Impediments to truth

Nancy Guthrie is still missing. At least as of noon MST on Tuesday, February 10.

Along with so many others I pray for a safe conclusion to this event. And soon.

I can only imagine how this is weighing on the family. From what I can observe, they appear to be holding it together pretty well. But there must be moments of sadness, anger, hope, futility. Family members have been the object of suspicion, at least at the gossip level. That’s the last place anyone should be judged, yet often it’s the first stop we make just trying to find the truth. Whatever that is.

I was a journalism major in college, later working some fifteen years for daily newspapers. That experience lends credibility to what I believe about the sometimes messy business of reporting the news.

You’ve got a deadline. You’ve got competition. You’ve got a boss who doesn’t want to be scooped.

You don’t want to be scooped.

You want to save your time for rooting out new angles, genuine updates, following law enforcement, following tips, and so on.

Nothing wrong with any of that. Except. In a race to deadline it’s very tempting to pick up what you’ve already run and slap it in there as background.

In so doing, it’s really easy to pick up something that was never factual, and you run it yet again.

There’s a good example from the Guthrie case.

Early on, news reports agreed that the family was alerted by a church friend when Nancy had not showed up for church Sunday morning, February 1. That was picked up and shared broadly. Why not? 

The problem is the picture  it created in readers’/viewers’ minds.

Many accounts since have picked up and run with this version. The problem? Nancy has not attended  in-person church since COVID. Six-plus years ago 

According to a story published today, the friend was wanting to set the record straight: since COVID, several women gather at another’s home on Sunday mornings to “attend” an online-church from New York. The article said that it is the church Savannah attends.

Maybe you think, so what? What difference does it make? Here’s how it created a difference for me.

BTW, I am an ordained Episcopal priest, and have wondered why a church friend would feel it so important to let the family know so quickly that their Mom was a no-show at church. I strongly suspected that some detail was missing.

What’s factual is that this friend did inform the family. What isn’t factual is that this was connected to a Tucson church. We are still free to attend or not attend a church service in its building. An absence here or there wouldn’t automatically trigger a call to family.

But a no-show to a friend’s house is a much different situation.

So my practice is to be suspicious while reading or viewing the news, and if something just doesn’t add up right, call the reporter and check it out. They want it right, also.

Dear God, we pray for the safe return of Nancy Guthrie, and for peace of heart and mind for her family. Amen.

You never know what the day may bring…

Good or bad, each day unfolds pretty much to our expectations.

Kids to school.

Dog to vet.

Catch the top news, however it is we do that.

Phone Mom and Dad.

Text that recipe to a friend.

Go to a scheduled meeting.

For the most part, days pass by like that, without surprise, without incident.

The rhythm is so reliable, it leaves little room for the surprises.

But the surprises can force their way in anyway.

You never know what the day may bring.

It’s a simple sentence that doesn’t require a lot of explaining. Even so, we march on, optimistic, not a care in the world.

Oh, sure, we know that our next moment might be ripped from us. But intellectually knowing the possibilities of major disruptions does not adequately prepare us for when they come.

Just read the headlines on a given day, and put yourself in the place of someone who got that bad news.

Here are a couple of examples, occurrences that nearly take your breath away:

—My heart goes out to the family of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, missing from in Tucson, Arizona.

—Also to the family of an 18-year-old Northern Arizona University student who is presumed to have died in a fraternity rush activity.

So, what’s my point?

Well, since there’s no known way of warding off horrific news, I believe I am left with doing a better job of valuing, not only the great days, but also the mindless days when no harm comes to me or mine. Days when I forget something on my grocery list, or have to circle the block several times to get a parking place; or clean up where my dog peed on the kitchen floor because I didn’t get her out in time.

Imperfections, for sure, but not tragic, or life-altering, or even memorable.

So, welcome, ordinary days. I hope to see you for the blessing you are and the treasure you bring to my life.

When we can’t accept

Let the pain out.

Wring those hands,

wring them hard.

