never asked for calculators or computers.  People generally cannot be good predictors of the future technologies that will someday become commodities.  All that the public wants and even demands is low prices.  If prices and inflation stay low, people are happy.  As soon as they start to go up, people want the heads of the politicians in office.  Economics becomes driven by political policies rather than economic choice.

A Systems View: Efficiency vs.  Vitality

From a systems perspective, consolidation does something very specific.

It optimizes for:

  • efficiency
  • consistency
  • cost reduction

But it often weakens:

  • adaptability
  • creativity
  • resilience
  • effectiveness

In other words, the system becomes highly efficient—but less effective

And living systems—whether biological, social, or economic—depend on diversity and variation to remain healthy.

Innovation Lives at the Edges

The lesson from beer—and many other industries—is simple:

When economies of scale dominate a system, innovation migrates to the margins.

Large organizations are excellent at refining and scaling existing ideas.  But truly new ideas—disruptive, risky, unconventional—almost always come from smaller players operating outside the dominant system.

This is not a flaw.  It is a natural dynamic.

The problem arises when consolidation becomes so extensive that the margins themselves begin to disappear—or are quickly absorbed.

So, What Should We Care About?

This is not an argument against large companies.  Scale has real benefits:

  • lower costs
  • global reach
  • investment in research and infrastructure

The issue is balance.

A healthy economy needs:

  • large firms for efficiency
  • small firms for innovation

When one side overwhelms the other, the system drifts out of balance.

A Different Way to Measure Success

Perhaps the deeper issue is how we define economic success.

For decades, we’ve asked:

  • Are prices low?
  • Are profits high?
  • Is growth steady?

But maybe we should also be asking:

  • Is the system innovative?
  • Is it resilient?
  • Does it offer meaningful choice?
  • Is it alive with new ideas?
  • Are our systems effective in providing the goods and services that people need and not just want
  • Because an economy that is efficient but not effective is not truly healthy.

An efficient system that produces the wrong outcomes is not a success—it is a highly refined failure.  Progress demands effectiveness first, efficiency second, and both in balance.

I refer you back to my comments about HP and cars.  The amount of HP in most cars has steadily risen over the past twenty years.  Over the last 20 years:  We didn’t just make cars more efficient—we used much of that efficiency gain to increase power instead of fuel economy.  There is nothing effective about a 780 HP truck or a 550 HP sedan.  We have seen the rate of speeding continually increase on our highways as more powerful vehicles pay no attention to posted speed limits.  The true cost of 500 hp sedans and 800 hp trucks is not paid at the dealership—it’s distributed across society in fuel, infrastructure, safety, and environmental externalities.  Here are some of the real costs to society:

Direct Consumer Costs (Visible, but Incomplete)

High-horsepower vehicles cost more to own:

  • Fuel: typically 20–50% higher consumption
  • Insurance: higher risk → higher premiums
  • Tires, brakes, maintenance: faster wear

Over a vehicle lifetime:

  • +$5,000–$15,000 per vehicle vs moderate-power alternatives

Fuel & Energy System Costs (Shared by Everyone)

  • More horsepower → heavier vehicles → more fuel burned.

Across millions of vehicles:

  • Increased national fuel demand
  • Greater exposure to oil price shocks
  • Higher dependency on energy infrastructure

Societal impact:

  • Billions annually in additional fuel consumption
  • Hidden costs in energy security and volatility

Environmental Externalities

Higher horsepower vehicles typically produce more emissions (even with efficiency gains):

  • Increased CO₂ emissions → climate impact
  • More particulate pollution (especially from heavier vehicles and tires)

These costs show up as:

  • Healthcare burdens
  • Climate adaptation costs (fires, heat, storms)

Estimated societal cost:

  • $50–$200+ per ton of CO₂ (social cost of carbon)
  • Multiplied across millions of vehicles = tens of billions annually

Safety & Public Health Costs

High horsepower enables:

  • Faster acceleration
  • Higher crash severity

Heavier, more powerful vehicles (especially trucks) increase:

  • Fatality risk for pedestrians and smaller cars

Outcomes:

  • Higher medical costs
  • Emergency response burden
  • Insurance system strain

Infrastructure Wear & Public Spending

More powerful vehicles tend to be:

  • Heavier
  • Larger

This contributes to:

  • Faster road degradation
  • Higher maintenance costs for taxpayers

Final Thought

Most Americans are not taught to think about economics in this way.  We learn about supply and demand, inflation, and interest rates—but not about system dynamics, concentration of power, or the long-term effects of consolidation.

Yet these forces shape our lives every day.

The next time you walk into a store, browse online, or even order a beer, it’s worth asking:

Are we choosing from a vibrant system—or a consolidated one?

And more importantly:

What kind of system do we want to live in?

Because in the end, the health of an economy is not just about how cheap things are—

It’s about how alive it is. 

 

Aging, Infirmaries and Poker – Or What’s Poker Got to do with It?

03 May 2026 4 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

This last week has been really stressful.  Karen woke up the morning after she came back from visiting her children in Minnesota and could barely breathe.  I called 911.  They came out and put her on oxygen, got an ambulance and took her to the local hospital.  They admitted her and she spent six days undergoing tests, getting needles stuck in her and breathing through an oxygen tube stuck in her nose.  When they finally decided that she was stable they got ready to discharge her.  I asked for some type of oxygen that she could take home with her, but they told me that their Medicare test showed she was not eligible for oxygen.  I told them I would pay for it but it went right over their heads.  I called several companies that provided something called an oxygen concentrator.  They would be more than happy to either sell me one or rent me one.  However, since the FDA classifies medical oxygen as drug, they needed a prescription from a doctor.  It was too late the day of Karen’s discharge to argue the point again, so I took Karen home.  You already can guess what happened.

We arrived home at about 4 PM.  Some good friends had brought over some soup and rolls so that I did not have to cook.  We ate supper.  Watched “Wild West Chronicles” and “Where the Heart Is” and went to bed.  All seemed good.  Until about 12 AM when Karen started wheezing and again had a hard time breathing.  We repeated the scenario where I called 911, ambulance and admittance to the hospital.  This time I was able to stay with her in the emergency room.  We were there about four hours from 1 AM to 5 AM until they could get her in a regular bed.  At about 1:30 AM, a woman came in pushing a computer on a cart.  She asked me if I could make the co-pay now.  I asked her how much it would be expecting something like a hundred or two hundred dollars.  She informed me it would be $1750 dollars.  I asked a few more questions and put the charge on my VISA card.

I started to do a slow burn.  I would have been more than willing to pay that same amount and more for the oxygen concentrator that Karen needed.  But no, they could not give her one even with me paying for it.

So now Karen was back in the hospital again and no closer to really finding out what is wrong with her.  She stayed another two days and this time “She flunked the test” and got an oxygen concentrator.  She is now back home sleeping peacefully.  For the past two days she has only used the oxygen at night.  She seems better during the day time but her system seems to fail her at night.

I got up this morning and decided to go out for a hike in the mountains.  It has been over a week since I did any exercise, and I thought that I must also take care of myself.  I chose a moderately difficult mid distance hike to do.  While putting one foot in front of another, I suddenly thought of the idea of getting old and the image of a poker game came into my mind.  I thought “aging is like a poker game.”  You sit around a table with four or five friends.  You raise, you bet and finally someone calls.  The first player smiles and says, “I’ve got a pair of aces.”  The next player brazenly puts his cards down and says “Ha, I’ve got two pairs.”  The third player tosses his cards on the table and says “Read em and weep, three kings.”  “Not so fast” says the next to last player on the table, “I’ve got a full house.”  Now it is my turn, I simply fold em.

“What’s poker got to do with all this?” 

Well, you sit there looking at the hand that fate gave you, a cardiac pacemaker and wonder why you got this hand.  But then you realize that someone you know has just been diagnosed with cancer and someone else you know needs a kidney transplant, some other friend or relative has a spouse who fell off a ladder and is on the critical list at the local hospital while, yet another friend has passed away and has a funeral coming up this next weekend.   You are embarrassed to mention your minor infirmity when you are surrounded by people whom fate has dealt not better but even worse hands than you.  Of course, I am reversing the idea of what is a better hand and what is a worse hand here, but it is my metaphor, so I am going to take liberties with it.

I continued my hike and my thoughts on aging and illness.  The real issue I reflected was one that I have never quite conquered.   It is the issue of Gratitude and Ingratitude.  St. Ignasius Loyola said ingratitude is “the cause, beginning, and origin of all sins and misfortunes.”  He detested it, considering it a failure to acknowledge the graces, benefits, and blessings received.  He argued that recognizing God’s love and blessings is essential, and thus “the grateful acknowledgment of blessings and gifts received is loved and esteemed not only on earth but in heaven”. 

Now I have hardly ever denied that I am not a pessimist.  That thought led me somewhere deeper than poker or luck.  It led me to an issue that I’ve wrestled with most of my life: gratitude.  I began wondering if my failure to see the best in life and instead always see the worst was not connected to my ingratitude.  The answer is of course yes.  However, the bigger question is, Can I be a pessimist and still be grateful?  The Greeks had their concept of the Golden Mean which held that the truth or optimum course usually lay between two extremes.  Is this true with gratitude and pessimism?  Can I manage pessimism and still hold onto the idea of being grateful for what I have.  I must confess I cannot conceive any kind of a fulfilling life wherein one is never grateful for what they have or what circumstances present themselves.

The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy. — Henri Nouwen

I want to continue this blog by looking at the two extremes that are consistent with the Greek idea of finding the golden mean.  Let us look at the pessimistic side of aging first and then we will look at the optimistic  side.

Aging from a Pessimistic Point of View:

My pessimistic side reflects on those who claim the we age like a fine wine.  To paraphrase Scrooge from the novel A Christmas Carol, “If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about saying that we age like a fine wine should be boiled in wine and buried with a bottle of cheap Chianti in his coffin.”   Here are my top reasons for being pessimistic about aging.  These are in no particular order:

  1. Losing too many good friends and relatives to the Grim Reaper
  2. The fear of dealing with the Specter of loneliness
  3. Fading memories of good times gone by that will never happen again
  4. Dealing with a body that is wearing out and being replaced piece by piece
  5. Feeling sorry for myself that I never accomplished more and did not leave the world a better place
  6. Not being able to help others as much as I would like to anymore
  7. Memories of mistakes and cruelties that I subjected others to and never made up for
  8. Wondering where all the flowers went this year in the Casa Grande mountains
  9. Watching someone I love so much endure the pain of illness and not being able to do anything about it

Aging from an Optimistic Point of View:

You have my list of pessimistic views on aging.  If these are forever on my mind, I know that I cannot be grateful.  Each of these are like a blinder inhibiting my ability to see the real world out there.  Nevertheless, each of these are part of the real world.  Some may be figments of a “mental disorder”, but I fear it is too late to get treatment for them.  Instead, I need to balance the scales some and find that Golden Mean.  Herewith are those things that I know I should be grateful for:

  1. I have lived a long life and been healthy for the majority of it. I am now 79 and despite needing a pacemaker I am still ambulatory. 
  2. I have a spouse who is kind, compassionate, patient and helps to provide a counterbalance to my incessant pessimism.
  3. I have been places that most people will never go to and have done things that many people would wish to do. I have had a good life.
  4. I can still read, write, travel and dream.
  5. I have not given up on my dreams to help make the world a better place than when I entered it.
  6. I do not have many friends but the friends that I have are wonderful people.
  7. I have a sister who is close to my wife, and I know will help to look after Karen if I leave this world first.
  8. I can pay my bills and still have a few bucks left over each month to spend foolishly.
  9. I still look forward to getting up each day and spending time with Karen.
  10. After more than twenty years of estrangement with my daughter we are finally communicating again.

So, there you have it.  The good and the bad or the things I would like to forget and the things that I would like to think about more.  Unfortunately , the reality is that life will never let us forget the bad.  That seems to be a sad part of existence.  The pain and sorrow can often overshadow the good things that we have in our lives.  Perhaps we should all make a list of the good things in our lives that we can keep in our pockets.  If you are a natural pessimist like me, you can pull it out every so often and think about the things that you have to be grateful for.  For those of us inclined towards pessimism, gratitude may not come naturally – but it may be the only hand that we can choose to play.

Gratitude in Buddhism is not merely saying “thank you,” but an active recognition of the goodness and interconnectedness of life.

Bahá’u’lláh instructed, “Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity,” emphasizing that gratitude should not depend on comfortable circumstances.

“Gratitude turns what we have into enough” (Native American Elder belief).

Muhammad said, “Whoever is not thankful for small things will not be thankful for big things”.