Bob Schwartz

The mad frenzy to rename waters around the U.S. continues. An attempt was made to start calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Now Lake Ontario has been “renamed” Lake America. Soon maybe the Great Lakes will be called the Great American Lakes. (I know, don’t give anyone ideas.)

The oceans on both sides of the U.S. may be next. But there is a problem. The obvious initiative is to call each ocean the Ocean of America. But that would obviously be confusing, like having two streets with the same name.

The simple solution: Name one the Ocean of America and name the other the Other Ocean of America. In the image above, I have put Ocean of America on the Pacific, but there is no reason it can’t be the other way around.

Speaking of naming, I want to include a musical moment. Not quite Shakespeare (“A rose by any other name’) but a good point:

You call it rain
but the human name
doesn’t mean shit to a tree
—Eskimo Blue Day, Jefferson Airplane

© 2026 Bob Schwartz

In one of the most significant exchanges in religious history, it is reported that after the Buddha’s enlightenment, he was asked who he was. He simply replied, “I am awake.”

Trying to make “woke” a pejorative is crazy. Not crazy like a political and ideological fox, just bonkers. No matter the party or philosophy, from the White House on down, everybody wants to wake up each day, and wants those they love to wake up each day. The opposite of waking up is not waking up, and that is not what we want.

What is actually meant by the charge of “woke” is related to the Buddha’s expression. It is an accusation of being enlightened, of seeing others, all others, no matter their identities and origins, as worthy of our active care and concern. Since this is a Christian, not just a Buddhist message, it is inconceivable that so many are sworn enemies of “woke”. Not to mention that all of these anti-woke people really do want to wake up each day. Instead of the alternative.

© 2026 Bob Schwartz

I’ve occasionally designated and declared various years and months to be dedicated to important causes. Very informal, unofficial declarations, since I have no authority or platform to direct or realize those declarations. Just this blog.

A few weeks ago, I declared the upcoming Jewish New Year 5787 (time flies!) as the “Jewish Year of Compassion”. Reconsidering this declaration–once again, very informal and unofficial–I’ve determined that the declaration should read “5787: Year of Jewish Compassion”. Every writer and editor will recognize the subtle nuanced torture of word placement, particular in a phrase four words long.

For now, and for what it’s worth, it is declared that the upcoming year 5787 that begins on Rosh Hashanah (evening of September 11) is the Year of Jewish Compassion.

For JDS with love

I had a recent conversation about coin flipping.

Tom Stoppard’s earliest of many great plays is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The title of the play is taken from a line in Hamlet, in which these characters play a small part in the greater drama. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are minor players in Hamlet, but the Stoppard version makes them the main focus.

The play begins with their betting on flipped coins. The unlikely result is that coins always turn up heads. They discuss this seeming anomaly, not completely understanding, nor understanding that the small part they are playing in the drama will result in their death.

Probability is a funny thing. Over many flips, we say the chances are that the number of heads and tails will be about equal, 50/50. But seemingly unlikely, it could be heads every time, since on any one flip, the chance remains 50/50. Stoppard makes this point funny, as is the play, but also a profound truth in the lives of the characters and in our lives.

I’ve written multiple times about randomness. Randomness and probability are siblings, maybe twins. Two sides of the same coin. I’ve pointed out Gregory Bateson’s saying that for him, a random number table is at the heart of his holy of holies.

The significance of probability stretches from the Bible to AI.

The Bible begins with a scene of chaos, a universe of randomness. People, pre-Bible and now, want some order and predictability. So the very first event in the Bible has God bringing order out of chaos, out of tohu and bohu.

AI operates on principles of probability. In that it operates not unlike the way that people also generate information, only from greater knowledge than most and more comprehensively and quickly. Though, as it has become obvious, not always as creatively.

We live with randomness, no matter how much we believe that absolute order and predictability can be imposed. God may be able to eliminate randomness and chaos in the Bible, but we can’t. Knowing the limits of probability means knowing the nature of reality, our reality.

Flip a coin.

Threats, lies, bullying, beating another party to death is not negotiation. Which explains the long list—a lifetime—of failed Trump negotiations, as a “businessman” and as president. Lose-lose describes many of these deals. The latest is the abandoned attempt to reach a trade deal with Canada, with Canadian retaliatory tariffs now about to be put in place, and with most Canadians, looking at their former North American friends, and saying they don’t need and don’t want the products America has to offer.

This all gives “Art” a very bad name.

Many are feeling dislocated and lost right now. Even the rich and powerful may look around at all the gold they have attached to every available surface in their house and still feel dislocated and lost.

I think about what simple single solution there might to all of the challenges we are currently facing. Not surprisingly, there isn’t one.

But there may be simple help for that feeling of being dislocated and lost in all this.

Most days I place a mat on the floor, place a cushion on the mat, and sit on it. I meditate, but what I am saying here is that you don’t have to.

All you have to do is get a mat and cushion, place them on the floor, and sit. No special position or meditation needed. Just sit there, for however long you are comfortable. This is your place, right there, right now. You are not dislocated or lost because, to repeat, you are right there.

What you do and say and think after that sitting is entirely up to you. Hopefully you are not feeling as dislocated and lost, but maybe you are, for a little while, or maybe for the rest of the day.

But for a moment, there is a place for you, a place you sat and can sit again. Your place.