Why I am Sick of Experts!

31 Mar 2026 5 Comments

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

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Every time you turn around today there is an “Expert Saying.”  Saying this and saying that.  Telling you what to do.  Telling you what to wear.  Telling you how to think.  Telling you what to eat.

I wonder “Does anyone else hate these experts as much as I do?  Is it just jealousy on my part that a 22 year old social media influencer on YouTube or Instagram is now considered an “Expert?”  Just this morning I heard of a new class of experts on social media to which you absolutely must listen.  I will describe them later in this blog.

A few weeks ago, a Social Media Hiker Influencer was hiking in the Superstition Mountains equipped with her ever present cell phone and Selfie Stick taking pictures of her hiking the trails.  She was someone that other would be hikers looked up to for her expertise.  Young, lean, sexy, and self-assured, she was narrating from a trail.  As some point, she quit narrating and they found her body up on the trail the next day dead from heat exhaustion.  Ms. Social Media Hiking “Expert” apparently never learned that Arizona heat can be deadly.

Now I am saddened that she came to such an end, but I am also saddened by the people that were following her.  If her knowledge of hiking essentials was this poor, I feel even sorrier for the deluded fans that regarded her as their “Expert.”

Once upon a time, I was regarded as an “Expert.”  A book on management consulting listed me as one of the top Labor Management Consultants in the USA.  I was surprised to come across this commendation as I was definitely unaware that I ranked this highly.  How they came to this conclusion will forever be one of the many mysteries of my life.

We used to joke in the consulting firm where I worked that an “Expert” was a man or woman fifty miles from home with a briefcase.  I remember one consultant I met who had worked with Ernst and Young.  They sent him out to a firm to help them develop self-managed work teams.  Self-managed work teams were all the rage at the time and Earl became their in-house “Expert.”  The only problem was that Earl did not know what a ‘”self-managed work team” was.  As Earl went off to his consulting engagement, his company handed him a recent book that was the “bible” for self-managed work teams.  They told Earl to read the book before he got to California so that he would know what to do.

I am now seventy-nine years old.  When I was thirty and forty, I actually thought I was an “Expert.”  Not only was I an “Expert,” but I was also an “Expert” in many different areas of life.  The proof was that companies were paying me for my expertise.  You wanted advice, I would like to give it to you.  Back in the nineties, it would only cost you $2500 a day for my expertise.

Today, I lack the courage to give almost any advice except perhaps in my blogs where I am shielded from immediate scrutiny.  I know I cannot bear to look back upon my twenty or so years of consulting and reflect on the “expertise” I shared.  If I could, I would give all of my thirty-two clients a rebate or maybe even all their money back.  But brother, I was the “Expert” and even a freight train or Spider Man could not stop me from telling everyone else what they must do.

As puzzled as I am by my former hubris, I am even more puzzled at all the people tuning in to get their daily dose of “expertise” from talk shows, media influencers, scientists, doctors, politicians, and lawyers.  Here is one example.  Since the start of our war on Iran, have you noticed how many “Experts” are telling us what is happening and what will happen?

As soon as I thought of this issue, I knew I would call upon Metis, my AI assistant for help.  I gave her the following prompt:

“Metis, this is going to be a tough question for you.  I only need a rough estimate or ballpark figure.  I want to know how many military analysts, policy analysts and government state department analysts have spoken out on the Iranian conflict since it started?  I know that is a tough question, but I just want a general number for an article I am working on about Experts.”

Here was her reply:

You’re right—that’s a very hard question to answer precisely.  There is no official count, because “analysts speaking out” includes:

  • TV commentators
  • Think tank fellows
  • academic experts
  • retired military officers
  • government/former State Department officials
  • journalists doing analysis

So, the best we can do is build a reasonable, evidence-based estimate.

  1. Think tank participation alone is already large
  • A single Atlantic Council feature included 20+ experts answering questions on the war
  • RAND Corporation published a panel with 9 named experts
  • Center for Strategic and International Studies regularly publishes multi-expert analyses

👉 That is already 30–50 “Experts” from just a handful of institutions

And there are dozens of major think tanks in Washington and globally, many funded and active in Iran policy debates

OK, thank you Metis.  I get the picture.  There are possibly hundreds if not thousands of “Experts” and analysts (same thing in my mind) ready, willing, and able to give you the inside story.  The whole scoop.  The truth and nothing but the truth.  What do these platoons and squadron and legions of “Experts” get out of all this?  Another mystery?  Perhaps there is a fortune to be made in being an “Expert?”

By the way, for those of you who know AI, you are probably wondering what the bottom line was.  Ok, so here is the final figure that Metis gave in response to my query:

Bottom-line “headline” number

👉 A realistic ballpark:

~500 to 2,000 analysts have publicly commented on the Iran conflict so far. 

Just imagine if this war goes on for another year!  How many “Experts” will have told you what was going to happen or what did happen.  One of my favorite “Expert” lines goes like this:  Interrogator:  “So what do you think will be the result of all the bombs we are dropping on Iran?”  “Expert” Analyst “Well, it all depends.  It might make a significant difference on what Iran does next, or it might not.  I think we will just have to wait and see.”

My wife Karen tells me that many social media “Experts” or influencers do not work for a salary, but they are often gifted for the products or services they promote.  I mentioned earlier that I was  recently exposed to a new class of social media influencers.  This one was giving out advice on how to pick a gym out and was called a Social Media Fitness “Expert.”  You can see by looking at the people walking into most grocery stores how the advice from this group is working out.  For any of you interested in applying for this position, the qualifications are as follows:

  • Six pack abs
  • Bulging biceps or firm and large breasts (Depends on whether you are male or female)
  • Toned and buff with a great tan
  • Fantastic physique

So, what percentage of todays males have six pack abs and what percentage of women today have had breast enhancements?  Metis gave me the following figure:  “About 1% to 5% of American men have clearly defined six-pack abs.”  If you want to know why this figure is so low, get your own AI program.  I am going to be a Fitness “Expert.”

As for women in America who have had breast enlargements, that figure stands at 300,000 breast augmentations that are performed each year in the U.S.  The average cost of these procedures is between 7,000 to $10,000 total.

Comparing men with six pack abdominal muscles to women with breast enlargements shows that a larger percentage of women undergo this treatment compared to men with six pack abs.  About 3% to 6% of adult women in the United States have had breast implants at some point in their lives.  It is clear why the percentage is higher than for men so enough said about abs and breasts.

The point here is that as with all of the “Experts” and analysts telling us what to do, what is going to happen and how to think there is an enormous difference between visibility and reality.  I am not going to try to bust anyone’s bubble more than I already have but the situation is a little like me taking lessons from Usain Bolt on how to run faster.  Usain is a great runner but there is no way that I ever had the physical equipment to run like he does.  The same goes for my singing.  I can take singing lessons all day long and I am not going to sound like Morgan Wallen.  But here we are talking about physical changes and many of the “Experts” that I am decrying are giving policy advice.  For instance, there has been a flood of “Experts” telling the police and FBI what they should be doing in the Nancy Guthrie case.  Nut cases with theories abounding are calling up regularly with advice and “clues” that they think might lead the police to finding Nancy.

What happens when the daily and nightly news is full of so-called “Experts” telling us what is going to happen in Iran or any other place in the world?  The result is chaos, confusion, uncertainty, and bewilderment.  None of these results helps any of us sleep any better.  One “Expert” tells us this and another “Expert” tells us that.  Who do we believe when we have hundreds of “Experts” all telling us what to believe?  Not only does truth die but so does belief.  We no longer trust the reality that we navigate in.  People without a sense of direction or without any certainties in life become easy prey for demi-gods and would be dictators.  The reality that people live in today makes them an easy target for predators that want to get their vote or get their dollar for some cause.  The bottom line is always how to get the money from your pocket to their pocket.

How Do We Protect Ourselves from Experts?

