We have all been living in the future. A future full of cheap, on-demand services willing to cater to your every whim. Need a ride, hail Uber. Need an idea for dinner? Blue Apron delivers a five-star meal kit to your home. Need a dozen Krystal burgers at 2am? Postmates brings it to your doorstep. But, the era of uber-cheap Uber and other subsidized, on-demand services is nearing an end. Yes, it’s true, the Millennial lifestyle subsidy is ending.

Do you dread watching the News? Turns out you are not alone. But, there’s more to it than you think. Let me explain.

Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last two years, you’ve noticed that crime in America has exploded. We can blame Covid or gun laws or poverty, but what if this spike in crime was altogether predictable and preventable? Let me explain.

Back in 2020 when you and I were trying to find toilet paper and Chardonnay, America’s major cities turned into something out of a Marvel comic book. A recent study suggests a perfect storm occurred. As Covid forced many cities into lockdown, our politicians moved quickly to change public policy around incarceration. At the same time, calls for defunding the police reverberated across the US.

The immediate result was a shortage of police officers on the street. As a result, arrests in 2020 fell by 25%. This dramatic reduction in enforcement caused criminals to become more brazen. See, the bad guys are dumb but they aren’t stoopid. They quickly figure out that the rules have changed and they can get away with murder…literally. During a twelve month period in 2020, American jails reported 1.6 million fewer admissions.

We are all wandering through a difficult time in history. War in Ukraine, inflation, shootings in Uvalde & Highland Park, political division, gun violence in our cities and bitter disagreement on the issue of abortion. Meanwhile, ordinary people are trying to find meaning in the turmoil; trying to sort it all out. Like Alexander Papaderous hopelessly trying to put the mirror pieces back together.

It’s one of the reasons why I wrote Why We Lost Faith in Our Institutions and Each Other last month. Author David Brooks calls this loss of faith “the great disembedding.” We once embraced tight communities, and hierarchical, human organizations with prescribed social norms. You know, those core institutions made America the greatest place in earth?

Our core institutions have value, even if all institutions are flawed. For all their imperfections, core institutions are the best way to transfer goodness to future generations.

Instead, we now embrace a hyper-individualistic way of life. A society almost totally devoid of social, emotional or physical contact....

America’s past two Presidents were the oldest in history. President Joe Biden will turn 80 in November. As the New York Times recently pointed out, Mr. Biden is the oldest serving U.S. President at age 79. He will be 82 when he finishes his first term. If Donald Trump chooses to run in 2024, he will be 78 years old.

For gosh sakes, don’t these guys have any grandkids to play with?

Yes, my friends, we are only a mere 867 days away from the next Presidential slugfest. That means we are about 15 minutes away from the first campaign ads for the Red and Blue teams hitting our television screens. It’s yet another reason to watch Netflix instead of cable.

The nation’s political pundits are already starting to handicap the race. The word “handicap” is appropriate. Let me explain.

Where were you were when the Twin Towers fell in New York City? How about when 58 people were killed and 500 people were injured at the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas? Why is it that some mass casualty incidents stick with us while others do not?

While we can instantly recall our location when the Twin Towers fell, we have a harder time with catastrophic events that fall short of mass-calamity.

While we can all name a few events like MGM, Columbine and Sandy Hook, our memories quickly grow faint after tragedies. Do you recall the 2018 Santa Fe Texas High school shooting? Eight students and two teachers were murdered by a 17-year old student. Or, what about Community College in 2015? A 26 year-old student opened fire killing eight and wounding nine. I have no recollection of either event. But, why? Listen to find out.

Trust is the foundation of all relationships. But, in America, trust in our institutions and trust in each other is falling faster than Amber Heard’s net worth. According to Pew Research, two-thirds of adults think Americans have little or no confidence in the federal government.

Ironically, in an era where we trust so little we often over-trust our leaders. For example, everyone loves the idea of term limits. But we keep re-electing the same knuckleheads every term. It seems we like the idea of term limits for other people’s elected officials, not ours. For example, Senator Mitch McConnell has been a US Senator since I was in high school. Senator Chuck Schumer has been in the Senate for 23 years. And, of course, President Biden has been in Washington since Jesus was a boy.

For the second time in nine days, gunshots rang out in a gruesome and heartbreaking mass shooting. When the smoke cleared, 19 innocent children between the ages of 7 and 10 years old were dead. Two teachers were also murdered. First Buffalo, now Uvalde, Texas. Will this senseless violence ever stop?

The Robb Elementary School shooting is the 212th mass shooting event this year. We’ve already had 27 school shootings and it’s only May. It’s the deadliest shooting event in the US this year. These mass murders are a uniquely American epidemic.

Americans are 25 times more likely to die from a gun homicide than other developed countries. But, why? Every country in Europe is struggling with mental health. But, 18-year old kids with mental health problems in Europe aren’t shooting up schools.

Is it finally time to do something about the guns in the United States?

After two years of hand-washing and social distancing we finally have a reprieve from “14-days to stop the spread”. But, ironically, we have simply moved from one crisis to another. Enter monkeypox and $10 a gallon gasoline. Not to mention the world’s supply of wheat has about ten-weeks remaining. Start sharpening your elbows cause you’ll soon be hip-checking your neighbor for the last loaf of Roman Meal bread at the grocery store.

As my friend Michael Chaiken said recently, “younger people are realizing that the current order of things being dictated by the media, politicians and celebrities is failing them. The millennials, in particular, are seeing skyrocketing rates of mental illness and suicide. They’re yearning for something else to center and ground them.”

The door is wide open for a spiritual awakening like no other.