In fact, do not read Kafka even if you’re not depressed . . . because if you’re not, and you do, you soon will be.
Franz Kafka (1883-1924)
I was thinking yesterday about my idyllic summer of 1991 in Prague, which is when — along with the incredible history, architecture, culture, food and beverages of Czechoslovakia (now Czechia, or simply the Czech Republic) — I first became interested in the writings of Franz Kafka, perhaps the most famous of all Czech writers.
I wondered at the time how anyone who only lived to the age of 40 could have sunk so deeply into despair as to produce such dark, often dystopian works of fiction as “The Metamorphosis” and “The Trial” . . . until I learned that his writing was most heavily influenced by Dostoevsky, Nietschze, and Poe — great writers all, but not exactly uplifting.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
And today of all days — when many people are already suffering from an annual case of post-holiday letdown — I should have known better than to go searching for a quote from Kafka. But, perversely, I did it anyway. What I was looking for was actually something to do with thoughts of the future, in keeping with the approach of a new year. But what I found instead were these:
“I write differently from what I speak, I speak differently from what I think, I think differently from the way I ought to think, and so it all proceeds into deepest darkness.”
“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.”
“I have spent all my life resisting the desire to end it.”
. . . and, just for kicks, his immortal:
“The Meaning of life is that it stops.”
“Good grief!”
While I hesitate to approach the end of the year on such a demoralizing note, it has, after all, been the shittiest of years; and so it’s probably a suitable choice . . . in a rather dystopian, Kafkaesque way.
Perhaps I’ll have something a little cheerier tomorrow . . . say, from Eleanor Roosevelt, or Erma Bombeck. In the meantime, I’m . . .
Habits of a lifetime can be difficult to break. And for an unrestrained, obsessive-compulsive, avaricious, power-mad narcissist, there wouldn’t be any reason to bother trying, because their ingrained sense of entitlement would never allow them to consider that they might be less than perfect.
Take, for example, a person whose entire life has been spent acquiring things: childhood toys, then cars, houses, businesses, real estate, wives, unlimited amounts of money. It’s easy to understand how, in extreme cases, such an individual might lose the ability to accept the fact that there are limits to what is, or is not, acquirable.
And we are all well acquainted with one such individual, who has clearly lost sight of the fact that even he cannot have everything simply because he wants it.
“That’s a lie, you #*^&%$# loser!”
It could be argued that he already has everything: enormous wealth, position and ultimate power — and that there is nothing left for him to aspire to. But to an acquisitionist (if there is such a word, and if there isn’t, there should be), there must always be something else. Even his name on the Kennedy Center, a $400 million ballroom, and a ridiculous new class of battleships named for him are apparently not enough to slake his thirst for more.
Because now he is going after entire countries. He has periodically set his sights on Panama, Canada and Greenland, but hasn’t taken concrete steps toward achieving those goals . . . until recently. And Greenland turns out to be his first target of choice.
Continuing to insist that the United States absolutely needs — and has some sort of divine right to — possession of their land, their resources, and their people, he reiterated, in conjunction with his announcement of the ludicrous battleship project, that:
“We need it for national protection. We need Greenland for national protection. They have a very small population and I don’t know, they say Denmark but Denmark has spent no money there with military protection. . . . They say Denmark was there 300 years ago with something with a boat but we were there with boats too, I’m sure.” [Alan Herrera, Comicsands.com, December 24, 2025.]
Okay, where do I begin? With the fact that the United States did not exist as a nation 300 years ago? Or is it too much to hope that Trump might, just once, get his history and his math straight?
Actually, yes, that sadly is too much to hope for. So let’s go directly to the 57,000 people of Greenland.
Greenlanders are citizens of Denmark and of the European Union. They don’t want to be part of the United States. Period. They have made that abundantly clear numerous times, including during the diplomatically disastrous visit of J.D. Vance in March of this year, when he was met by anti-US demonstrations.
And then there is something called a legal issue. Greenland, while mostly self-governing since 1979, remains an autonomous territory of Denmark, which has responsibility for the island’s defense and foreign policy. And Denmark isn’t selling.
So what does Trump do? He appoints a “special envoy” — Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry — to Greenland, causing Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, to summon the U.S. Ambassador to discuss the matter. And on December 22nd, Rasmussen issued a statement saying that Landry’s appointment clearly indicates that Trump is still trying to claim ownership of the island — which, of course, would include its vast natural resources — and adding:
“We insist that everyone including the U.S. must show respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark.” [Kim Hjelmgaard, USA Today, December 22, 2025.]
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen
To which Trump responded on social media:
“Jeff [Landry] understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World.” [Id.]
Not to mention those rare earth elements, numerous minerals, and reserves of oil and gas waiting to be tapped. Let’s not forget those.
But Greenland is not a commodity to be traded on any stock exchange. It is a country — around 836,000 square miles of land (about three times the size of Texas), some 57,000 human souls, and a proud history of its own. Trump may covet it, because it is indeed strategically located and rich with natural resources. But that doesn’t mean he has a right to grab it.
Recently-appointed head of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission Thomas Dans — an investor, professed Russia expert, and MAGA political strategist — wrote about Landry on WhatsApp:
“Governor Landry and Louisianans supply an exceptional base of knowledge and experience across the global stage. Energy, infrastructure, tourism, shipping and trade are all priority areas for our future relationship with Greenland.” [Id.]
Thomas Dans
Well, that’s just great. But can’t all of those priority goals, as well as a military presence, be attained by means of trade agreements and treaties? Do we need to bully our way in?
Unfortunately, when the occupant of the Oval Office is a professional bully, this is what happens. And the US risks losing another close ally . . . and likely any hope of accomplishing our actual security goals in the area by friendly, diplomatic means.
As Foreign Minister Rasmussen said in a broadcast on Denmark’s TV2:
“I am deeply upset by this appointment of a special envoy. And I am particularly upset by his statements, which we find completely unacceptable.” [Billy Stockwell, Betul Tuncer, CNN, December 22, 2025.]
And Greenland’s Prime Minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, added that, while the territory was willing to cooperate with the US and other countries on the basis of mutual respect:
“The appointment of a special envoy does not change anything for us. We decide our own future. Greenland belongs to Greenlanders, and territorial integrity must be respected.” [James Landale and Rachel Hagan, BBC, December 22, 2025.]
And that should be the final word . . . but will it be?
Well, here we are. Christmas is behind us once again, except for the tasks of finding space for all of the gifts and disposing of the wrappings.
And as we look forward to the end of a monumentally difficult year and the start of a new (and hopefully better) one, I find the perfect sentiment for today to be one expressed by the late essayist and author Susan Sontag:
“I want to make a New Year’s prayer, not a resolution. I’m praying for courage.”
Susan Sontag – 1933-2004
I suspect we could all use an extra helping of that.
The December holiday season — encompassing Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, and the countdown to a brand-new year — is a time when we turn our thoughts to giving . . . giving of ourselves to those closest to us, and often donating to those around the world whom we’ve never met but who are in dire need.
And thus I have found it oddly appropriate to share with you this tale of perhaps the ultimate giver: Russian-born, exiled billionaire entrepreneur Pavel Durov . . . and why he made me think of the legendary “Johnny Appleseed.”
John Chapman, a/k/a “Johnny Appleseed” (1774-1845)
Though “legendary,” John Chapman was a real person. Born in 1774 in colonial Massachusetts, he developed an early interest in conservation that led him to a career as a nurseryman, and to the discovery of a means of growing trees from apple seeds rather than the traditional grafting method. He introduced his methods to the far-flung areas of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, and even the Canadian Province of Ontario, becoming a folk hero who earned the nickname of “Johnny Appleseed,” and inspired the creation of numerous poems and songs in his honor.
Pavel Durov, on the other hand, probably doesn’t give a great deal of thought to trees. The creator of the original VKontakte (now simply VK) social networking service in Russia, he fled his native country to escape pressure from the Kremlin to reveal confidential information about his clients. Settling for a time in France, he turned his talents to the new network we now know as Telegram. He holds multiple citizenships and spends most of his time in Dubai; his net worth has been estimated by Forbes at $17 billion.
So, other than inventiveness and perseverance, what do these two men — from different centuries and different lands — have in common?
Well first of all . . . look at their pictures.
Pavel Durov (1984 – present)
Now, that’s just eerie!
But setting aside the doppelgänger effect, these two men share another common passion: procreation. Johnny Appleseed grew trees from apple seeds; Pavel Durov grows children from a whole other kind of seed: his endless supply of human sperm.
Durov is a passionate advocate of pronatalism: a movement that has been likened to a rebirth of the theory of eugenics (selective breeding). Sometimes dubbed the “Russian Elon Musk,” he is said to have fathered 100 biological children across 12 countries by means of in vitro fertilization (IVF).
A Gathering of Musks
But unlike Musk — who boasts of having convinced multiple wives and girlfriends to become the “baby mamas” for his estimated 14 offspring, and actually takes an active part in their lives — Durov does not know the recipients of his largesse. His first donation occurred around 2010, when he helped out a friend who was having difficulty conceiving a much-wanted child. He later had the idea of providing his supposedly “high-quality” genetic material to others, in an effort to reverse the trend of a decreasing world population . . . and to help create a race of physically and intellectually superior — and, not incidentally, white — Homo sapiens.
Durov is busy operating his business interests and dealing with his legal problems in France, and apparently no longer has time to spend in that private little room doing you-know-what for the future benefit of mankind. But when he fled Russia, he left behind sufficient sperm, safely frozen, with a Moscow fertility clinic known as AltraVita. The clinic now advertises — on its website, on social media and news sites, and at conferences — that it has Durov’s “biomaterial” available for free IVF treatment of qualified women . . . meaning that they also must be physically and intellectually superior.
A former doctor at the clinic said:
“The patients who came, they all looked great, were well-educated and very healthy. They wanted to have a child from, well, a certain kind of man. They saw that kind of father figure as the right one.” [Sam Schechner, Daria Matviichuk and Thomas Grove, Wall Street Journal, December 22, 2025.]