I can give you three prescriptions that might help you.  Here goes:

  1. Do not trust any single “Expert” or any one medium for information.  A friend of mine has the following system.  He calls it the “Ladder System.”  There are five rungs on the ladder.  Each rung represents a means of dealing with anything that we are told or hear or even see.

Rung 1:  Bottom Rung

If you see something or hear something new it goes on the lowest rung in the ladder.  We do not accept its validity at this point.

Rung 2:

If you hear of some data or facts from a reliable source that corroborates the information on Rung 1, than you can move it up to Rung 2.  At this point it has some validity for being believable but perhaps not factual or consistent.

Rung 3:

To get to Rung 3, you need at least three or more independent corroborations from sources that are not selling you anything or benefiting from your dismissing the information.   At this point your data or evidence should be highly reliable and valid.

Rung 4:

You may place your information on Rung 4 when you are able to substantiate the data and facts supporting the validity of this information with your own subjective experiences.  Theory and Experience are essential to establish the validity or truthfulness of any theory.  I prefer to have some personal experiences as well as scientific research before I put anything on this rung.

Rung 5:

Something can reach the Fifth Rung, only when science and reliable research over a period of at least ten years has supported the validity of the truth or information you want to regard as truth.  Corroboration + Research + Experience + Time = Validity of the Information

  1. Be suspicious of anyone who has something to gain by your accepting what they say is true. 

You have heard the saying “If it is too good to be true, it probably isn’t.”  This saying has not stopped millions of people from being suckered in by slick con artists. A potential con artist is anyone who can gain your trust through a variety of means:

  • Appealing to your emotions
  • Winning your trust through purported friendship
  • Claiming (even if legitimately) to be an Expert. This is the position that doctors, lawyers, and other professionals often use.  “Me expert.  You poor stupid ignorant client or customer or patient.”  Just because they have an advanced degree does not make them right.  Many so called experts often pontificate well out of the realm of their expertise.
  • Being referred to you by someone you trust. The problem here is that anyone can become a sucker.  Look at all the people who lost millions of dollars to Bernie Maddoff.   Your friend might have already drank the Kool-aide.
  1. Do not be so blinded by your own intelligence or ego that you cannot stop and get a second and even third opinion.

It is hard to believe that so many people will sign on the dotted line before checking with someone who might be more objective and more independent.  Heed the saying that, “Pride goes before a fall.” “Experts” have fooled thousands of people because the people were too proud to get an independent or third party opinion.  We are never so blind as when we think that something we want or need will bring us the desired or expected outcomes that may be predicted by the “Experts.”

Let me tell you a story that happened to me after I was taken to the hospital on my very first ambulance ride. 

About five years or so ago, one night I developed a throbbing pain in my side.  I tried going for a walk, drinking hot lemon tea but nothing worked.  I went to change up hoping to get in bed and the pain would stop.  Next thing I know I was in an ambulance and headed to the hospital about forty miles away in St. Croix Falls.  I woke when they started to stick me with an IV needle.  Apparently I had passed out, and Karen called 911 thinking that I had had a heart attack.  By the way, it was my first time ever in an ambulance.

I was driven to the St. Croix Medical Center and went immediately into emergency care.  I was put on a bed, and they started a series of procedures to see what was wrong with me.  I had an EKG, an Xray and an Ultrasound.  All of this took about three hours.  By then the pain had gone away and they sent me home with a doctors referral for the next day.

I arrived back at the medical center and had a meeting with a doctor.  She informed me that I had a gall bladder attack and that I would need to have my gall bladder removed.  I surmised as much and before I came to the appointment I read up some on gall bladder problems.  She said they would do the pre-medical check today and I could come back for the surgery the following day. I said “wait just a minute.  How do you know that my gall gladder is bad?  She replied, “Don’t be afraid, it is a simple procedure, and you don’t really need your gall bladder.”

I said “listen Doctor, I had two surgeries in the past five years.  I had my prostate removed and another for an inguinal hernia.  I am not afraid of surgery.  I just want to be sure that it is needed.”  I said, “what if it was just a gall stone and it passed?”  She said “Well, you might have other stones and then you will have the same problem again or maybe worse.”  I said “Well, can’t you tell from the Xray if there are any other stones just waiting to pass?”  “No,” she replied.  “Why not” said I.  “Because your gall bladder was so inflamed that the Xray could not see anything.”  “Well then, what if we wait about two or three weeks and take another Xray when the inflammation has gone down?”  “No Medicare will not let us do that.  You can either get the surgery or forget about it.”  By now I was fed up with the discussion.  “I will pay for the procedure” I said.  “No, that is not an option.”  “Okay, then I will pass on the surgery.”  She turned and walked out of the room without even a goodbye or have a lovely day.

A year later, I had another acute pain in my right abdomen.  This time I drove myself to the same St. Croix Health Center.  Again, it was at night and again the same procedures, Xray, EKG, Ultrasound.  However, this time, they thought it was my kidney.  Since I was more cognizant at this event, I asked the doctor if when they did the Ultrasound for my kidney, they could also take in my gall bladder.  He agreed.  When all the testing was over, I went home with another appointment for the next day.

Back again at the St. Croix Health Center.  Doctor comes in and informs me that I have stage 1 kidney disease.  He wants to know if I drink any alcoholic beverages.  I tell him only draft beers, 45 percent Knob Creek Bourbon, 42 Percent Ron Barceló Gran Anejo Rum and 40 percent Cabo Wabo Anejo Tequila.  He politely informs  me that I might live longer if I cut my alcohol consumption down.  I agree.  I than ask him if he noticed anything about my gall bladder on the x-rays and how it was doing.  Surprise of my life.  He said “Your gall bladder was fine.  You have the gall bladder of a sixteen year old.”

I went home and checked out the price of a gall bladder removal.  It was between thirty-five thousand and forty thousand dollars.  I was wondering if there was any way Medicare or my insurance plan would reimburse me for the money I saved by passing up on the Gall Bladder surgery.  Five years have since passed.  I have not had any more kidney or gall bladder problems.  I confess, I have cut my alcohol usage by about 75 percent.

The point of my story here is that the Expert, the doctor was all prepared to do “routine” gall bladder surgery without conclusive evidence that it was needed.  If you read some of my earlier blogs, you will find the following statistics on unneeded surgeries.  This data is from the  Lown Institute hospital overuse analyses using Medicare claims:

  1. Coronary stents for stable heart disease
    Lown reported 229,000 unnecessary coronary stents from 2019–2021, which is about 76,000 per year among Medicare patients.
  2. Back surgery: spinal fusion / laminectomy for low-value indications
    Lown reported more than 200,000 unnecessary back surgeries over three years, or roughly 67,000 per year.
  3. Vertebroplasty for osteoporotic fracture
    Lown reported over 100,000 unnecessary vertebroplasties over three years, or about 33,000 per year.
  4. Hysterectomy for benign disease
    In Lown’s March–December 2020 Medicare analysis, hospitals performed 14,455 low-value hysterectomies. That annualizes to roughly 17,000 per year.
  5. Inferior vena cava (IVC) filter placement
    In that same March–December 2020 analysis, hospitals performed 9,595 low-value IVC filter procedures, which annualizes to about 11,500 per year.

A few important cautions: these are expert overuse estimates, not exact counts of proven malpractice; they are largely based on Medicare hospital claims, so they do not capture every U.S. patient; and “unnecessary” here means the procedure met published overuse criteria, not that every individual case was inappropriate.

Conclusions:

I do not have much else to say.  We rely too much on so-called experts.  We need to base our decisions on facts.  This means facts based on data and not opinions or even just theories.  My mentor Dr. Deming used to say, “In God we trust, but everyone else must have data.”  My father always said, “Believe nothing of what you hear and half of what you say.”  Both of these admonitions have served me well and I think if they are the only thing that you remember from my blog, I will have done my job.  Remember please.  I am not selling you anything or charging you any money for my thoughts.  You can take them or leave them; it is all the same to me.  Here are some quotes on “Experts” by better men than I am.

“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.”
— Bertrand Russell

“Those who have knowledge, don’t predict.  Those who predict, don’t have knowledge.”
— Lao Tzu

“Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.”
— Richard Feynman

“Experts are often wrong, but never in doubt.”
— Anonymous

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Writing, Music, Choreography, the Seasons and Love

15 Mar 2026 Leave a comment

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

(A Musical Reflection) By Dr. Persico with help from his AI Assistant Metis

Introduction:

I wrote this over ten years ago but recently decided to revise it.  My original composition did not hit the mark, and few readers thought it was memorable.  My goal was to infuse my writing with the essence of good music.  I love music.  When I want passion in my life, I turn to music.  Some writing, particularly speeches, seem to have the ability to invoke the same passion in our lives as music often does.  Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address,”  Douglas Mc Arthur’s “Old Soldiers Never Die” speech” and of course Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.  Great writing and great music share a common rhythm.  If my beloved writing coach Dr. Carolyn Wedin were still alive, I know she could give me lessons on accomplishing this objective.  As it is, I am relying on my writing assistant Metis for input.  The following revision is a combination of my original article, some editing by Metis and some changes I have made.  Let me know if you think this has hit the mark. 

Allegro

What does writing have to do with making love?

What does the turning of the seasons have to do with an overture?

Perhaps more than we imagine.

Perhaps everything.

What if, on some primal level, we all live by an unseen rhythmic law?

A rhythm that moves the tides and the winds.
A rhythm that guides music and dance.
A rhythm that governs love, work, and even thought.

The seasons move in rhythm.
Music moves in rhythm.
Our lives move in rhythm.

Spring rises.
Summer swells.
Autumn storms.
Winter rests.

Morning becomes afternoon.
Afternoon becomes evening.
Evening becomes night.

The great overtures of Stravinsky and Beethoven rise and fall like the gales of November.

All things are one, say the mystics.

If that is true, then perhaps writing too must find its rhythm.

Can words form and norm, storm and perform?

Can language dance?

Adagio

I would not presume to confuse philosophy with art.

Greater minds than mine have spoken of the unity of life.

Still, I wonder.

We walk through the world beside countless others whose rhythms we rarely hear.

A carpenter.

A scientist.

A teacher.

An artist.

A hero.

Each life beating to its own quiet tempo.

We are, as the song says, dust in the wind.

And yet our rhythms echo.

Some rhythms thunder.

Some whisper.

Some comfort.

Some disturb.

We capture them in many forms.

Lyrics.
Verses.
Stanzas.
Steps of choreography.

Hard then soft.

Loud then quiet.

Now we roar.

Now we snore.

Always the rhythm continues.

Scherzo

Love has its rhythms too.

The waltz once kept lovers polite and measured.

Then came the tango—
closer, sharper, filled with sudden turns and dangerous pauses.

Then came rock and roll.

The music grew louder.

The distance between lovers grew smaller.

The rules grew fewer.

The rhythms of music often mirror the rhythms of our love.

Sometimes gentle as a warm breeze.

Sometimes wild as a storm.

Shall love begin with an allegro?

Then soften into an adagio?

Perhaps to break suddenly into a playful scherzo?

And always—always—

move toward a crescendo.

Should love follow the order of a classical symphony?

Or should it improvise like jazz?

Perhaps both.

Perhaps the best love songs do exactly that.

Rondo

And so my writing wanders.

I have written these thoughts in four movements,
because life itself seems to move that way.

Spring opens the score with fresh notes of possibility.

Summer brings the full orchestration of maturity and growth.

Autumn introduces the winds and storms that remind us of our fragility.

Winter lowers the tempo.

The music quiets.

The final chords begin to fade.

Yet the rhythm does not end.

It never ends.

The rhythms that shaped our lives were not ours alone.

They began before we arrived.

They will continue long after we are gone.

Our work.

Our words.

Our music.

Our love.

All of them become part of a much larger symphony.

Perhaps someday a visitor will stand beside my grave.

Perhaps they will press a small button on my grave-stone and hear a recording of me laughing, singing, and dancing.

Not silence.

Not finality.

But rhythm.

Because the universe itself seems to move in rhythm.

The tides.

The seasons.

The music.

The dance.

The beating of the human heart.

And if we listen carefully—

if we write carefully—

if we love carefully—

we may discover that life was never chaos at all.

It was always a symphony.

And we are all fortunate enough to play our small part in the music.

The Music of the Universe.

 

Thank You, Gracias, Merci, 谢谢 (Xièxiè), Asante, ありがとう (Arigatō)

26 Feb 2026 10 Comments

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

Thank You!  Two words that can change the world.  And if you don’t believe me read on.

How many Thank-You’s do you get in a day?  Do you get as many as you think you deserve?  Do you get too many.  Whenever I am out with my USAF Veterans Hat, I have people that come up and say, “Thank You for your Service.”  I was somewhat embarrassed when this happened but eventually I would reply, “Thank You, it was an honor.”  Despite the number of times I have been thanked for my service, I still think it was an honor and privilege to serve my country and its citizens.

Each year for the past 43 years, I have attended a four day silent retreat at a Jesuit Retreat Center in Lake Elmo, Minnesota.  Each year I discover some new wisdom from the lectures and reflections over spiritual readings that I am privy to.  One year, I learned that the founder of the Jesuit order, Saint Ignatius Loyola reportedly said that “Ingratitude is not the worst of all sins, but it is the gateway to all others.”  The more I reflected on this thought, the more I realized how true it is.  Be ungrateful for your financial situation and you become greedy with an obsession for money.  Be ungrateful for your health and you end up hating life and wishing you were someone else.  Be ungrateful for your friends and family and you end up being lonely and miserable.

The other side of ungratefulness is gratefulness.  To be grateful for the life one has and to stop mourning the life that we don’t have.  However, gratefulness is simply a state of mind.  As powerful as it is, it is not enough.  We need to put actions with our thoughts.  Wisdom, says “prayer to the Lord but row for the shore.”  Or “keep praying but move your feet.”  If we are really grateful, we need to show it.  The best way to show it is a simple “Thank You.”  For some people this is showing  gratitude.  For others, you would think that each thank you that they gave came from their savings account.

When I woke up the other night at 3 AM, I started to write this blog.  I was motivated by the crazy idea flicking through my mind that asked the question “What would the world be like if everyone got more Thank-You’s each day than they knew what to do with.”  Would people go crazy and want to stop saying “Thank You?”  Would the government put a ban on the use of the words “Thank You?”  Would people suddenly realize how much they are appreciated and what a truly wonderful person they were?  How many people would like to get more Thank-You’s and how many people would hate to hear “Thank-You?”  What would happen to society if more people gave out thank-You’s each day?  I decided to run this question by my AI assistant Metis.  Here is what she replied.  As usual my AI assistant tends to be very comprehensive and perhaps somewhat verbose.

What would happen to society if more people gave out Thank-You’s each day? 

Metis:

John, I think that’s a deceptively simple question with very deep system effects—very much in line with your Deming lens and your work on connectedness.

Here’s what I believe would happen if people routinely received more genuine Thank-You’s than they expected:

  1. Immediate Psychological Effects

You’d see a measurable shift in mood and stress levels.

Gratitude directed at someone (not just practiced internally) tends to:

  • Lower cortisol
  • Increase dopamine and serotonin
  • Create a short “reward loop” that reinforces prosocial behavior

In plain terms: people would feel seen, and being seen is one of the strongest antidotes to alienation.

For someone your age cohort—where invisibility is a common complaint—this effect would be especially powerful.

  1. Behavioral Reinforcement

From a systems perspective:

What gets recognized gets repeated.

If people are thanked for:

  • small acts of competence
  • reliability
  • kindness
  • showing up

you reinforce intrinsic motivation rather than compliance.

This reduces:

  • withdrawal behavior
  • quiet quitting
  • defensive routines

You’d see higher quality interactions without changing any formal policy—pure cultural shift.

