Editor’s Note: It is Day 300 of the Great Con II. Another lesson in leadership dropped this week from Judge Mark Wolf, who gave up his federal seat in order to speak freely on the regime. Imagine this scenario, where instead of maintaining your position, you value what your role stands for and give it up to protect the integrity of the system. That’s real public service. Not just a job, but a duty. Read his piece below after the main essay.

I see more of my dad in the mirror as the years go by. I am now the “Mr. Parker”, the title my father held for so long.

In America, growing older is never easy, though it has historically gotten better (we live longer) and it beats the alternative (as Dickens said, being dead as a doornail). I’m in my 50s now, and living on the other side of the hill with both subtle and profound changes. It makes one pause to consider the journey and how best to make the most of the remaining time. And, in a culture focused on youth, seeing the spotlight shift to the next generation is eye-opening.

Demographically, we wisened ones are sticking around longer. The average U.S. life expectancy now stretches into the late 70s. That gives me twenty or so more years, if I’m lucky. I don’t feel it per se, though some things get a bit more trying. I still enjoy work and rarely think much about retirement. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more Americans are indeed working past the going out to pasture stage.

There’s a lot of us out there, and there’s indeed plenty of work left to do. The greatest lament I have is that we willingly pass on our problems to the next generation. No universal healthcare. No national push for climate action. No social and economic equality guarantees. Guns galore. Too many vested interests chasing profit and patronage instead of improving life for everyone.

We have 21st-century tools with a Gilded Age complex.

We can do better.

For all its contradictions, aging in America can mean holding two truths at once: the loss of the limitless future, and the full ownership of your past. The mid-50s is that time to reckon with what’s left to give, and what can be let go without apology. It’s a clarity that youth often are distracted from.

The best narratives about aging in America are not tales of decline, but how we teach what we’ve learned. You can see it in the protestors in this first year of the regime, predominantly a sea of gray and homemade signs, because they know the real history and the price of not acting. You can see it in workers who learn and adapt and stay with companies that treat them well. Whether offering suggestions to younger staff, reconnecting with long-ignored passions, caring for family, joining clubs, assisting teachers, or taking political action, one thing is certain that this generation isn’t going to simply fade away.

Nor can it.

The mid-50s is not an ending. It’s no longer about being youthful, but of being resilient and willing to have courage with what one has learned and benefited from. In a country made for hyper-individualism, surely no generation is better equipped to age boldly than those who’ve seen the world transform from rotary phones to smartphones, and who now see values strained by a digital, wealth-making crypto economy.

Aging in America can’t simply be to count the days until retirement. There must be opportunities both made and offered. We helped break the system by neglecting core values and leaving a harder world for our kids to navigate.

Now, the only thing left is not to age gracefully, but to age with defiance.

We can’t be satisfied with anything less.

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The most difficult experience I have had as a public servant has been the degree to which public service has been treated as a personal fiefdom by both elected officials and those appointed via political patronage. There have been others who simply treat it as a job, and the concept of bettering what you started with remains a foreign thought.

There have been a few high-level resignations during the current regime. This one in particular comes from a conservative judge who has seen and heard enough. His words are heartfelt and a warning.

Though we are all well fatigued, we can’t stop encouraging and praising those who have helped shape America. I am hoping that more of us will soon see the light of day. It's not for revenge, but rather to put the value back into democratic values, lest we lose our exceptionalism and become more like a Russia or Hungary form of government.

Ironically, it is American exceptionalism that is being hollowed out by graft, ideology, and tycoon-level profit. We will not recover from this without a fact-finding mission like the Watergate hearings, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of South Africa, or the Nuremberg Trials.

When we get clear, we will need to learn from this.

Make sure you read this piece.

I have long been intrigued by our connection to nature and how much effort we make to either control it or deny it. We are a product of Earth and everything here. Whether water, trees, plants, and yes, mushrooms, all are linked in ways we have yet to discover.

Scientists have shown that mushroom roots, called mycelium, can work like "memristors”, or tiny devices that remember electrical signals and could unlock much more efficient computing for artificial intelligence. Because mushrooms are widely available and can survive in harsh environments, this approach may offer a cheaper, greener alternative to traditional computer parts. On one level, I can intuit the possibilities. On another, this science and engineering is on a scale I can only appreciate.

It reminds me that everything we will ever need is here. And it’s up to us to learn how to live and prosper better with it.

TIME FOR A YACHT POEM:
MODERN TIMES

A time I walked the street
The people I would greet
With a hardy how-de-do
And good day to you!

The children ran about
The vendors shouted out
A penny bought some candy
Those golden days were dandy.

Money always scant
Ah to pay the rent
Friendships filled the air
Always help here or there.

So different today
People go their own way
Children secured indoors
No hellos, what for?

Neighbors often strangers
Outside a sense of danger
Faces focused on screens
Privacy by any means.

Marc J. Yacht, MD, MPH, Hudson, Florida, "I'm too busy to get old!!

I’ve watched now as our kids graduate and get jobs, and learn how to maintain and pay bills and do basic adulting stuff. What I see so far is that they face fewer choices with higher costs. A good portion of this is because of structural inertia that only public policy can break.

Many American families have been raised in homes less than 1200 square feet. Maybe we don’t need all the stuff we have been conditioned to purchase. Perhaps we’ve been sold space in bigger homes and yards as an indicator of progress, when the real trend to look for is how much community we feel.

How many neighbors do you know? Can you get to things you need on foot? Can a parent be at home with kids when they’re young?

There have been a lot of tradeoffs, maybe too many, and this is an opportunity to redefine what real progress is:

the betterment of the human condition.

And Now….

Thank you for reading. Check out the books below and the T-shirts in the online store. And don’t forget the PBS special The American Revolution begins tonight.

Continue to practice your gratefulness. Especially now. Not for stuff, but for having a brain. And having the freedom to use it.

Always strive to be a good human.