I will start with only one word. Not a headline, not a statistic, only a single word that followed me around a conference room in downtown Denver in May of 2026 as I mingled with Colorado’s largest manufacturing executives. I was participating in the 52nd World Trade Day Conference, the largest international gathering of international trade professionals, policymakers, and business leaders. This year’s theme was blunt: “A New Era in Trade: Globalization in Question.” The keynote wasn’t about growth strategy or market expansion. It was titled “Safeguarding Trade in a Weaponized World Economy.” Every speaker I listened to and every hallway conversation I eavesdropped on kept circling back to that same word. Not tariffs, not GDP, not affordability, but ‘uncertainty.’ The word ‘uncertainty’ isn’t just a trade-conference buzzword. It’s showing up everywhere. Meanwhile, economists who track something called the World Uncertainty Index — a measure built from language in global news coverage — clocked its highest reading in more than three decades of data earlier this year. The index’s newest national poll found that nearly half of adults say they’re more anxious than they were a year ago — and when researchers asked people what’s driving that anxiety, the economy topped the list, with roughly seven in ten adults reporting they feel anxious about it. And uncertainty is not confined to our minds and our markets. It’s in the terra firma beneath us. Geophysicists studying the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults in Southern California recently reported that the two faults are carrying more accumulated stress than at any point in the last thousand years. If they were to rupture together through the Cajon Pass, researchers estimate the resulting earthquake could reach magnitude 7.4 to 7.8 — enough to simultaneously disrupt highways, rail lines, and energy corridors across multiple cities.
The necessity of integrating the EverythingDiSC™ profile into vocational training for people with disabilities is rooted in its ability to facilitate deeply personalized and meaningful career planning, a crucial element for ensuring successful employment outcomes. It acknowledges that job success relies far more on behavioral competencies than on technical ones.
Arthur Schlesinger Schlesinger was born in Columbus, Ohio, the son of Elizabeth Harriet (nee Bancroft) and Arthur M. Schlesinger (!888-1965), an influential historian at Ohio State University. His paternal grandfather was a Prussian Jew who converted to Protestantism and married an Austrian Catholic. According to family tradition, his mother, a Mayflower descendant, was of German and New England ancestry and a relative of historian George Bancroft. Schlesinger practiced Unitarianism. As a writer, I am confronted with three problems: 1. Everyone reading this has unexamined biases. 2. Embedded biases can color how one perceives stories of religious intolerance. 3. Gross ignorance. I am figuring out how to please everybody who reads this; however, I welcome intelligent argument if you think I'm off. I do not proselytize for any religion but hope every individual will map their path of faith, even if it is a path of no faith. Just identify your spiritual horizon and head for it. Simple. What I know is all that I know, a finite library of cerebral knowledge. Outside that subjective reality lies a vast universe of ignorance, my reason for open-mindedness and humility. At my core, I'm a perma-skeptic who continually questions everything, especially long-embedded personal 'truths' and hidden biases. Notwithstanding actual apparitions, I tend not to believe abstract concepts unless they are carefully and logically derived through reason and are perceived by my senses. If I think I hear divine voices speaking to me, am I crazy? Or am I receiving the voice of God speaking to me through the megaphone of conscience, just like Joan d'Arc? I don't know. That's why I explore this subject with you. I'm blessed or cursed with being born with an extreme curiosity about everything and how everything indescribably connects to everything else. Please receive this report for awareness, not necessarily agreement with every point. I could make mistakes, so please don't crucify the piano player. Aware that this report will be read by everyone, from non-practicing or devout Christians to befuddled agnostics and confirmed atheists, I strive to communicate in a way that reports, educates, and contributes to understanding differences and their core reasons. Knowing how belief systems directly affect one's worldview and behavior is helpful as you may lead, manage, or interact with people. Are Catholics more hopeful because a scapular guarantees salvation? Are Protestants more negative because of a focus on our inherently sinful nature? Remember that I am not a theologian, so feel free to challenge whatever you disagree with or want to provide correction. I'm a teacher, not a preacher. On all matters, I take a Socratic approach, always searching for higher-quality questions, as in AI prompt engineering.
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Generally speaking, most adults consider play as something extra after the to-do list is completed, a reward for accomplishing a task, or a diversion from something serious and heavy. In actuality, it should be considered vital for mental health because, without it, we ignore the child in us who wants to explore, test, and play. Play is inherent in human and animal natures. Being in the early days of Act III of life and preparing for a good death, I am more serious about things and consciously scheduling play times. I assign play equal weight, if not greater, to other life priorities such as work, worship, friendship, and love. I've enjoyed many hobbies that provide great satisfaction, but with aging, I've pared them down to only a few. If I were to live as long as my centenarian mother, I have time to read only 1000 new books, so I'd better carefully choose what I put into my head. Likewise, protecting play time is essential to my mental health.
Lest you mistake this article for a Timothy Learyesque' drop-out' message, I'd like to be clear. While retreat is a common tactic in war, it is intended to help regain posture and consolidate power resources, rather than abandoning the battlefield. Thanks to the internet, many of us are bombarded daily with cognitive overload from useless information, if we allow such abuse. Unfortunately, constantly staring at screens has become the norm for many humans. It is estimated that approximately 70% of the world's population, or nearly 5.775 billion people as of July 2025, is online. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? The answer is that it is both. The internet has dramatically shrunk and flattened our world of communication, which is excellent for collaborative ventures, but which also benefits malicious actions by begrudged individuals.
Given the current state of social devolution (a term used to describe the decline in social interactions and relationships,) I'm fortunate to have been rated on a managerial whole-brain profile as an ambivert. Like most people, I naturally feel a strong and continuing need for social connection; however, I can also be perfectly content with solitude and meditation for extended periods. Socializing is natural for me. I quickly and easily build rapport and trust. Thus, my social world acts as a reservoir of good energy to recharge and remind me of who I am whenever I need a confidence boost, as I likewise edify my friends and allies. Being cocooned and busy helping e-commerce businesses, I hardly noticed the lockdown. However, as a friend said, "the pandemic revealed the rocks in the bottom of the creek." One study claimed that 64% of the people surveyed said they find it difficult to talk with people of widely different religious or political views. Why is this so? Perhaps we are so invested in our point of view that we cannot, or do not suspend self-interest for a few minutes to assume a sincerely curious, journalistic attitude like Monica Guzman, author of I Never Thought of It That Way.' She claims, "The friction and heat in a conversation is good. The question is whether it's cooking something or burning something. Standing for what you believe in does not mean attacking people on the other side." Indeed, the lockdown exacerbated the tone of relationships. Those who were close sought to become even closer. Those who were distant increased their transactional tone of communications, a term used to describe interactions primarily focused on exchanging information or completing tasks rather than building relationships. The report reveals a steady downward trend in social connection and civility over the past four decades. This slippery slope trend is borne out in a pithy white paper by the U.S. Surgeon General entitled Given the extensive nature of the paper, I will comment on only a few striking excerpts, which I hope encourages you to read the entire report.