Ehlana and Ethan:
The weather has been interesting today, but we still ended up getting to have some sun and warm to enjoy this afternoon in the middle between the morning showers and the overnight rain that we’re getting now as we’re writing this update. Tai Chi was indoors; we got damp on the way to school; and stayed in for most of the day during our academic adventures. While the ground was still damp this afternoon; we still went biking with our friends after school; added in some park play time; and then we kept our four best friends with us for dinner, studying, and a group Magi lesson before we all headed to the Inn for game night. We had fun with that too; and then Ethan and I only did a bit of work in the office after getting home with Mom and Dad. We had a vid-chat with Cassie and Michael then too; and they’re already half-way through their Friday work in Ho Chi Minh City. They’ve had a lot of fun too – if not with much sightseeing so far beyond some cameo moments between work meetings and site visits. They are getting a lot done too while making new friends along the way; and we still enjoy hearing about how they are changing perceptions of pretty much everyone they meet as they prove their talents to skeptics and share their joy and enthusiasm for their work.
It’s too bad that we can’t have that happen with them for our world leaders, but then Cassie might be more-likely to turn the lot of them into bugs instead of convincing them to be good! Okay, we can’t actually do that, but that’s why we’re Harry Potter fans; since we really wish that we could! ;^)
That does bring us to the world news part of our report, and the destruction and casualties on both sides of the Iran war continues to rise; civilian and government infrastructure targets are being added to the mix in a much-larger way; and the economic risks are growing fast too as energy facilities are now being targeted and could lead to world market disruptions that could last for months or more instead of days or weeks. Today alone, we’ve heard reports of oil fields, refineries, and two tankers being hit in different locations – and that’s despite the attempts by Israel and the ‘Gulf States’ to block all attempts to report what is actually happening through media or social media networks. Add in the environmental impact of the fires and spills; and the clean-up is going to take months or years too. Reports are coming out that the total death toll so far in now in the thousands, and since both sides are sure to be downplaying those statistics; we won’t know for months – or ever – what the real costs in human life will be.
Ditto that in Ukraine except that the deaths and injuries are in the millions, and while western media and political leaders have apparently forgotten about that war; the horrors continue. Now we can add in potential new economic issues, since Russia may decide to divert what remains of energy sales to Europe to China, India, and elsewhere instead of supplying European countries when they are planning on cutting off all supplies of Russian energy by next year anyway. This would not be a good time for Europe to lose those supplies along with the Middle East energy shut-downs! Related to that story, China may be about to stop energy exports of refined products to adjust for the drop in energy imports from the Persian Gulf while Russia is diverting in-transit tankers to China and India.
We need to go back to the Iran war to comment on stories related to sending ground troops into Iran, since there are multiple options being proposed from arming regional factions like the Kurds to fight for us on the ground to sending American forces into the country. Those are all very bad ideas; since that would end even worse for us than Afghanistan did over the twenty years we spent trying to ‘save’ that country. Speaking of – Afghanistan and Pakistan are still a tinderb0x waiting to explode; and our leaders ought to try and remember that both countries have significant Shia Muslim populations that are not happy with western countries right now. Yes, we know that the goal for some leaders is simply to destabilize the region and keep the factions fighting each other, but the risks of regional or world war are rising too.
Finally, though we could go on about a lot of other stories, we want to mention reports we’ve seen about American military leaders telling their troops to get ready for an end-times kind of fight with God on ‘our’ side. While our leaders will never read our journals; Ethan and I can absolutely assure you that God is not on anyone’s side on this war; President Trump has not been chosen by God to do anything for HIM; and it is far more-likely that the Angel of the Abyss and the Dark Magi of the world are leading both sides to be evil! Since we’re on that weird little tangent, let’s also add that we couldn’t stop what is happening there even if we went there and tried. Yes, we could stop a few missiles and maybe a bit more, but that would just lead to other problems – including the possibility that we’d be found out by ‘normal’ people and end up in a classified lab somewhere as experiments instead of researchers!
That’s too-dark a thought for right before bedtime; so let’s wrap this up and Ethan and I will try to come up with happier thoughts before we head off to dreamland – like what will hopefully be another play day tomorrow with our family and friends once we’re set free from school for the weekend. We’d love to have some more biking time, and Mom and Dad are hosting a dinner and movie night; so let’s hope that all works out for us. Stay tuned to find out – after we get around to living those adventures!
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