The values we claim,

the rights we expect,

the freedoms we assume:

Gone before their work is done?

Were they ever real?

Someone said justice is a hypothetical construct, that what passes for justice is a dream granted only to those in power,

a privilege as beautiful and as rare as a Faberge egg.

Don’t believe the privilege is gone? Don’t believe justice is rarely just? I didn’t believe it either.

But then, along came Renee. And I was shocked.

Then, along came Alex. And my knees gave way.

I worry that their truth may be the new truth.

Please, God, let it not be so.

M.P. Trainor 

What to do when the truth is true

On January 7, 2026, Renee Good began her last day on Earth as planned.
Up and out of the house to drop off a child at school. Maybe some coffee in there somewhere.
Then, in support of friends, we are told, headed to a local protest against ICE.
Eventually, now with wife and dog in the car (maybe they were always there), she began to thread her way through parked cars to head home.
Meanwhile, an ICE officer allegedly shot her three times, the last shot at what looks like point-blank range.
When she sustained fatal injuries, her car continued under its own volition, until colliding into a vehicle at the side of the road.
—
There has been so much craziness in the wake of this unjustified killing.
False claims of Renee’s criminal history published on social media.

It was another Renee Good.

Snopes reports says she did not weaponize her vehicle and try to hit the officer who killed her.
More likely, he (me speaking now) was allowed back to duty too soon following being struck and injured by another car, another event.
How do I know that what I’m telling you is true? No criminal record, not headed toward the officer with intent? Just killed as a very bad — what?— mistake?
—-
We can get so caught up in “our side” of a story that we may forget to do our homework. We hear or read words that support our general viewpoint. And we run with it. And, thanks to high
internet speeds, we run quickly.
In this frightful time, we cannot rely solely on the traditional media to fully inform us. You know, with the story behind the story, motivations, hidden agendas, errors, intentional skewing.
—
Here’s what I do to get to the truth: Question everything. If it seems iffy in any way, check other media sites. Know which media have a bias one way or the other.

And, finally, fact check with stable resources such as Snopes (snopes.com.) Or one or more other fact check resources.
Then, once sorting out the truth as best we can, we face the toughest work of all: What are we going to do about it?

The question rests heavy on my spirit today.

What’s the devil got to do with it?

Mountaineering is a very respectable activity. You’re outdoors breathing clean air. Getting a healthful amount of the sun’s rays. The aerobics involved in climbing mountains can be  beneficial. The entire enterprise merits some positive attention at the proverbial “water fountain” at work come Monday morning.

But there also must be an awareness that climbing can be dangerous. It requires carefully placing each foot. It demands full attention. Don’t do it just for fame, glory, and fabulous selfies. It’s serious business requiring the whole person: Mind, body, spirit.

At the end of 2025 three hikers died while attempting to conquer Mt. Baldy in Southern California’s San Gabriel Mountains.

According to news reports, they were on a particularly treacherous section: The Devil’s Backbone. Picture the spinal structure of a human body, knobby and running across a perilous ridge en route to the mountain’s peak. Not everyone who attempts the climb makes it to the top. Add to that extreme high winds, and you have a disaster that not even rescue helicopters can engage. The fierce wind was a definite setback for any hope of rescuing the three late last year.

Over the years, it has claimed many lives.

All of this makes my story even more incredible, especially to me.

In the mid-1960s, while still in college, I successfully reached the top of Mt. Baldy, traversing the Devil’s Backbone.

The recent tragedies there sparked the memory. Even so, I questioned the reality of that. I must be mistaken. Why would I have attempted such a thing?

But, yes, I went at the urging of a college friend of both my brother and me. For awhile, there was hint of a romantic spark between us, but Mt. Baldy more or less quenched the flame. And it wasn’t all his fault.

I’m pretty sure I told him I did not do a lot of climbing. So I complained the entire climb. Are we there yet? People really do this for fun? How much farther?

This was before Google, where I could have looked it up. Or Dateline, which might have offered another possible motive for this trek.

