Dear Son,

I apologize for the long day in writing. But as I advised over the phone, things were quite busy in New York, and your mother and I made out trip up north to Boston the last week of March. We are back home safe and sound. There is no place like home. But we had a great trip and it was seeing Boston again. We had plenty of good food, walked a lot as we saw the sights, and talked with a lot of interesting people, many of whom migrated to Boston from other parts of the country. Of course, your mother told me to take it easy with my Yankees motif and I did behave myself. But my Yankees will always be number one over every team! How are you doing these days? How’s the Golden State?

Oh yes I did see the news about the bank closures. Scary times kid and I hope what we have seen is not a premonition of what is to come. However, it should be a warning that no country is immune to financial crisis, even America. If we do not pay attention, it could turn into our Achilles heel. Besides the lost currency, the closures also erode public confidence in banking institutions and more people will be reluctant to use banks. For the average person, the bank is fine as the accounts are insured, but for major players, tough decisions will have to be made.

Your brother and sister are good, already making plans for the summer season. Jax is great, enjoying his life as a cat every day. We bought him a new bed which has all sorts of additions to give him the ultimate nap, but he prefers to hijack my chair in the living room. Your mother has warned him that the floor will be his only option. She talks tough but the two of them will end up in stalemate.

You are a brave soul following your mother on Tik Tok, but if the Government has its way, that app might be going the way of the dinosaurs. Congress dragged its CEO to Capitol Hill and the grilling wasn’t pretty. We’ll see what happens next but I shudder to think how your mom will respond if they do block it. It will feel as if someone pulled the rug out from under her feet. And she’ll resort to invading my free space again which means we’re guaranteed to buy something we don’t need. Good idea to keep the devices at bay, nothing is worth our sanity. Life is too short kid. And nothing can replace being outdoors with fresh air and beautiful weather. Have you tried hiking anywhere yet?

I do believe technology can go too far. I’ve seen the advance of artificial intelligence and I hope we can keep a hold of it. But if we don’t, we can’t blame anyone but ourselves. Chat GPT is scary and both a blessing and a curse. While I appreciate the intelligence behind it, the platform has enormous implications, some of which we may not understand just yet. Exactly how powerful it is may not be fully understood. Further, if we remove the initiative for us to think on our own and brainstorm, that spells doom for a lot of industries.  The Terminator was fiction, but as has been noted, there’s always a bit of truth within fiction. Depending on what happens, the future might become scarier over time. But don’t forget to maintain your own independence and never become a slave to the machines, they are supposed to work for you at all times.

Like California, people have left New York too. The reasons are not surprising as the cost of living and quality of life issues are what usually make people leave places they’ve lived in. Here, the crime, subways, and extremely high cost of living is affecting so many people. I wonder where does it end. The State is now focusing on places outside of NYC for affordable housing to be built, but it won’t be easy and I expect ugly political battles to erupt over it. But is it a housing crisis or an affordability crisis? Perhaps both? Regardless, more people will have to adjust and make big moves in order to maintain financial stability. It’s nothing new and happens all the time, but the way housing prices have skyrocketed should have Washington alarmed. No matter what Son, keep budgeting and placing your money in places where it works for you. And always have savings in case you need it.

MH370 is still puzzling. The official story holds due to the “debris” that washed up on shore. My issue is that the rest of the plane never surfaced so if it did break up, I would expect more items such as luggage, personal items and other parts of the aircraft to have lifted to the surface but that did not happen. We do know it did not crash immediately after communication was lost and continued flying. I can only speculate what took place aboard the plane but I never felt it was an accident but rather deliberate actions. As to why, me may never know. Without the black boxes, it may remain a mystery forever.

This letter is a little short but I’ll have more to write soon. Stay safe and write soon.

Love, Pop.