Vapor looked concerned at the picnic table. There was a light fog in the air as the big Cold Front comes in behind the almost-normal mid-December temperatures. Last weekend there was a pleasant feel on the patio and extended one of the Happy Hours into an evening of seasonal. Merriment completely unpredicted. Like tomorrow.

That is where the Morning Meeting got a little complex. Israel’s air force carried out about 300 strikes in Syria in the early hours of Tuesday morning- that would have been just as the waxing brilliant moon hit the West Wing of Big Pink, which was a handy way to say it was time to start getting organized for the evening routine, put the cork back in the Sailor Jerry and post the rough for the Daily to deal with tomorrow, which of course is now today.

That occupied some of the subsequent conversion, interrupted by other things like coffee and scheduled medications. With the assistance of both, we are starting to get a grasp on the Syrian thing. We had not followed the internals due to the iron grip of the Assad family, but it is wild now. The Iranians and the Turks are in it up to their necks, of course, and there is the new violent religious zeal that adds to the drama. So, we needed help in trying to figure out what this meant about the other stuff, the bloody grinding conflict in Ukraine and the new emerging issues in the Indo-Pacific.

Which naturally nestled with the call DeMille got. It was from the Chairman, who had talked to an old and trusted comrade, who had been tapped by one of his old and trusted buddies about somebody else. Which could mean a series of job changes of temporary but real significance and a lot of excitement and drama in the next few years.

These things used to be ‘news.’ Now it is local and poignant.

Ignacio is one of our sectional Creative leads with a regional emphasis. His proper name is Castilian, or was, but his group of Boomers carries the old Squadron call-signs to the logical conclusion. His name, in proper Espanyol, means “Fiery.” Or, by implication, one who sets things alight with the bright flame of reason.

But that was too metaphoric for daily use and he goes mostly by the handle ‘Nay-Show,’ pronounced in a manner run together so it doesn’t sound negative.

He takes pride in the history of his Hispanic family’s entry into America, which was second, if you credit indigenous people with being the “first.” It gets complicated after that with some of the Italians and Irish reaching for something on the floor next to their chairs. Natio has some perspective on the relatively recent America adventure as a global leader and our anxiety about whether or how to maintain it. He has had a merry time of late, since he is the only one of us that has a real and visceral connection to some of the mysteries.

He is summarizing some of that for a project he is doing, so we have agreed only to capture some of the emotional stuff, like the importance of Mount Hermon in a place that if it wasn’t the locus of some fiery drama for the last couple thousand years would look like San Diego. You know, Damascus.

That is the way this day is lurching into motion. It is Advent, and those in the Creative Section have representatives from the three Patriarchal traditions and two Indo-Pacific faiths, so we try to balance the values of the four-week Advent season. That is how the discussion about Mount Hermon came up in the context of the Golan Heights and the topography of some terrain on which several of the group had planned strikes with differing systems for differing reasons.

This one, at the moment, regards Israeli-annexed territory. The long, north-south extended bulk of Mount Hermon, a raw and brown Massif like the Borrego Mountain East Butte. We used to look that way from the patio at La Quinta, the grill in Chula Vista when we were down at the Wildlife Reserve by the Bay downtown in San Diego.

Like the Hebron Massif, it could strategically dominate the region and its crucial transportation networks joining two nations and access to a vast ocean. Damascus is less than 40 east from the heights while the west slopes gaze down on south Lebanon where there could be patios as nice as the ones in Coronado or Point Loma and the key Bekaa Valley.

There was a competing story about some local items, which may run as a “special edition” later. It features the story of an advertising agency that just joined to form a creative influencing operation now valued at something like 5% of the entire US Defense Budget. Without having to produce anything like weapons and training and ammunition and pensions. Just pictures and words. Here is that header:

They talk about something called the “weaponized government.” It really more universal than that, you know?

We were supposed to talk about Advent, or at least make a reference, but there is enough flying around about the reflective preparation for the nativity so we will let those topics sort themselves out externally. This week, we concentrate on hope, with peace, joy, and love in order as we get through the full moon and onto the celebration of God’s love for us all.

It is a little like looking up at Mount Hebron from Damascus, you know? If it was with a mai tai, relaxed on the lanai, looking up at the mountains to the east.

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