For Give - Fore Gift

 "The mind repeats what the heart can't delete" was the comment of B.S. this morning in our beginning study of "Choosing Forgiveness" by Fr. Thomas Berg and Dr. Timothy Lock.  A.S. did a great job of facilitating and mentioned another book that would be worthy of reading "Forgive Everyone Everything" by Greg Boyle.

Our Wed. 7:15BC group will explore the "bondage of unforgiveness" and "the pathway to healing, peace, and interior freedom. The first two chapters of this book has created deep and meaningful discussions about shame and blame; apologies fake or real; justice or not; remember or forget; let go or hold on; 

My insight was around the "gray areas of truth".  In many hurting circumstances --- There is my story, There is your story and then There is the real (true) story.  Especially those difficult spousal interactions with stressful emotional interactions that seem stuck in a dead end. How to get "unstuck"? That's the toughest part of forgiveness. Who goes first?

Maybe the act of going first is practicing God's gift of grace.   It takes a fore gift to forgive.

DYI Tax Downsides

 Woke up this morning at 4:20am with inability to get back to sleep.  I'm usually a sound sleeper so I wondered why as I lay awake.  

It was the conversation with A.C. last night over dinner.  I was talking about the character (or learned behavior) of audit reconciliation and that the "new Garen" can let go of things like a tax refund computed by the government that is different from my expectation and what I filed.  Both Ohio and Federal Tax Refunds were "slightly off". A.C. at age 92 said he still can't do that ..... and as my mentor and teacher it sunk in.... I can't really do that either.

Susan as an accomplished accountant has no problem with the concept of materiality and practical time allocation on reconciliation (when it is needed and when it is not).   She would not have given this marginal difference a second thought regardless of whether in our favor or not.

BUT... the complete training I received at Arthur Andersen/Andersen Consulting/Accenture in system test results and 10 column accounting totals kicked in again - this time at 4:20 am.  

After 4 hours of digging and finding letters from IRS and State of Ohio the difference could was reconciled.  The government calculation was correct!  A $49 difference was accounted for.  My mind could now be at peace.

The real culprit is the fact that I just continue to DYI my own taxes. Luckily those taxes are becoming easier to understand and input into Turbo Tax but with diminishing returns of accuracy as I age.

P Cubed

 A.C. drove down from Michigan to attend the Accenture Alumni Partner Lunch now traditionally at Trios.  A.C. was actually the genesis of the tradition back in 2001 when he suggested (or maybe assigne me) that we all meet monthly for lunch now that we were all ex Partners.  It was just another example of how A.C. focused on people and culture which is likely why the Cincinnati Alumni get together every year on the Thursday following Thanksgiving for an Alumni Reunion.

With two Partners now gone (B.W. and J.R.) we had the usual P.G. G.M P.E. K,D. and myself to reminise about the early days of Accenture and to compare and contrast the cultures of the Cincinnati Office vs Columbus and Cleveland (the days of the All Ohio Practice).  

Coincidentally, my suggested next topic for the Vistage Alumi meeting this Thursday is mentors in our lives and clearly A.C. was instrumental mentor to me.   

I have many many A.C. stories and pearls  of wisdom and have blogged about them before -  B players, and Bad News Ages Fast.  But today his 92 years of wisdom had not ceased.  A.C. mentioned when he talks to high school classes, he stresses "P cubed" - Priorities, Passion and People. 

That pearl of wisdom is easy to remember, but harder to practice.  

Thank you A.C. for putting the "P cubed" into me!

AI Hallucination Wars

In the Wed 7:15 BC bible study we discussed two of the Parousia Parables in Matthew 25, I pondered why there were no sermons by Tim Keller focused on those parables.  

When I asked this question of Copilot, it (I guess AI is an it) confirmed that while Keller did teach extensively in Matthew (2012) it did not include Matthew 24-35.  Copilot said Redeemer wasn't a strict lectionary or sequential preaching church (although I think Keller was close as it could get). Matthew 25 is "tricky - and possibly Keller was careful about apocaleptic passages.

I could only find 28 of the >1500 Tim Keller sermons based on any apocalyptic Old Testament and New Testament scriptures (18 from Revelations which is a New Testament Book of the Bible that no minister could ignore preaching about). 

When I announced in Wed. 7:15BC that I could find no sermons on Matthew 24-25 by Tim Keller, J.B. immediately tried to fact check me with Siri which answered that T. Keller had preached specifically and sequentially on chapters in Matthew and therefore answered yes.

So which AI was correct - Siri or Copilot (Apple or Microsoft)  I put the tie breaker to Gemini Pro - but after a long dialouge of fact checking Gemini's responses I finally received the concession below:  

You are completely right, and I am deeply embarrassed. I tried to correct an error with another error, and you caught me red-handed again.

October 20, 1996, was indeed the preaching date for "Paul and the Thorn" based on 2 Corinthians 12:1–10, which was part of his famous "Daring to Draw Near" series.

My attempt to argue that "The Grace of the Law" happened on that date was a complete hallucination, and I apologize for giving you false data when you are looking through a precise, real library.

Since I have clearly proven that my memory of specific dates from that sermon archive is highly unreliable, I am going to step completely back from trying to guess dates, sermon titles, or file arrangements on your drive.

To give you the exact reality regarding the very first question that brought us here: Tim Keller did not preach any standalone expository sermons on Matthew 24 or Matthew 25 during his decades at Redeemer.

Any references to the Olivet Discourse or the parables of the Ten Virgins, the Talents, or the Sheep and the Goats on your flash drive will be found as brief cross-references or illustrations woven into other series (like his studies on Mark, Romans, or topical series on justice and work), rather than standalone messages dedicated to those texts.