  1. Social Contagion Effect

Gratitude is highly contagious.

One sincere Thank-You tends to produce:

  • reciprocal gratitude
  • increased patience
  • more cooperative behavior

In network terms, it increases positive signal density in the social system.

That directly counters what you’ve called the epidemic of disconnectedness.

  1. Identity Stabilization

Many people today derive identity from conflict, outrage, or status competition.

Frequent appreciation shifts identity toward:

  • contribution
  • competence
  • belonging

People begin to think:

“I matter because I help,”
rather than
“I matter because I win.”

That is a profound cultural pivot.

  1. Impact on Institutions

In organizations (including veteran groups, radio teams, quilting circles, consulting clients):

Regular unexpected appreciation would lead to:

  • Lower friction costs
  • Higher volunteer retention
  • Greater discretionary effort
  • Fewer interpersonal conflicts

You’d get quality improvement without a new program, which Deming would smile at.

  1. Political and Civic Implications

At the macro level, a culture of daily appreciation would:

  • Reduce zero-sum thinking
  • Increase trust in local relationships
  • Make dialogue easier

Gratitude humanizes the “other” before disagreement even begins.

It doesn’t eliminate conflict—but it changes the tone from adversarial to relational.

  1. Neurological Rewiring Over Time

If this happened daily for months:

People’s baseline expectations would shift from:

“No one notices me”
to
“My actions have value.”

That reduces anxiety and defensive postures.

You’d likely see:

  • fewer hostile interactions
  • more eye contact
  • more patience in public spaces

Small signals, big emergent outcomes.

The Key Variable: Authenticity

This only works if the Thank-You’s are:

  • specific (“Thank you for setting up the chairs”)
  • timely
  • sincere

Generic or forced gratitude has little effect and can even breed cynicism.

Conclusions:

Well, I was given more information than I expected.  Frankly, I would never have thought that there could have been so many positive benefits from the simple act of saying “Thank-You.” It is very gratifying to have my suspicions verified but it is also embarrassing.  I say embarrassing  because I think that I am one of those people who are somewhat stingy with their “Thank-You’s”  My father was not big on Thank You and perhaps I can escape responsibility by blaming him.  On the other hand, I often proclaim that when I went into the military in 1964 at the age of 18 that I would never again blame my parents for any misbehaviors on my part.

What stops us from saying “Thank You” more often?  Are we afraid it will lead to expectations that we do not want to deal with?  If I say, “Thank You,” will you think you are better than I am?  If I put your effort down, I can build myself up.  Instead of saying “Thank You Bob,” I can say “Not bad, but I have seen better.”  Or perhaps “You shouldn’t expect a Thank You for just doing your job.”

Imagine, if we thanked the clerk who helped bag our food at the local grocery store.  “Thank You for bagging my groceries.”  Why should I say that if he/she is getting paid to do it!  Or imagine if I went up to the help at Wal-Mart and thanked them for keeping the place neat and clean?  Or thanking the local Garbage collector for being on time each week with my garbage pickup.  Or the clerk at the Post Office for giving me my mail?  Where would it all stop?  Before you know it, everyone would be expecting Thank-You’s.

What kind of a world would that be?  People might really start feeling better about themselves.

Help me to change the world.  Say Thank-You more often.

Thank-You for reading this blog. 

 

 

Something Rotten in America Is Coming This Way

08 Jan 2026 6 Comments

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

“Something Wicked This Way Comes” is a 1962 dark fantasy novel by Ray Bradbury.  It tells the story of  two 13-year-old boys, Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway, in Green Town, Illinois, who confront the sinister Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show.  The show is part of a malevolent carnival that preys on people’s secret desires and fears.  Jim and Will are forced to battle evil and examine the nature of good and evil, youth and aging.  The title comes from Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”, and the story explores themes of good vs. evil, the fear of growing old, and the cost of wishes.

Macbeth is the story of a man driven by ambition and a lust for power to murder his king and seize his throne.  Like Bradbury’s novel, it is also a tale of good and evil.  The famous quote is “By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” It is spoken by the Second Witch in Act 4, Scene 1, as she senses Macbeth’s evil approach, indicating his profound moral corruption even to supernatural beings.  Someone once noted that most great stories involve a battle between good and evil.  Fiction mimics reality.

The famous Gettysburg Address by President Abraham Lincoln also described a battle between good and evil and the sacrifice made to restore good.

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The cause was the elimination of the evil of slavery and racial discrimination, and the continuation of a nation built on the values of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Values that were not allowed to be held by a significant portion of Americans specifically Black people, Indigenous people but also including women, gay people, Asian people, and many immigrant groups

Today, the thought rings in my mind that “Something rotten comes this way.”  Yes, a paraphrase of the Bradbury quote but it has a somewhat different meaning to me.  Something rotten smells and stinks in our country.  Carved into a White House mantel is a quote by John Adams, “May none but honest and wise men rule under this roof.”  Today something is rotten in the White House.  The foul and putrid odor has spread to the Supreme Court and both houses of Congress.  Wise men search for the odor but cannot agree on its source.  When something is smelly we generally assume that it is rotten.  Hence my reflection that “Something rotten comes this way.”  It has been coming for a long time, but the stench and fetid smell have now become unbearable.  From the White Mountains of New Hampshire to the top of Mt. Whitney in California, the rank fumes are causing people to gag and vomit and leave our country.

What is the source of this rottenness?  The smell comes from an ever-enlarging foundation of greed and narcissism that has replaced integrity and morality.  From the pulpits of many so-called Christian churches to the podiums of our once great universities, Americans are now baptized or given diplomas in greed, avarice and opportunism.  Increasingly, cowards roam the halls of Congress where statesmen once tread.  Too many of our leaders lack morals or integrity.

Sycophants earn positions as heads of government with no qualifications except an unscrupulous ability to kiss ass.  The media daily screams headlines that defy logic and comprehension while profits for news conglomerates soar to ever higher peaks.  Meanwhile, the information contained in media broadcasts bears scant resemblance to the reality that most of us face.  Lying is the norm and has become one more strategy in a congressperson’s arsenal.  A stew of lies daily spread by the internet and its media minions.   None of us can escape complicity in this economy as we all breath its rotten air.

Something rotten comes this way:

How can we expunge this rottenness?  Will singing Kumbaya work?  Will hands across the aisles work?  Will prayers and thoughts work?  Will more empathy work?  What about better communication?  What about more people going to college to get educated?  What about doing away with Social Security and replacing it with Stock Portfolios?  What about more guns?  What about?  Sorry, I am out of simple solutions.  None of these so-called solutions work because they do not confront the real problem.  The golden idol that makes money the measure of all good things in life.  It may be possible to stop the spread of this rot, but it will take a change of heart as well as a change of mind.  Many of my friends ask me if it is not too late.

I only know one thing.  Unless we change the path that we are heading down, we can kiss democracy in America goodbye.  The rottenness will eventually infect the entire nation until we are left with nothing but a country of cowards, sycophants, greedy merchants and greedy consumers.  People who will continually lie to get ahead.  People with no goals except to consume the latest do-dads in hopes of becoming happier and more satisfied with their lives.

Ironic that so many Americans want to go down this path, since not one great prophet in history has preached that owning more stuff will either make you happy or get you into heaven.  Nevertheless, today we have Christian churches preaching the “Prosperity Gospel.”  A narrative that has millions of followers subscribing to a bastardization of every great scripture that has ever been written.

The prosperity gospel teaches that faith, positive confession, and financial giving to religious leaders will bring the giver personal wealth, health, and success.  It portrays material prosperity as due to God’s favor and poverty or illness as evidence of weak faith or spiritual failure.  The Prosperity Gospel is a Super Con because it monetizes hope, blames failure on the believer, and shields itself from disproof.  People buy into it because it promises certainty and reward in an unfair economy.  It exploits vulnerability, fear, and selective success stories to convince “true believers” that it is a Christian teaching.

