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.
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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.