Last Day of Quest, 50th of Autumn, 525 M.E. (Electra): How did your quest fare? Every time I go to Publix, the cashier askes me, "Did you find everything you were looking for?" Did you find what you were looking for on your quest? 

According to the Universal Solar Calendar, the First Day of Quest was the 25th of August and we've apparently been on some sort of quest ever since. It's been quite the journey. So much has happened in the past 25 days that it's hard to remember it all. 

I walked a total of 89.27 miles during my 25 days and spent a total of 18 hours in sitting meditation. I had a full physical exam and bought my pass for the 2026 Big Ears festival. But that's just my personal quest. 

Our collective quest, our national odyssey over the past 25 days, was overshadowed by the tragic killing of Charlie Kirk in Utah. I condemn all violence, political or otherwise, and I condemn this particular act of violence. Killing isn't the answer. But strangely, since the shooting, Kirk was been rebranded from a white Christian nationalist firebrand to some sort of born-again evangelical spokesperson who supposedly only wanted to encourage open dialog on college campuses with all views represented. That new, sanitized version of Kirk is a complete fiction - his "debates" on campuses were actually carefully contrived, asymmetrical events designed to generate video clips and memes to promote his extreme right-wing views, and weren't at all intended to give a forum for divergent views, except as an opportunity for Kirk to pretend to debunk them. He'd talk over his debate opponents, ask them non-sequitur questions to throw them off balance, and spew dubious statistics that he had readily available while they were left standing at a microphone looking dumbfounded and surrounded by unsupportive Kirk fans. 

But regardless of the reality of who he was, his martyrdom has transformed him into some sort of latter-day American saint. Flags were flown at half mast, the Stable Genius addressed the nation in a televised speech, and a national holiday has even been suggested. Oklahoma announced plans to put chapters of Kirk's Turning Point USA in every high school in the state to counter “radical leftist teachers unions” and their “woke indoctrination.” Talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel made a most anodyne comment about the shooting on his late-night talk show, but Brendan Carr, the head of the FCC, took offense and threatened to take action. ABC preemptively pulled Kimmel's show off the air but, in the face of overwhelming protest and condemnation, the show was reinstated less than a week later.

Meanwhile, conditions in Gaza worsened for the Palestinians trapped amid spiraling hunger as Israel continued to block aid deliveries. More than 300 Palestinians, including many children, have died of malnutrition, and more than 76,000 people have recently been displaced. Nevertheless, Israel has escalated its attacks, initiating a new offensive in northern Gaza and ordering all civilians to evacuate, and bombing a residential building in Qatar, a U.S. ally, where senior Hamas politicians reportedly lived.

War also continues in Ukraine, where Russia initiated a series of massive drone attacks, targeting mainly civilians. Russian drones were also observed over Poland, and Russian jets violated Estonian air space in a direct challenge of NATO solidarity. The Stable Genius shrugged it off, saying it "might have been a mistake," while surprising the General Assembly during an embarrassingly incoherent and rambling speech by saying he now thinks that Ukraine can win the war and reclaim all of its original boundaries, a complete reversal of some of his previous proclamations. Oh, and he also once again called climate change a "hoax" during the speech.

China bolstered its alliances with Russia and North Korea, staging its most elaborate military parade in years in the company of its new allies to mark the end of World War II. 

Nearly 500 workers, mostly South Korean citizens, were arrested at a Hyundai plant in Georgia by ICE agents. Government officials in South Korea reached an agreement with the U.S. for the workers to be freed and flown back to their home country, but the raid was a huge setback for a major and much-lauded foreign investment in U.S. industry. 

The Stable Genius began using the military to attack Venezuelan ships in the southern Caribbean, claiming without evidence that they were being used by drug cartels. He also announced that the military was going to move into Chicago but backed off, claiming that federal troops would instead occupy Memphis.

Congress released a book that had been prepared by friends of the disgraced financier and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday that included a drawing of a female figure around a script of an imagined conversation between Epstein and the Stable Genius, above what appeared to be the S.G.’s signature.

And such has been our collective odyssey during this quest period. We're witnessing a collapse of ecosystems and strategic alliances, the dismantling of democratic systems and guardrails against corruption, and the rise of a new amerikan neo-fascism. 

That, apparently, has been our quest - to let the world fall apart for the benefit of a handful of ultra-wealthy oligarchs. Impermanence is swift but I never would have guessed I would live to have a ringside seat to the end of our noble experiment in democratic rule by and for the people, that last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams.