I'm tired. I feel it in my muscles and bones. I have less stamina. This old body's been through a lot.

I'm getting old. I'm not as sharp as I used to be. I can't concentrate like I used to. I have less patience.

But, I'm still here, walking on the grass side of Terra.

Sometimes, while sitting at my desk I'll lean over a little to the right in my chair and look out the window at the beautiful countryside. The cardinals at the feeder, the mockingbird splashing in the birdbath, the multi-colored crepe myrtle trees swaying with the breeze, the squirrel infested and nut laden pecan tree, all outlined by huge loblolly pines and the big blue Texas sky.

And my mind wanders.

The beauty of the natural world is much the same as it always was, out in the country, as I remember it, anyway. That's been a constant, for most of my life.

But the temporal world of man has been anything but constant. The Machiavellian world. The world of politics, greed, and power.

Through the majority of my years the way of the world was fairly consistent, the American Dream worked, if you wanted it to. Life was better then. It was more stable, it was more private, there was less stress, and one thing's for sure, it was less expensive.

Then things turned dark. Things turned ominous. Things changed suddenly.

A maelstrom of turmoil and confusion swallowed the way of the world. As the Dream met with a quickening demise. And the world shuddered and shuttered.

And the pace quickened.

I wondered, there has to be a force behind this rapid change. Some causation. Something rational. Or irrational.

But what? Or whom?

Is there a hand guiding this denouement of an ancient Greek-like tragedy? What rationale is there for such a radical change in the way of the world.

And why? To what end?

Is it man-made? Is it natural? Is it both?

Is it organic? Is it all planned?

Where are we being taken to, out of our control?

There's so many black swans circling like vultures, it's hard to fathom it all. It seems like every day a new crisis is added to the roster of dilemmas. War, disease, famine, homelessness, the list is long, the solutions are untenable.

As I see it, there is one main problem that sits atop of this mountain of crises, and it's the root of our potential demise as a nation and a people, and maybe as a world.

I mentioned it above. Politics and the lust for greed and power.

Those are attributes of man, not of nature. Certainly there are natural concerns, but, in my opinion, our most urgent concerns are man-made.

One may surmise, I know I do, that the love of money and power will ultimately be catalyst of this country's great undoing.

Then look no further than the minds of powerful and greedy men as "the cause".