As we neared the peak, I noticed hikers coming back our way. I was quick to comment, “So people actually do return.”

That day was the end of mountain climbing for me, and pretty much the end of anything further for that friendship.

All of which leads me to this conclusion: If you’re out of shape and someone eggs you on to try something you know is beyond your desire and your ability, DON’T GO.

You never know what the day will bring…

A friend of mine often ends one of our discussions with the phrase above.

You never know what the day will bring. It’s similar to punctuation used as a bow tied around a gift.

While a death was its original context for my friend and me, it serves well in many other circumstances.

It came to mind today as I pondered the life story of Grandma Moses, who first applied paint to canvas in her seventies. A link below provides a brief look at her life, which ended at age 101.

One hundred one. Just think about that for a moment. The day she picked up a brush, I expect many people were skeptical. Hopefully they kept that negative thought to themselves. Many, I am sure, smiled politely, perhaps daring to offer the ofttimes dismissive, “Well,bless her heart.”

Bless her heart, indeed. At her death, she had generated more than 2,000 paintings. One of the favorites, The Old Checkered House, donned the cover of Time magazine on December 28, 1953.

If you like art. If you’re certain you aren’t good at it. If you’re the one who says you don’t have an artistic bone in your body. Well, here several things to consider:

You never know what the day will bring.

Grandma Moses began her art career at age 78.

Listen to today’s podcast, featuring Tucson artist Jeanine Colini, who loves to help adults uncover the artist within.

Jeanine Colini Podcast

Bringing the outdoors in
Ernesto Rodriguez had a brilliant idea. Actually, several of them.
Combining his various vocations, he proposed the brilliant idea to school folks of bringing the outdoors inside.
(Ernie is featured in The Wonder Files podcast today. Link below.)
From his work as a school counselor, as a photographer, and as a park ranger, Ernie proposed the idea of placing ceiling murals of outdoor spaces. It has worked to bring a type of calm into classrooms.
In another setting—a youth detention program with no windows—notable evidence exists to verify improved behaviors. And emotional states.
It’s a well known concept, a walk in the woods is calming.
Now, with Ernie’s leadership, the calming effects have moved indoors.
ernie@ernestorodriguez.com
natureintheclassoom.org

Listing to the Podcast

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/wonderfiles01podcast/episodes/2025-11-18T12_15_26-08_00

“Whatever you do, don’t let them play Amazing Grace…”
Deaths, including our own, are to be expected. We who have a few years on us have
lost grandparents, parents, siblings, friends. There are more losses to come, including our own.
There’s an old country song that captures the essence pf our views about death: Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. Dying is an unavoidable journey each of us will make. But we balk at the idea of exploring its parameters and, I
believe, that we miss some of the richest conversations we might otherwise have.
As a neophyte reporter on a small daily newspaper in California, I was assigned to write obituaries. It always struck me odd that the editor assigned obituaries to the rank beginner. Like me. 
Insofar as the obituary often contains the last words about someone’s life, being assigned to write them always felt like a privilege. After all, obituaries and letters to the editor were always vying for first- and second-place in readership popularity. For both readership and respect, I took special care to honor the decedent.
Some people live big lives, others barely stir a ripple. Even so, I believe every human being deserves a proper send-off, with words of love, and respect, and honor.
It’s my opinion that we don’t talk enough about such things. When ignored, death and its attendant responsibilities pile on to the grief loved ones are feeling—and we can’t remember whether Mama said to play Amazing Grace at her service—or, “whatever you do, don’t let them play Amazing Grace. That old song needs a rest.”
Too often we put off talking about our wishes, or their wishes. “Too gloomy,” someone says. Someone else diverts attention with a “please pass the potatoes.” And good-natured chatter again fills the room. No talk of death today.
But I believe death is the greatest curiosity of life. If you agree, I think today’s podcast may be helpful to you. I pray that you will listen to Rosemary Thornton’s experience of “temporary death.” Here’s the YouTube link.