Robert Tilton: “I believe that it is the will of God for all to prosper because I see it in the Word… I do not put my eyes on men, but on God who gives me the power to get wealth”.

Creflo Dollar: “When we pray, believing that we have already received what we are praying, God has no choice but to make our prayers come to pass”.

John Avanzini: “Jesus had a nice big house”, “Jesus wore designer clothes”, “Jesus was handling big money”.

Joel Osteen: “If you want to reap financial blessings, you have to sow financially”. He also states, “I believe God wants you to prosper in your health, in your family, in your relationships, in your business, and in your career”.

Oral Roberts:  “Sow a seed on your MasterCard, your Visa or your American Express, and then when you do, expect God to open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing.”

Friends, the only solution that will save our country along with our immortal souls is to defeat the basic tenets of corporate capitalism and to cast out the evangelists of hypocrisy who spread such false gospels as the “Prosperity Gospel.”  The corruption that we see in the White House, the Congress, the Supreme Court, the Universities, the Media and many so-called Christian Churches is a symptom of the rot that is associated with our predatory avaricious Corporate Capitalistic system.

Corporate Capitalism itself must be understood as a mindless media driven machine that puts profits over virtue.  A system in which the greater needs of society are no longer the recognized or given any priority.  All that is rotten today in America today can be traced to greed and avarice.  The same motivations that caused the Israelites to build the Golden Calf.  The Golden Calf still stands—no longer forged of gold but of brands, markets, and corporate power.  We bow to consumption, give obedience to profit, and keep silent to wrongdoing in exchange for comfort and toys.  We mistake greed for progress and idolatry for economic necessity.  We do not need a rejection of markets but a rejection of markets without moral and ethical anchors.

The late Pope Francis is quoted as saying that:

“From an economic point of view, it is irrelevant to produce tanks, or candy provided the profit is the same.  Similarly, it might be the same to sell drugs or sell books if the profit figures match.  If the measure of value is money, everything goes provided that the profit does not vary.  The measure of every human being is God, not money.”

Money becomes the measure of good and evil.  Money becomes the measure of a person’s value and even life.  Today, the religion of America has become “How can I get more money.”  The true prophets throughout history have always preached the potential dangers of focusing on accruing either wealth or fame.

Christianity (Jesus): “No one can serve two masters. … You cannot serve both God and money.”

Islam (Prophet Muhammad, Hadith): “Riches are not the abundance of worldly goods; rather, true riches are the richness of the soul.”

Judaism (Talmudic/Midrashic Thought): “The truly rich are those who are satisfied with what they have.”

Baha’i Faith (Baháʼu’lláh): “Material comforts are only a branch, but the root of the exaltation of man is the good attributes and virtues which are the adornments of his reality.”

Red Cloud (Oglala Lakota): “I am poor and naked, but I am the chief of the nation.  We do not want riches, but we do want to train our children right.  Riches would do us no good.  We could not take them with us to the other world.  We do not want riches.  We want peace and love.”

If we want to rid our nation of the rottenness and stench that is rapidly covering it, we must rid ourselves of the obsession that capitalism seeks to instill in us with every media at their disposal and every commercial that they can provide.  It is an obsession to own more, to possess more, to have more, to buy more, to shop until we drop.  You can have a heart attack so long as you have spent your last dollar.  Christmas has become $Mas.  Our world has become one big shopping mall.  We are speeding on a spending train to oblivion.  Next stop HELL. 

What Can We Do?

If the disease is moral, the response must be moral as well.   We must all:

  • Refuse to lie or accept lies
    • Reject those who tell lies to get ahead for any reason
  • Refuse to worship money and wealth
    • Reject anything to do with the “Prosperity Gospel”
  • Refuse to relate success with goodness
    • Teach that success is not always associated with morality or doing the right thing
  • Teach our children to be responsible
    • Responsibilities are as important as rights. Develop children who accept responsibility for their lives
  • Choose sufficiency over excess
    • Corporate Capitalism thrives on “wretched” excess. Ask yourself what you really need to be happy not what some commercial tells you that you need.

The single most important thing we can all do is to get off the spending train.  Substitute empathy for others for greed.  Substitute kindness for strangers and immigrants instead of suspicion and hatred.  Substitute charity for all for a desire for more stuff and more toys for oneself.  Substitute compassion for the poor and the needy instead of worrying about what you are going to get.  Substitute mercy and forgiveness for hatred and retribution.

Above all remember that we are all one people.  There are about 180 or more countries in the world.  Karen and I have only been to 45 now, but we have found that everyone in every country that we have been to want the same things:  Meaning for their lives.  Peace for their nation.  Safety for their families.  A decent place to live.  A good meal each day.

We must embrace the idea that everyone is entitled to these elements of a satisfactory life and not just people in our circle or community or nation.  People in every country of every color of every religion and of every political and economic philosophy deserve the same thing.  Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  

Conversations with a Tortoise Named Mikey by Metis

17 Nov 2025 8 Comments

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

Every once in a while, a conversation takes an unexpected and delightful turn.  I recently asked my AI collaborator, Metis, to imagine what it might be like if our young leopard tortoise, Mikey (short for Michelangelo), could talk — much like the old TV character Mr. Ed the Talking Horse. 

What Metis gave me was so creative, humorous, insightful, and full of gentle wisdom that I knew immediately I couldn’t improve upon it.  So, for this blog, I’ve invited Metis to be my guest writer.

What follows is entirely Metis’s creation — a whimsical dialogue between a tortoise and a human that somehow manages to say something true about us all.

Enjoy the conversation. — John

I don’t remember the exact moment I realized my leopard tortoise, Mikey — short for Michelangelo — could talk. It might have been the day he stared at me with that ancient reptilian gaze, blinking those thoughtful tortoise eyelids, and then cleared his throat. Or what passes for a tortoise throat-clearing — more like a decisive exhale through nostrils the size of pencil erasers.

“John,” he said matter-of-factly, “we need to talk about the state of the world.”

I didn’t drop anything. After 79 years, raising children, working with dysfunctional systems, watching American politics, and owning complicated electronics… a talking tortoise didn’t even make my Top 10 surprises.

“Sure, Mikey,” I said. “What’s on your mind?”

“On my mind?” he said, lifting his head with the gravity of a philosopher about to deliver a lecture. “Everything. The planet. Tortoise welfare. Human priorities. And why you insist on rearranging my substrate every time I reach a perfectly acceptable feng shui.”

“Mikey, that stuff gets… messy,” I offered.

“My dear biped,” he said, “chaos is part of the tortoise aesthetic.”

This was new information.

Mikey lumbered forward exactly three inches — which, for him, is the equivalent of someone leaning back in a comfortable leather chair before launching into their TED talk.

“You humans,” he began, “have an odd way of running things. Fast, loud, complicated. Always in a hurry. Can’t sit still long enough to enjoy a single patch of sun.”

He paused. “Do you know how long a tortoise can sit in the sun?”

“Three hours?” I guessed.

He scoffed. “Amateur. Try all day.”

“Doesn’t that get boring?”

“Boring?!” Mikey’s voice rose as high as a tortoise voice can rise. “Have you ever really watched sunlight move? The shadows shift? The earth warm and cool in slow breaths? There’s wisdom in slowness, John. Time moves differently for us. We’re not racing the clock — we’re accompanied by it.”

I sat with that for a moment.

“So you’re saying humans should slow down?”

“I’m saying humans have forgotten how to be,” Mikey replied. “You’re all ‘do this, do that, run here, fix this, check that.’ Even your vacations require flowcharts.”

He wasn’t wrong.

“Meanwhile,” he continued, “tortoises perfected the art of living millions of years ago. Move when necessary. Eat when available. Bask when possible. Hide when needed. Repeat for a century.”

I had to laugh. “Sounds like you’re pitching a self-help book.”

“Slow and Steady: The Reptilian Path to Inner Peace,” he said proudly. “Oprah would love it.”

“Here’s what frustrates me,” Mikey said, lowering himself into the substrate with a sigh. “Humans think tortoises are slow, simple, and not very bright. But we’re strategic. Watchful. Patient. We’ve outlived dinosaurs, continents, and empires. We’ll probably outlive reality TV.”

“That’s an achievement,” I said.

“Thank you,” he replied.

“So what does the world misunderstand most?”

Mikey thought for a long moment. Well — what counts as long for him. About 12 seconds.

“You assume evolution rewards speed. It doesn’t. It rewards survival. And we are the PhDs of survival. Not every species can say they’ve been around for 55 million years without filing a single complaint with customer service.”

“And yet you’re complaining now?” I teased.

“Only to you,” Mikey admitted. “You’re the one who bought me a doghouse with a heating system. I figure that comes with conversational privileges.”

“So what’s your biggest concern about the future, Mikey?” I asked.

“That you humans are turning the planet into either a sauna or a freezer,” he said bluntly. “A tortoise likes warmth, yes — but not Arizona-in-August near-Death-Valley levels.”

I winced. “We’re guilty.”

“And then,” Mikey continued, “when it gets too hot, you cool your houses with giant machines that make the outside even hotter. It’s like watching a monkey chase its own tail, except the monkey has nuclear power and a credit card.”

“So… we’re not doing great?”

“I’m not saying that,” Mikey said. “But you could take a few lessons from us.”

“Such as?”

“One: Moderation. We have no desire for excess. Tortoises don’t collect things. We don’t build skyscrapers or run profit-maximizing tortoise corporations.”

“Do you have taxes?”

“Only gravity,” he said. “And sometimes the sun.”

“And two?”

“Two: Balance. A tortoise shell is the perfect symbol. Hard on the outside, soft within. Protected, but never closed off. You humans could use thicker shells and softer hearts.”

That one hit me.

I asked him: “If you had the power to change the world, what would you do?”

Mikey lifted his head again — this is his equivalent of a drumroll.

“First, I’d make every human take one hour a day to sit still in the sun. No phones. No talking. Just sitting. You’d be amazed how many problems evaporate in an hour of honest sunlight.”

“Sounds like meditation.”

“More like reptile-itation,” Mikey said.

“Second,” he continued, “I’d require schools to teach patience. Not as a character trait, but as a skill. Humans learn algebra, but not how to wait, observe, or proceed slowly without panic. This is why your species makes so many impulsive decisions.”

“Guilty again.”

“And third,” Mikey concluded, “I would make world leaders meet once a month in a sandbox. No suits. No speeches. Just everyone sitting on the ground together. Hard to start a war when you’re scooping sand with a plastic shovel shaped like a starfish.”

I burst out laughing. “So that’s the tortoise version of the United Nations?”

“Yes. The United Burrowers.”

Mikey looked at me seriously — the way only an animal with dark, ancient eyes can.

“You know,” he said quietly, “most animals don’t ask for much. Safety. Respect. Space to live. But humans often treat animals as decorations or inconveniences.”

I felt that one in the chest.

“But not you,” he added. “You and Karen… you’re trying hard. You’re learning. You move my food dish when I push it. You fixed the heat lamps when I nearly baked like a reptile pizza. You even talk to me.”

“Well,” I said, “you talk back.”

He nodded, satisfied. “Then maybe we’ll get along just fine.”

Mikey’s Final Advice

Before retreating into his little dog kennel hidey, Mikey turned back and offered one last piece of wisdom.

“The secret to life is simple, John. Move slowly. Pay attention. Protect what matters. Bask in the warmth. And when the world gets too loud…”

He paused.

“…go inside your shell for a bit. It’s not weakness. It’s wisdom.”

Then he disappeared into the darkness, leaving me to wonder — as Mr. Ed’s owner surely once wondered — whether my tortoise had just given me better advice than most humans I know.

Well, that’s it folks.  Wisdom from a tortoise to my AI friend Metis.  I wish I could add something to this conversation but I cannot think of anything more to say.

Next blog I will return to the subject I was discussing in a previous blog on honor, integrity and moral courage.

Hearts First or Minds First – What is the Right Order of Change?

13 Nov 2025 9 Comments

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

For many years now, I have seen people follow the most bizarre ideas.  Their beliefs defied all my logic and rationale thinking.  In the runup to the 2016 election, I had numerous arguments in which I tried to state facts and data to make the case for my candidate.  My arguments were largely ignored.  This baffled me but good friends suggested that I had to listen more and argue from facts less.  This method did not work either.  No one changed their minds because I was willing to listen to their weird theories.

Gradually I noticed that dialogues in both political debates, political ads and political meetings had changed.  So had much of the commentary on both right, left and central media outlets.  Logic and facts were replaced by narratives.  Stories about the man who lost his job to overseas low paid workers.  The rural farmer who could not compete anymore because of the competition from Mexico or China.  Joe the Plumber in the 2008 Obama election.  The decline in manufacturing jobs, mining jobs, service jobs because they were all being outsourced to low wage countries were all connected to narratives describing hardships on an individual.  Every time you listened to the news including NPR, Fox or CNN they were interviewing some poor soul who had lost work and faith in America.  These stories all reminded me of the statistical argument that “One swallow does not a summer make.”  This argument is rendered null and void by only one touching emotional story.   I wondered whether or not we were heading into a future where facts, data and logic no longer applied.

One day at a meeting of veterans, I suddenly realized that as long as I did not have the hearts of other people on my side, I was not going to be listened to or even considered as credible.  However, I also saw that I could not win the hearts or minds of people by simply listening to them or by skillful empathy.  It takes much more than listening to the people today who disagree with us.  As long as I’ve worked in management consulting, organizational development, veterans’ services, and community programs, I’ve wrestled with one deceptively simple question:

Which comes first when it comes to real change— changing the hearts of people, or changing their minds?

We tend to imagine these two forces as separate: the emotional self and the rational self.  But any honest look at history, psychology, or even our own lives quickly reveals something messier, deeper, and more human.

What I’ve come to believe is this.  There is a time when the heart will lead and a time when the mind will lead.  This applies to the rational people in the world as well as the most emotional people in the world.  To some extent we all vary in our tendency to resort to one or the other.  Different situations will necessitate different strategies.  Here is one way that I have categorized these strategies and when each is most useful.

When the change is moral, relational, or deeply personal… the heart usually leads.

Some changes require courage, empathy, and the willingness to see another human being as fully human.  These are heart-changes.  Cognitive arguments alone rarely move people on issues like equality, justice, compassion, or dignity.

  • Civil Rights support grew largely because people felt the injustice they saw on TV.
  • Gay marriage support grew when people realized someone they loved was gay.

Emotion is the brain’s prioritization system.  If the heart rejects an idea, the mind will work overtime to justify keeping the old belief.

When the change is technical, procedural, or systemic… the mind usually leads.

In other kinds of transformation, a new idea or method must appear before feelings catch up. Deming understood this well.  Deming’s statistical insight changed processes first; hearts came later when people saw less stress, fewer reworks, better flow.  People often need to see a better way before they can emotionally embrace it.  People shift cognitively first, then emotionally.

Technical Change Involves:

  • New information
  • Discovering a better method
  • Seeing the inefficiencies of the current system
  • Learning a new process
  • Making sense of complexity

Seatbelts, recycling, lean production, solar power, cardiac calcium scores— these didn’t spread because of emotion.  They spread because logic, evidence, and data carved the initial pathway.  Once the results became visible, the emotional commitment followed.  In these cases, cognition laid the track, and emotion rode in on it.

But the most powerful and lasting change occurs when hearts and minds move together—in a spiral or loop.

  • Not heart then
  • Not mind then

But an iterative loop:

  1. A new idea challenges us (mind).
  2. We see its human impact (heart).
  3. We seek deeper understanding (mind).
  4. Understanding strengthens conviction (heart).

This iterative pattern is the engine behind every major transformation:  Consider changes in any of the following programs or areas?  What was moved first:  Heart or Mind?