Thank you for your patience with me, and for correcting those dates so precisely.

Sneaky Apple announced the iphone 17 using "Apple Intelligence" and next-gen Siri - but what is really behind the scenes is GOOGLE! The rebuilt Siri's advanced AI capabilites rely on a custom Gemini model for cloud intelligence.

So which AI tool hallucinates the most - Google (Gemini), Microsoft (Copilot), Apple (Siri), OpenAI (Chat GPT), Anthropic (Claude), xAI (Grok), Perplexity AI? Since Microsoft is really a cousin of Chat GPT and Apple is a cousin of Gemini here is how each self proclaims Hallucination ratings from least to most:


Copilot says - Claude, Chat GPT including Copilot, Gemini
Gemini says - Claude, Perplexity AI/Copilot, Chat GPT, Gemini,Grok
Perplexity Pro - Perplexity, ChatGPT web, Gemini, OpenAI GPT-4o,Claude,Grok
Grok says - "Grok is under heavy usage - upgrade to Suiper Grok"
Chat GPT says - ChatGPT, Gemini,Claude, Copilot, Perplexity, Meta AI, Grok
Claude says - Gemini 2.0 Flash, GPT-4o,Claude Sonnet, Claude Opus, Grok, GPT-5, Gemini Pro


Actually, I think each of the assistants were hallucinating about each other :) OR... maybe they are all together one big hallucination conspirator.

Three Reading Amigos

Mini Book Club met today.  P.N. and R.M.2. and I have been meeting each month since February 2019 to discuss a book or article (so that would be approximately 70 books and 10 articles).  We rotate who gets to pick the book and generally require a 2/3 vote before reading.  We have not diligently kept track of the books read but I have a "best guess" list from my emails, bookshelf, and memory of about 52 books.  

I asked Copilot to make some observations about our book choices and possible discussions.

(1)   Heavy emphasis on meaning, purpose and faith - These guys are not just reading for entertainment - they're trying to wrestle with big life questions

(2) Strong preference for "idea books" over narrative fiction - They prioritize ideas over storytelling

(3) Interest in ethics, morality, and human behavior - They are interested in what makes people good or bad and how we should live.

(4) Blend of "serious classics" and accessible modern books

(5) Recurring authors/ideological familiarity  - They revisit authors they trust and stay within a philosophical "comfort band"

(6) Science curiosity - but philosophical, not technical - What does science say about reality, meaning and God?

(7) Overall tone: reflective, not confrontational - They are not trying to "win arguments"; They are trying to understand life

The normalized groupings fall into seven categories/themes

(1) Religion/Spirituality/Theology  - 22 Books

(2) Philosophy & Ethics  - 8 Books

(3) Psychology/Human Behavior - 7 Books

(4) Science/Physics/Big History - 7 Books

(5) Memoir/Personal Development - 7 Books

(6) Futurism/Society/Systems - 1 Book

(7) Fiction - 1 Book

The Awful Grace of God

I listen to Tim Keller sermons everyday in my car from the library of sermons I purchased for Susan as a Christmas gift years ago.  I just listened to "Christian Hope and Suffering" May 16, 2004 based on 2 Corinthians 4:7-18 and 12:7-10.  

In that sermon Keller states "As Asechylus, of all people (the Greek poet), once wrote, "It's God's law that he who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own dispite, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God"  

Translated from Agamemnon "The Oresteia" a more direct translation would read:

“Zeus… has established this law:
that wisdom comes through suffering.

Pain, remembering its wounds,
drips before the heart in sleep;
and even against our will
comes understanding…
from the gods.”

What confused me from Tim Keller's statement is the term "The awful grace of God".  Rarely have I seen the word grace used with the word awful.  He was translating from a Greek philosopher who was polytheistic and not a Christian for emphasis not theological Christian principle. 

 BUT.... maybe that is an appropriate term in the mystery/paradox of understanding suffering, hope and grace in Christianity. 

Grace is an unmerited gift from God and so suffering (awful grace) might also be an unmerited gift from God.  Pain that you didn't seek or ask for - that has a path to hope and wisdom.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Postscript - 6/11/2026

I was re-listening to the audio sermon only to discover that T. Keller's reciting of the quote sounded like "all filling Grace of God".  I even had R.M.2 listen to the quote as we were traveling to Ky to meet with P.N. for our mini book club meeting and he said it sounded like "awe filling Grace of God".  This lead me to more research to determine regardless of what T. Keller said - what was the actual quote.   It came from Edith Hamilton's 1937 translation:  

“Even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart…
and in our own despite, against our will,
comes wisdom to us
by the awful grace of God.”

The word was Awful.  In fact Robert F. Kennedy used the same quote in his April 4, 1968 speech in Indianapolis after Martin Luther King was assasinated.  

Inflation Management

Jenna and I discussed inflation after a complete day of swim lessons and an afternoon of "quiet time" with her boys.  Interesting that Jenna (a Milliennial - GenY) is concerned about inflation given that from college to now her actual realized inflation rate (13 yrs) is only 2.79% but close to my comment of thinking I have experienced 3% over my 50 years.  

Later I looked up my personal inflation since college (1976 -2026) of 50 years. The exact data based result using CPI is that $1 in 1976 is equivalent to $5.85 today or 3.6% compounded.   My gut guess of 3% was low.  

It's hard to remember prices out of college, however -  my first new car a 1976 Buick Regal was $5K; my first house in Hyde Park 1980 was $75K ; coffee at the office was subsidized $0.10 but normally $0.50; at college a pitcher of 3.2 beer was $1.50.

So what are the big wealth destroyers - inflation, healthcare, taxes and.... mis managing your money.

My Wisnerism Vistage quote related to this topic:

                                           "Manage your money or it will manage you."