AltraVita IVF Clinic Website
I’m not sure that “father figure” is the right description of someone the children will never know, but nevertheless . . .
Now Durov has generously offered an added incentive to those women who may be hesitating to undertake an IVF protocol for financial reasons: in addition to covering the cost of the IVF treatments, he announced in a podcast with Lex Fridman in October that his biological children could each receive an equal share of his inheritance:
“As long as they can establish their shared DNA with me, someday maybe in 30 years from now, they will be entitled to a share of my estate after I’m gone.” [Id.]
What a guy! There are others — some of the wealthiest and most influential men in the world — with a similar interest in producing as many little likenesses of themselves as possible . . . even to the extent of using genetic testing and experimental gene splicing. But I haven’t heard of any of the others offering the possibility of future inheritance. (Not that there’s any guarantee of fulfillment of that half-hearted promise from Durov, “someday maybe in 30 years from now.”)
*. *. *
Aside from the ethical questions that have always surrounded the concept of selective breeding in humans, my first reaction to Pavel Durov’s story was:
“WTF??!!!!”
“Selective breeding” is how we pair race horses to produce winners, cows to supply us with high-quality milk and beef, and dogs to take Best of Show at Westminster. Is it also how we want to produce our next generation of children?
For those of you who are too young to remember him, ask your parents or grandparents, or Google him. Sorry to say, you missed a lot by being born so late.
Bob Hope was an incredible entertainer — stand-up comic, song-and-dance man, actor — and a true humanitarian. For half a century, from 1941 during World War II, to Desert Storm in 1991, he spent every Christmas with America’s troops stationed overseas, together with his wife Dolores and a retinue of stars from Hollywood and the music industry.
Bob Hope, entertaining the troops overseas at Christmas
And this is how he summed up the meaning of Christmas:
“My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?” – Bob Hope
Disproving the old saying that the good die young, Bob lived 100 years; Dolores made it to 102. They were married for 69 of those years.
Bob and Dolores Hope
And that, to my mind, is how you keep Christmas . . . every day, your whole life long.
I’ve decided the news can exist without my commentaries for a couple of days while I give my mind and soul a holiday break from the mayhem. But I can never remain entirely silent for long, and so I’ve gone in search of some appropriate words for the time of year that is supposed to bring us peace, love, and hope for the future.
And I found the words in, of all places, a thought from that most joy-stealing evildoer of all . . . the Grinch himself:
“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas … perhaps … means a little bit more!” – Dr. Seuss: “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”
Regardless of our individual religious beliefs, there is something magical about this season: the lights, the music, the gatherings of family and friends . . . and the genuine desire to do something special for others, both for those we know and those we’ve never met who may be in need.
That spirit shouldn’t come to an end when the year does. This year especially, which has been so difficult for so many, we need to carry the love and hope with us into 2026, to make it a better year for all.
And, if I may be permitted one more quote . . . from that other reformed grouch, Ebenezer Scrooge, who perhaps said it best:
“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” – Charles Dickens, “A Christmas Carol”
On September 11, 2001, the United States — the country that had always been the first to jump to the defense and aid of others — was itself devastatingly attacked by foreign terrorists, resulting in the horrific deaths of some 3,000 innocent people.
New York City – September 11, 2001
Suddenly, the free world rushed to our side, there to return the decades of kindness we had shown them. Because we were the good guys.
And we “good guys” were there for each other, offering, at the very least, moral support to those who had lost loved ones and friends on that dark, oddly sunny autumn day. We rushed out to buy American flags of all sorts — big ones to drape from our flag poles or balconies, small ones to wave from our car antennas, and tiny ones to pin to our lapels.
In our grief, we resurrected a song that had been written and recorded by American country singer Lee Greenwood in 1984. It became the anthem of the day in the wake of inconceivable tragedy; and it is stuck in my head now, as we suffer through the slower, more drawn-out, even more demoralizing agony of an internal attack on democracy itself.
And I wonder: Why aren’t we listening to Lee Greenwood now? For those too young to remember the events of 9-11, let me remind you, in part:
“If tomorrow all the things were gone I worked for all my life, And I had to start again With just my children and my wife,
I thank my lucky stars To be living here today, ’Cause the flag still stands for freedom And they can’t take that away.
And I’m proud to be an American Where at least I know I’m free, And I won’t forget the men who died Who gave that right to me, And I’d gladly stand up next to you And defend Her still today, ’Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land. God Bless the U.S.A.”
– Lee Greenwood; copyright Peermusic Publishing
We should be gathering together again, as we did in 2001, and shouting his lyrics from the rafters — only this time shouting, not at Middle Eastern terrorists, but at the White House, the houses of Congress, and the Supreme Court. At the Departments of Justice, and Defense, and Health & Human Services. And at anyone and everyone who doesn’t truly love and honor the America that has stood for a quarter of a millennium as a beacon of light and hope and freedom to the world.
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