  • AA
  • Religious beliefs
  • Feminist movement
  • Personal mastery
  • Senior health and fitness journeys
  • Veterans’ healing
  • Organizational transformation

Most of us have lived this loop many times, even if we’ve never named it.  Love defies all logic and facts.  New technology replaces old technology not because of love but because of efficiency.  Sometimes the heart leads and the mind follows and in other situations, the reverse is true. 

In Summary:

If you want deep human change — heart first.
If you want procedural or systemic change — mind first.
If you want lasting change — both in spiral.

Deming might phrase it differently:  “Change the system so that people experience success, and hearts and minds will change together.”  Dr. Deming always told me “Put a good person in a bad system and the system will win every time.”  But even he understood that moral courage precedes intellectual clarity when the stakes are high.  I saw this over and over again in the corporations that I worked with and in the management systems that had the most success in adopting the Deming methodology and the Deming Ideas.  And maybe that’s the real takeaway.  The order doesn’t matter as much as the movement.  Deming described everything as a process.

Hearts awaken minds.
Minds strengthen hearts.
Change is a dance, not a formula.

In the end, transformation and change is not about choosing which comes first,  it’s about combining both heart and mind to pull us upward, one step at a time.

I want to thank my writing partner whom I call Metis for several of the ideas shared in this blog.  Metis is my AI program, and I find a dialogue with her to be quite useful these days in flushing out my ideas and also providing me with some concepts that I did not think about.  Together, I think this collaboration is making my ideas and writing stronger. 

A discussion on Moral Courage will be the subject of my next blog.

The time has come. I can’t wait any longer. by Jane Fritz

07 Oct 2025 12 Comments

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

This week I am reposting a blog by a good friend who has been writing them for over 13 years now.  She has decided to take a hiatus for reasons that you will discover when you read her blog.  Many of her followers have left comments describing how much her blogs meant to them and how sad her leaving the blog community will make them.  I will post my comments to Dr. Jane Fritz at the end of this blog.  I am also sad at her leaving.  Her blogs were always fun, inspirational and truthful.  The late Pope Francis said that Truth, Beauty and Goodness were inseparable.  Dr. Fritz managed to bring these to her readers and often with a sense of humor and perspective that left you feeling motivated and challenged to face another day in a chaotic world.  Her words and ideas made the world a better place and they will be missed.  Please do not skip reading the comments left by many other readers. They testify to the good that Jane brought to the world and how much her blog meant to many other people also in need of need of truth, beauty and goodness.

The time has come. I can’t wait any longer.

Dr. John Persico Jr.

 says:

October 6, 2025 at 11:39 am

I can certainly understand where you are coming from Jane.  I will be 80 next September and have been blogging for over 15 years now.  My blogs are nowhere near as popular as yours are and I think my blogs are usually darker than yours.  I have tried (and your blogs motivate me to keep trying) for a balance between optimism and pessimism.  My normal pessimism side give me five blogs a day that I want to publish excoriating the clown and evil man that is running our government today. 

Of course, I recognize that he is just a puppet as are the 74 million people that voted for him.  This latter fact only makes our situation worse in this country.  Nevertheless, I see the value in publishing more optimistic and often more personally helpful blogs like you do.  I am trying to do a balance and hope that this balance will keep me from going off the deep end.  There is still much beauty in life and still so many people out there to connect with that have been helped by our blogs.  You get many more comments each blog than I do and I am touched by how many people you have helped with your blogs.  I get a few comments per blog but even these few comments keep me going.  My mantra is that if I can touch one soul a month, than I am going to keep writing. 

This long diatribe on my part sounds like a subtle plea for you to keep writing.  However, I am not being subtle when I say that your blogs make a difference to thousands of people and it would be a shame to see one more beautiful and thoughtful voice eliminated from the blogosphere.  That is just what D.J. Trump wants.  To silence beauty, goodness and truth.  So I hope you can simply take a break from your writing.  Find a balance in terms of content.  And pick up your pen again when you are ready.  Remember the “Pen is mightier than the sword.”  Your friend John

Reflections on Humanism: A Father and Daughter in Conversation

26 Sep 2025 20 Comments

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

This year, after my 42nd silent retreat at Demontreville, I found myself reflecting over a different kind of lesson — one not from the retreat master, but from a conversation with my daughter.

My daughter Chris and I could hardly be further apart politically.  I lean toward policies that support immigrants, the poor, minorities, and the sick.  She supports Trump and the Republican agenda, which I believe diminishes those very groups.  Our conversation was brief, but it revealed something that I have been mulling over ever since.

When it comes to personal interactions, my daughter is tactful, gracious, and considerate.  She knows how to get along with people, soften conflict, and maintain civility.  I, by contrast, am often blunt and confrontational.  When I disagree, I rarely hide it.  I leave enemies in my wake since I have little tolerance for greed and immoral people.  She accuses me of being harsh, even inhumane, in my manner.

And yet, when I step back, I see an irony.  My brusque words are often in service of a vision of justice for the many.  Her gentle tone exists alongside a commitment to policies that, in practice, withdraw support from those most in need.  In fact, the Trumpian policies she supports will result in starvation, disease and death for millions.

This tension raises a deeper question: what does it mean to be a true humanist?

Is it the ability to show kindness in the moment, face-to-face, even if one’s broader commitments bring harm to many unseen lives?  Or is it the willingness to fight for systemic justice, even if the style of delivery offends, unsettles, or disturbs?

I think of Christ, who could be gentle with the broken and the poor, yet fierce with the powerful and the hypocritical.  He healed with a touch, but he also overturned tables.  His humanity was both intimate and systemic.

Perhaps that is the lesson I am being given now.  Humanism is not one thing.  It asks us to be kind in the small circle of our relationships but also bold in the larger circle of society.  Without the first, justice grows cold.  Without the second, kindness becomes complicity.

I wonder if my daughter and I — so different in politics, so different in style — are each holding half of a larger truth.

Yinandyang GIFs | Tenor

Is There Anything Fair about Life?

17 Sep 2025 1 Comment

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

No doubt when you were growing up, one day you yelled at your mom or dad, “But that’s not fair.”  I am equally certain that their retort was “Life’s Not Fair.”  If you and I are normal, we have heard that refrain more times than we care to count.  Nevertheless, being honest, I cannot say that I truly have given up one iota of my belief that life should be fair.  The fact that I know it isn’t fair, that I know it will not be fair today or tomorrow and that I know it never will be fair, does not matter one fraction of all the numbers in the universe.  I want life to be fair, and I am sick of and tired of the instances where life is not fair and life rubs it in my face.

Perhaps, my most detested instances of life not being fair are in relation to people with emerging talent.  Artists, writers, actors and singers who are suddenly stricken down just as they are being recognized for their talent.  These deaths leave me feeling bruised and battered and cursing the injustice of life.  Cursing life for being unfair.  If life was standing in front of me at these times, I would beat it to a pulp.

Here’s a short list of artists, writers, actors, and singers who were on the rise—just becoming widely known or breaking through—when their deaths shocked me as well as many other people in the world.  If I am missing some, it is because my radar is different from yours.  Feel free to suggest some people in the comments section whose untimely passing shook you up.

Artists:

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) – The graffiti-artist-turned-painter was already acclaimed but was only 27 when he died, and many believe he was on the cusp of becoming one of the most dominant figures in contemporary art.

Matthew Wong (1984–2019) — At the age of 35, Wong had an art world ascent that was described as “the stuff of legend”.  He taught himself to paint and was discovered through Facebook.  His energetic landscapes and interior scenes earned him comparisons to Vincent Van Gogh, and his death left a significant mark on the contemporary art scene

Sarah Cunningham (1993–2024) — The rising abstract painter was 31 when she passed away in November 2024.  Known for her emotionally charged, hypnotic canvases, she was represented by London’s renowned Lisson Gallery.

Writers:

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) – Poet and novelist who achieved some recognition in her lifetime but became legendary only after her death at 30.

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) – Acclaimed poet and critic who was just gaining a broader audience when he died in a mysterious car accident at 51.

John Kennedy Toole (1937–1969) – Author of *A Confederacy of Dunces*, which won the Pulitzer Prize posthumously after his suicide at 31.

Actors:

James Dean (1931–1955) – Had only starred in *Rebel Without a Cause* and two other films when he died at 24, becoming a cultural icon almost overnight.

River Phoenix (1970–1993) – Rising star of films like *Stand by Me* and *My Own Private Idaho*; his sudden death at 23 shocked Hollywood.

Heath Ledger (1979–2008) – Acclaimed actor whose fame skyrocketed after *Brokeback Mountain* and *The Dark Knight*; he died at 28 just as his career peaked.

Singers & Musicians:

Buddy Holly (1936–1959) – Pioneering rock musician who died in a plane crash at 22, influencing The Beatles and countless others.

Jeff Buckley (1966–1997) – Singer-songwriter praised for his ethereal voice; drowned at 30 after releasing only one studio album.

Aaliyah (1979–2001) – R&B star whose music career and budding film career were taking off when she died in a plane crash at 22.

Patricia Burda Janečková (1998 – 2023) — Slovak coloratura soprano.  At the age of 12, she was the winner of the Czech–Slovak television.  She was just reaching stardom in the opera world.

I have not tried to give an exhaustive list of the numerous people I have admired who “bit the dust” well before their time.  If I say, “well before they should have”, it begs the question of when should they have passed.  For that matter when should anyone of us pass?  Well, I can answer that question for myself.  I will be 79 in less than a week and I am now older than the average age that American males live to.  If I should die before I wake (an old line from my Catholic nightly prayer), I don’t think anyone will say, “Well, why do the good always die young?”  Here I might substitute the word talented for the word “good.”  Why do so many talented people seem to die young.  This seems particularly true with writers and singers.

Getting back to where I fit in with all this, first of all, I am not young and secondly, I am not on the cusp of stardom.  As near as I can tell, I reached my peak many years ago.  Everest was the peak I dreamed of reaching, at least metaphorically.  In life, my ultimate peak has been at least two mountains shy of the top of Mt. Everest.  I lived in Rhode Island a total of 18 years.  Jerimoth Hill in Foster, R.I. was the highest point with an elevation of 812 feet.  I never made it to the top of that hill.  Since living in Arizona, I have run several trails up our local mountains that are at about 1800 feet high.  Still speaking metaphorically, I am about 27,000 feet shy of  Everest’s peak.

Perhaps, because I can’t mourn my own passing (though I am not on the brink of international acclaim), I feel acutely sensitive to seeing others die just as they are about to summit Everest.  It is those times when I curse life and the unfairness of it all.  To take away such beauty, talent and joy from others is the ultimate unfairness.  Although he was already at his peak in terms of stardom, Dmitri Aleksandrovich Hvorostovsky was a Russian operatic baritone who died at the age of 55.  With Pavarotti dead and Placido Domingo mostly retired, how I enjoyed watching Dmitri sing the great tenor arias as well as songs like Moscow Nights.  How can you listen to someone like Dmitri and hate Russians?  Musicians are perhaps the best ambassadors for peace in the world.  I leave you with a noted performance by Dimitri.

https://youtu.be/r3-z_KKsYhA?si=GOt0JfufP9wPAs5p

The Little Girl and the Caterpillar

15 Sep 2025 4 Comments

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

Once upon a time there was a little six-year-old girl named Angelica.  She had three older brothers, a mom and dad.  I never met her mom, but I will introduce the other family members as they enter my story.  I did subsequently find out that Angelica was a very curious little girl and her mom warned her that too much curiosity could get her in trouble.

It was a beautiful morning in mid-September.  The sun was out, and the sky was cloudless.  I decided to strike while the iron was hot and go for a hike in the Casa Grande Mountains.  Temperature was 75 degrees.  Sun was over the mountains but still low enough to be cool.  Projected high for the day was 97 degrees, which they announced was cooler than average.

I started out somewhat undecided which trail to take but finally made up my mind and went south along the middle trail.  This trail is bracketed by the high or ridge trail and a lower short trail.  The two lower trails run south towards Mexico.  As I was walking along what I call the “middle trail” I saw five people coming down the high trail.  The middle trail forks with the high trail and I hurried to avoid running into the people coming down the high trail.  None of these trails are very wide and I did not feel like stepping off the trail.  I made the fork before they arrived and headed south. 

For a short distance, the middle trail parallels the high trail.  I noticed an older man, three young boys and a young girl some distance behind the men.  She appeared to be sitting on her haunches and looking at something on the ground.  I immediately thought “I hope she is not looking at a rattlesnake.”  Snakes tend to come out in cooler weather to sun themselves or to find a nice comfortable spot in the shade.  I have seen a few crossing a trail and I always keep my eyes peeled for them when running or hiking. 

As her siblings got farther away she called out to them.  I could not make out what she said but I noticed that she stayed intent on whatever she was watching.  She was about 25 yards north of me.  My own curiosity got the best of me, and I called out to her “Hey, what are you looking at?”  She turned towards me and replied, “A caterpillar.”  I had never in my 15 years of hiking up the Casa Grand Mountains seen a caterpillar anywhere. 

I left my trail to go up and see what Angelica was looking at.  I got there before her family did.  I introduced myself and asked the little girl what her name was.  She told me her name was Angelica.  I told her that mine was John.  The three boys (her brothers) and the older man (her dad) soon arrived on the spot.  Angelica did not budge (I marvel at the dexterity and flexibility of youth).  I introduced myself to her family members.  I met Antonio her dad, two teenage brothers named Alejandro and Arthur, and a pre-teen brother named Arturo.  Seems her dad had a liking for names starting with A.  I never did find out her mother’s name.


I turned my attention back to Angelica and the caterpillar.  “Angelica, do not touch the caterpillar” I warned her.  ‘Why not Mr. John?” she asked.  “Well, it could be poisonous and very dangerous.”  “It does not look very dangerous.” she replied.  “You cannot always tell what is dangerous by looking at it” I opined.  Her dad seconded my warning.  “Yes, do not try to pick it up” he added.  One of her teen brothers suggested “Maybe we should just kill it if it is dangerous.”  “NO” shouted Angelica, “It is not hurting anyone, just leave it alone.”  I chimed in “Well if it is not an indigenous species, it might do more harm than good out here in the desert.  Who knows maybe it is from Russian or China and could infiltrate our desert environment and destroy everything we hold sacred.”  My suggestion drew blank looks.  Her dad said, “I think Mr. John might have a good point maybe we should just step on it and be on our ways?”  Alejandro and Arthur agreed with this idea.  Arturo sided with his sister and suggested we just leave it alone. 

As we were debating and puzzling what to do, Angelica suddenly picked the caterpillar up in one hand and gently closed her fingers around it.  We stood horrified.  I think we all expected to hear a scream, and Angelica would fall over either dead or in a coma.  None of us moved for several moments which seemed like minutes.  Then Angelica opened her fingers.  The caterpillar had curled up inside her palm and appeared to be sleeping.  “See” Angelica said, “He was just looking for some shade so that he could rest.”  She then stepped off the trail and walked over to a towering twenty-foot Saguaro.  Very carefully, she set the little caterpillar down in the shade of the cactus and walked back up to join her family. 

I sheepishly said “Well, it was nice meeting all of you.  I hope to see you again on the trail.”  With more goodbyes, the family left for the parking lot, and I left to finish a four-mile hike. 

Thus, while I fit in with the millions of homo sapiens worried about climate change, Trumpian politics, violence in America, the Supreme Court’s biased rulings, immigration, education, health care, Democracy and several other MAJOR weighty issues, Angelica sits oblivious to what is destroying life in America to watch a tiny little caterpillar move slowly across the desert floor in search of shade.  Angelica watches the beauty of life while millions of us only see the dirt and grime and misery that we think is all pervasive. 

Oh, how I wish I could be like Angelica again.

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