April 8, 2026

By Jim Towey

Directly behind the kitchen of my home in Virginia is a dogwood tree. The tip of one of its branches is inches from the window. The tree itself is very skinny and hasn’t grown much in the six years we have observed it. During the summer, very few leaves adorn it; whatever the horticultural equivalent of a receding hairline is, this dogwood has it, prematurely shedding leaves which never return. During winter, the tree looks petrified, lifeless, dead.

But a week ago, with successive waves of warmth, saturating rain and sunshine, new signs of life began to emerge from its limbs. The tip nearest the window first seemed slightly swollen. Then a knot emerged. Then a bud. And now a blossom, a glorious, fragile blossom.

This triumph of the bloom over the appearance of doom, this victory of life over death, fits nicely with the religious commemorations of the Passover for Jews, and the Resurrection of Jesus for Christian believers. When all seemed lost, deliverance came. There was no way that thin strand of a branch before my eyes was capable of producing anything, much less a glorious flower. But it did.

Troubles in Iran

The flowers of spring remind us not to judge by appearances. For people of faith, it can be tempting to think that God is in trouble now. God is not in trouble. But there is much evidence in the news to support this view, beginning with the war in Iran. Each new ultimatum, each new drone attack, each act of war, courts catastrophe.

My own personal introduction to tensions with Iran began in the summer of 1981 when I first moved to my third-floor, corner efficiency at 2800 Wisconsin Avenue NW in Washington, DC. It was during the aftermath of Iran’s release of the American hostages and tensions remained high.  There was a newspaper office affiliated either with the Iranian government or its opposition, I don’t recall, that was near my building. I returned home one evening after dinner with friends to see police tape blocking its entrance.

A police officer explained to me that an eyewitness had seen a man maneuver himself outside the passenger window, positioning himself to throw a homemade explosive at the print shop in a drive-by bombing. But the man fumbled his device, the officer told me, and it exploded. Fortunately, no one was injured, he said, and only the windows of the lobby were shattered. Except for one apartment which had minor damage.

Of course, that apartment was #301, my unit. When I walked in, the police were retrieving shrapnel of some kind from where it had lodged in the ceiling. They left me alone to count my blessings. With the Ayatollah still calling out for death to America, this incident only hardened my sentiments against a government that had stolen 444 days from the lives of over fifty fellow citizens. And now, 45 years later, our country and Iran stand at the brink of a ruinous conflict with ruinous consequences.

The AI agenda

If the tensions in the Middle East aren’t enough to trouble you, the mad march toward an artificial intelligence world should. It continues unimpeded, with Big Tech and Big AI buying off public opposition as they grift hundreds of billions of dollars from investors into their own pockets, and bleed humanity of what makes us truly human. These masters want to be God. Before they (or we) discover they aren’t, they will force their AI agenda and super intelligence down our human throats.

Already many of our young people no longer aspire to think critically, write competently, and learn foreign languages. No, CheatGPT promises to do that for them. They just have to learn how to use AI tools and leave the rest to the data centers. How can this delusion possibly end well for humanity? Have the Tech gods thought of the elderly and the impact this will have on their daily lives? Already we see advanced AI being used on the battlefields of the Middle East, facilitating the death of combatants and civilians alike.

Despite all of this and the other disturbing developments of our time, I am not shaken or worried. The tiny flower outside my kitchen reminds me not to judge by the awful appearance of things. Throughout human history, we have seen repeatedly that love triumphs over fear and hate, that hope bursts forth from despair, and that humans are capable of a faith in God that opens our eyes to the flowers and all of the miracles surrounding us.

Life is good. God is love. And God is in control.

(The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Aging with Dignity and/or its Board of Directors.)