Note to reader: The following is offered to supplement The Wonder Files podcast today that touches upon the significance of Halloween, All Saints Day, All Souls Day, and Dia de Los Muertos. See link at the end. MPT

In So Many Words
The following was published in Columban Mission Magazine, written by Sr. Rebecca Conlon

A “thin place,” according to the late Irish philosopher and poet John O’Donohue, is about a place or time where heaven and earth meet and we have access to “light” or the beyond in a different way. It is a threshold experience where time and eternity embrace.

John O’Donohue was steeped in the Celtic tradition and opened up for us the Celtic world, inviting us to enter and take note of times and places where the “veil” between the seen and unseen world is thinner than at other times. During this liminal time, we
experience a greater sense of sacredness or presence of the Other in a deeper way as the distance between heaven and earth, darkness and light, past and future becomes
porous momentarily.

November is such a liminal time within our liturgical calendar. The mood of this season is set as nature seemingly rests and sleeps having shed all its autumnal beauty, and the sky sports a bleak dark grey tone in the northern hemisphere. It captures the Celtic idea of November as a “thin place.” The month of November/Samhain in the Celtic calendar is thought to have represented the Celtic New Year.

A “thin place” according to the late Irish philosopher and poet John O’Donohue is about a place or time where heaven and earth meet and we have access to “light” or the beyond in a different way.
All Saints, All Souls and Halloween invite us beyond our present reality into reaching out in love as we remember those who have gone before us whether saint or sinner. In some countries on All Souls Day, transport is hired to take people to the places where
the remains of their loved ones rest, food is shared as the family gathers, with some offered especially for the dead. Prayers are said for the repose of their souls, Masses are offered and it becomes a family outing and a celebration of life.

The liturgy of these days tells us that life is changed not ended, the “thin place” becomes a place of bonding in love. Our loved ones have “only gone to God and God is very near.”

The Bible too speaks of thin places. We see where Moses (Exodus 3) met God in the burning bush and God spoke, and also Elijah (1Kings 19) met God on top of a mountain and heard Him in the still small voice. One needs to be truly present to listen and hear. Jesus had similar experiences, for example in His Transfiguration we see where the veil was lifted temporarily and the voice of the Father spoke saying: “This is my Beloved Son, listen to Him.” The ultimate thin place for Jesus was Calvary when the veil was torn, and He surrendered His all for our sake.

Thin places are not primarily geographical but a way of being present and listening deeply which enables the veil to fall even for a moment, and we experience a touch of heaven. Those who have gone before us have made it beyond the veil and may the
Lord accompany us so that we too may participate in “what no one has ever seen, no one has ever heard, no one has ever. imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Cor. 2:9).
LINK TO PODCAST HERE

Watchlist: Why watch Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5
George Orwell wrote the book 1984 in 1948, and it was published the following year. Genre-wise, it’s been branded as science fiction (earlier in its life), dystopian future fiction, political fiction, social science fiction.

Sitting here in 2025—some seventy-seven years after publishing—I venture to say that it has never been more relevant a story than now.

And the new documentary presents that story well. (There’s a link to the trailer at the end of this article.)

Okay, so documentaries aren’t always the first thing you reach for on movie night. But trust me: Raoul Peck’s Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5 is different. It’s smart, stylish, and a little bit chilling in the best way. Here’s why you’ll want to check it out:

1. It Feels Weirdly Now
   This isn’t dusty history. Orwell’s worries about truth, lies, and power line up almost too well with the world we’re living in. You’ll catch yourself thinking, “Wait… are we already in 1984?”
2. It Actually Looks Cool
   No endless talking heads here. The movie mixes Orwell’s own words (voiced by Damian Lewis) with sharp visuals, real-world clips, and a moody vibe that keeps you hooked.
3. It Leaves You Thinking
   This isn’t popcorn entertainment, but it is the kind of film that makes you want to text a friend afterward and say, “Wow, we need to talk about this.”

⭐ Bottom line: If you’re in the mood for something thought-provoking and a little haunting, Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5 is 100% worth the watch.
Watch the trailer here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGMEOdPxpWs