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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 18h

Comeuppance: SisypheanComeuppances "My modest contributions don't deserve more than a Sisyphean existence." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story explores a Sisyphean lifestyle where Comeuppance becomes the coin of the realm, and the protagonist chooses to engage in seemingly meaningless efforts.

Comeuppance: SisypheanComeuppances

"I doubt that my modest contributions to literature really deserve much more than a decidedly Sisyphean existence."

Comeuppance doesn’t only occur at conclusions. It often, perhaps most often, occurs as what I might consider to be a lifestyle. Any task unlikely ever to be completed might exemplify this Comeuppance type, for its very uncompleteability might reasonably be considered a Comeuppance. Consider Sisyphus, that mythical king who, having offended some God or other, was sentenced to push a rock to the top of a very steep hill, only to have it roll back to the bottom once he’d successfully reached the top. His work might have been its own Comeuppance. In Sisyphus’s instance, he had no choice but to labor away unfruitfully each and every, literally, god-damned day. Most of the rest of us don’t have nearly as good an excuse for the obviously useless efforts we pretty much insist on engaging in each day. Often, a hobby stands in for formal employment, providing the means by which we might meaningfully pursue what anyone else might reasonably mistake for uselessness.

We should judge the relative usefulness of any effort more carefully, for the usual completion criteria fail to capture some of the more subtle, if even more significant, contributions the dung beetles among us routinely pursue. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Comeuppance: EverydayComeuppance "…bringing no significant alternative meaning to the pre-existing plotline. " Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story focuses upon an EverydayComeuppance rather than anything necessarily Earth-shattering.

Comeuppance: EverydayComeuppance

"…bringing absolutely no significant alternative meaning to the pre-existing plotline. "

A Comeuppance doesn’t require a great calamity to appear. Many, probably most, arrive with little fanfare, more stealthily than those proverbial little cat’s feet, unanticipated and apparently undeserved. These are the EverydayComeuppances, the micro-penances that visit everyone occasionally, eventually. They connote no necessary guilty anything: pleasure, indulgence, or otherwise. They arrive unbidden and probably undeserved, though they rightfully spark a spate of questioning inside their victims, who must, at least for decency’s sake, ask themselves a few troubling questions to at least attempt to confirm that this wasn’t karma visiting to balance some invisible scales, to make certain this Comeuppance wasn’t the direct result of some sin of either omission or commission. Shit does, indeed, sometimes just happen, and the presence of a victim does not now and never has necessarily pointed to any actual crime having been committed. The punishment’s no different in either case, but the guilt sure is.

My latest EverydayComeuppance visited me at approximately 1:34 this morning. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Comeuppance: DreadReconning "…the corrupted performer taking way more than his fair share of our stage." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story speaks to the undermining effect certainty and its accompanying DreadReconning bring to uncertain times.

Comeuppance: DreadReconning

"…the inept and corrupted performer taking way more
than his fair share of our stage."

Over approximately three years in the early 1970s, while I was wrestling to resolve a troublesome military draft problem, I lived every day in dread that I might be spirited away somewhere against my will. I gained Non-military Conscientious Objector status after a lengthy, terrifying process of petitioning my local draft board and appearing before a hearing. I’d thought I’d be assigned to change bedpans for half the prevailing minimum wage in some military hospital somewhere, but I learned no formal process existed for assigning Non-military COs. I was responsible for identifying an available position and convincing the local commanding officer that I was qualified. I was charged with reporting to the draft board’s “evil” secretary (a label I’d given her because I thought her job responsibilities were essentially evil) and showing proof of my attempts to secure an assignment. I wrote letters in my poor, if honest, hand, and dutifully photocopied them as evidence of my diligence. After a few months, the evil secretary confided that I could stop reporting to her each month because I’d demonstrated my due diligence. I still had to fulfill my CO stint, but I never got a response to any of my many letters. Still, I lived in constant dread that I would wake up some morning to find a couple of hostile MPs waiting on my porch to drag me off to my Comeuppance.

Because of my tenuous status, I couldn’t agree to take a permanent job, nor was I qualified to attend school. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

This Comeuppance Story finds my Comeuppances dueling, each seeking prominence. Comeuppance: DuelingComeuppances Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story finds my Comeuppances dueling, each seeking prominence.

Comeuppance: DuelingComeuppances

"…any story that somehow manages to slip out around its edges…"

Most days, I feel as though I’m engaged in a contest of DuelingComeuppances. I feel almost certain that one or more of my activities, probably a combination, will ultimately contribute heavily to doing me in. Yet, I persist, if only because I honestly know no better. I don’t do my best, but I also rarely, if ever, really try to do my worst. I inhabit the horse latitudes of human behavior, experiencing far more calm than storm, with inspiration blessedly rare. I understand that living involves accepting certain complicities, that there never was, nor could ever be, immunity from any inevitability. I lack the vegan’s sincere dedication to any ideology. I soothe myself by insisting that at least I don’t kill my meat myself. Yes, I still feel urpy whenever I pass a feedlot, and likely always will. I am not engaged in any activity intended to reform or improve me. I have been known to drink to excess at times of celebration or sincere heartbreak, neither of which really offers a decent excuse for engaging in such obviously self-destructive behavior. I excuse these and many other personal shortcomings by touting how I no longer maintain any shred of tobacco dependence, but I’ve known the attraction to addiction in my time, and the depression that comes from denying even a perverse desire.

I am learning that Comeuppances are not just passion plays between good guys and worst ones.. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Comeuppance: Nobeled "Those never nominated also receive a prize." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story recounts how unrequited lusts become perfectly crafted self-imposed Comeuppances.

Comeuppance: Nobeled

"Those never nominated also receive a prize."

Be especially careful about what you lust after, for these tend to turn into Comeuppances. Our incumbent has lusted after being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, but has always been thwarted. Though he insists he ended eight wars in the first few months of his second term, maybe ten, depending on who’s counting, the Nobel Prize Committee still hasn’t considered him a serious candidate. One woman who earned her prize the old-fashioned way reportedly gave our incumbent her prize to gain favor with him, a favor that was won but which just as quickly evaporated as he failed to reward her with what she’d probably wanted. The latest winner was announced this week, which prompted a raft of fresh grousing from the general direction of the bathroom just off the Oval Office. He went so far as to declare sanctions against this year’s winner’s former employer, officially treating the International Court of Justice in The Hague as if it were a terrorist organization because it spoke of bringing an actual terrorist to justice. Between all his pouting and touting, Our Incumbent remains unnominated for the one prize he seems to lust after most. This failure to gain his heart’s desire seems like the perfect Comeuppance for him.

And so it might go. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Comeuppance: Self-Generating "Maybe there's always a Comeuppance." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz/files/Self-Generating.php Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story insists that not all Comeuppances are punishments. Some just come with certain territory, inseparable from the primary experience.

Comeuppance: Self-Generating

"Maybe there's always a Comeuppance."

The term Comeuppance suggests two players, one receiving and one delivering, but since I started this series three weeks ago, I’ve noticed that some Comeuppances seem more like the solo variety. At first, this felt like pounding one’s head against that proverbial brick wall, but this kind of Comeuppance doesn’t quite work like that. Some activities just seem to have some Comeuppance built right into them, as if the Comeuppance was an integral part of the experience, cause and effect so tightly coupled as to seem inseparable. I was reminded of this this morning when an old friend texted me that my email inbox reported itself full when he tried to drop me a note. Emails have always been my foil. I have not yet learned how to elegantly manage them, so they tend to manage me, and rather hostilely. I forever lose incoming mail, miss important messages, and get chastised by the sender. The same happens with voicemails and text messages, too; each silently builds a queue until it overwhelms the technology’s capacity to cope. Then an old friend or an upset creditor sends a note via another medium, and a self-inflicted Comeuppance begins.

I have received innumerable lectures on the proper ways to manage my message queues. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Comeuppance: Weekly Writing Summary for the Week Ending 10/08/2026 Thank you for following along! ... Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story contains a summary of each of this week’s stories and a Q & A with my Third Party Perspective Editor on how this week’s writing shaped the emerging Comeuppance Series.

Comeuppance: Weekly Writing Summary for the Week Ending 10/08/2026

This week’s Comeuppance essays move through the series’s darker chambers, tracing the distance between how I imagine justice, mercy, and civic virtue and how I actually practice them. I offer no comfortable resolutions, only clearer maps of the territory where Comeuppance accumulates.

Thank you for following along! ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Comeuppance: ThePeople "We nonetheless insist that this behavior represents a more perfect union." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story covers our founding ambiguity, which feeds our sense of unity and inevitably divides us into We, ThePeople.

Comeuppance: ThePeople

"We nonetheless insist that this behavior represents a more perfect union."

The Founders wisely designated the supreme law of the land they founded as being of and by “We, ThePeople.” Individuals had previously signed the Declaration of Independence, but our Constitution addressed its contents in the name of a more amorphous presence. ThePeople suggests a majority opinion without hinting at any underlying dissent, though we know from personal experience that every law, every statute, was the product of disagreement and debate before ever being approved. Agreement was never the native state of even these United States. We rely on this studied misrepresentation to project a necessary sense of union. Dissent might better describe the advocacy we practice, though every minority, no matter how marginal their actual position, insists that their parochial perspective most accurately represents the opinion and will of We, ThePeople, echoing our founding and preserving ambiguity.

We, ThePeople probably serves as our most enduring virtue signal, for it designates the side where righteousness exclusively resides. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Comeuppance: Stalker "I, of course, know much better at least half the time…" Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

In this Comeuppance Story, I out myself as a fellow Stalker, shockingly similar to those Stalkers simultaneously Stalking me.

Comeuppance: Stalker

"I, of course, know much better at least half the time…"

I hadn’t a clue I was a Stalker, even though The Muse had been steadfastly attempting to clue me in by complaining about my apparent obsession. No, I did not feel especially compelled to write about our incumbent. I honestly felt that I was performing a necessary public service by being a vocal critic. Hadn’t God given me the gift of criticism? What was I supposed to do with that gift, if not exercise it? Yes, vehemently at times, perhaps in tones that might have come across as overly strident. Had he not richly deserved every critique I dealt? Did I not still have the right to say whatever I damned well pleased, even if I also carried an equal and opposite obligation to not always say whatever I pleased in public?

I see now that I had been Stalking, though I still strongly feel that my effort was necessary and well within my rights, since our incumbent had been a public menace. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This Comeuppance Story features the most Paranoid country in the history of this world. Comeuppance: Paranoia Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz...

This Comeuppance Story features the most Paranoid country in the history of this world.

Comeuppance: Paranoia

"I fear we're just investing in an impending Comeuppance instead."

If I asked you to name the most likely outcome from a country being named the most prosperous in the history of the world, I doubt that you would reply, “Paranoia,” yet that’s what we find. We are that country. We could have been recognized as the most generous or the most peaceful in the history of this world, but we aren’t. We aren’t, and we’re slipping further into Paranoia. Congress allocates around 50% of our annual discretionary budget to Defense, though it comprises only about 15% of our overall budget. We spend more on mandatory spending like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, but we also complain much louder about those choices. In some ways, our Federal budget mirrors our society’s Paranoia: we focus the bulk of our spending on ensuring our future security, yet we remain perhaps the most Paranoid country in the history of this world.

What justifies such a self-image? ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This Comeuppance Story wonders what Comeuppance becomes without Mercy. Comeuppance: Mercy Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

$This Comeuppance Story wonders what Comeuppance becomes without Mercy. Comeuppance: Mercy Mercy might represent the most powerful Comeuppance available anywhere, any time, to anyone. It seems to be the absolute antithesis of Comeuppance, though, almost the exact opposite of what first comes to mind when the word Comeuppance comes to mind. I think of vengeance first: swift, terrible swords and harsh words. Mercy seems beside any cogent point at the point of final punishment. Yet the choice remains, whatever the infraction, whatever the sentence, to mete out Mercy instead. But doesn’t that behavior just encourage what Comeuppance intended to discourage? Perhaps. Therein lies a rub. Mercy cannot possibly be a transactional response to any infraction. It might be the very soul of relationality, intent on enhancing a sense of community, just when that was supposed to be beside any remaining point. When I considered whether or not I really wanted to become the monster I intended to punish, when wreaking Comeuppance, I might have been deeply considering taking Mercy on myself first, less an act of generosity than self-preservation. It might be that no punishment ever adequately fits any crime, especially any peacekeeper. In theory, Comeuppance seems quite obvious. ...$

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Comeuppance: Justice "…just a self-proclaimed son of a bitch." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story finds me appreciating our secular religion that was intended to protect all sacred religions: Justice. Yes, it's threatened.

Comeuppance: Justice

"…just a self-proclaimed son of a bitch."

Justice serves as a secular society’s primary religion, for it promotes fairness, ethics, and even morals. It properly seeks to treat everyone fairly and as impartially as humanly possible. It performs retribution when necessary, but also seeks to restore and repair when harm occurs. In any society proclaiming freedom of or from religion, such as ours, Justice might well serve as the bastion defending any individual religion from persecution. In this second- or third-degree paradox, the secular protects the sacred. In an instance where a religious belief attempts to overtake a civil society, which one might reasonably argue describes the MAGA desecration our incumbent has attempted, Justice might reasonably be the first focus of insurrectionists because they might believe it properly threatens any other sacred movement’s dominance. Those who firmly believe, for instance, that these United States should properly be ruled as a White Christian Nation stand opposed to the secular religion that each formal religion’s practice utterly depends upon, be it Christian, Muslim, Taoist, or otherwise. White Christian Nationalists undermine their own insistences without recognizing they do.

Of all the insults visited upon our society by our incumbent and his minions, the assault on our sacred secular religion has proven the most terrifying. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Comeuppance: Trespass "…I might never know what is or isn't." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

$This Comeuppance Story finds me wondering if I must become an equal monster to redress our monster's Trespass. Comeuppance: Trespass "…I will never know what is or isn't." Of all the civil and criminal infractions, Trespass seems the most passive. One need not prove motive to bring charges against a trespasser. Nor does anyone need to prove physical damage, for the very act of presence serves as adequate evidence of the commission. If I “get in your space,” I might violate your subtlest rights, the rights to control your space. The Lord’s Prayer asks for forgiveness for any trespasses committed against us as well as those we might have committed against others, challenging more vengeful notions of jurisprudence, for any decent Comeuppance might well stem from any odd trespass both committed and unforgiven. Comeuppance seems unjustified in those cases where the Trespass was contritely forgiven. “No harm, no foul,” in the popular jargon. This convention suggests that jurisprudence might first demand an absence of forgiveness and, perhaps, at least a little taste for vengeance. Of course, many have characterized this universe as natively dog-eat-dog, with the wronged perhaps perfectly or even imperfectly, but nonetheless justified in pursuing redress to the extent any court might grant it. I am eventually forced to ask myself if I really intend to encourage this dog-eat-dog nature by actively engaging in it. ...$

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Comeuppance: Weekly Writing Summary for the Week Ending 10/01/2026 Thank you for following along! ... Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story contains a handy summary for each of this week’s stories and a further inquiry with my Third Party Perspective Editor on how this week’s writing launched the Comeuppance Series.

Comeuppance: Weekly Writing Summary for the Week Ending 10/01/2026

This first full week of Comeuppance dispatches established the series’ central argument and its range. The writing moved from the hollow irrelevance of unchecked power, through the mechanisms of self-destruction, escalation, and class entitlement, to the quiet devastation of the deep influence of what was never experienced at all. The series opened looking outward at a political spectacle and ended looking inward at a universal, inescapable condition. That arc, from the overt to the tacit, from the incumbent’s Comeuppance to everyone’s, may be the series’s most important early discovery.

Thank you for following along! ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Comeuppance: TacitComeuppance "…those burdens must remain as tacit as any primary experience never chosen." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story considers the weight of choices never taken.

Comeuppance: TacitComeuppance

"…those burdens must remain as tacit as any primary experience never chosen."

I usually think of a Comeuppance as an overt event, an active, observable verb, one of those actions often classified as equal and opposite, a tangible result. But in this story, I want to consider a separate and more common kind of Comeuppance, the kind that, once I mention it, might seem shockingly familiar: The TacitComeuppance. These occur as a result of choices or, perhaps, of events. Because I chose to go West, I tacitly forfeited every opportunity to experience East. That eastern extent of my former possibility, therefore, became forever inaccessible to me. Whether I forewent great good fortune or avoided catastrophe must, then, remain forever unknowable to me, except, of course, through imagination. That road not taken might well take on a mythical magnitude, a sense that it must have been beneficence foregone or a curse, but nonetheless lost.

I experience these as tacit events, if tacit doesn’t render them too indistinct to count as events. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Comeuppance: Jack Smith "what a just prosecution feels like, with a conviction attached" Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story finds me witnessing the start of a possible Comeuppance, courtesy of an unassuming professional named Jack Smith.

Comeuppance: Jack Smith

"Wait until he experiences what another focused, just prosecution feels like, with a conviction attached"

It would not surprise me even a little bit if our over-the-top flamboyant incumbent was done in by a humble civil servant named JackSmith. Anonymity incarnate, a career prosecutorial investigator, veteran of a long posting to The Hague. A man without a political axe to carry or grind, a relative innocent who never lost his faith in truth, justice, or even the recently beleaguered American Way. It will be a very cold day in Hell before anyone successfully tarnishes his reputation. He respectfully declines to be led to slaughter by a hapless Senator out to make a name for himself. He appears with gratitude to report that his investigation, the one that crooked judge in Florida sidelined on party lines, found clear evidence that our incumbent broke the law when trying to overturn a free and fair election, and that he was undoubtedly guilty of multiple felonies, including but not limited to the January 6th attacks on our Capitol. The rest is history.

His testimony came across as absolutely unimpeachable, unlike our incumbent, who appears to have committed more than a few additional impeachable offenses before he was even elected a second time. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Comeuppance: CountryClubCulture "Their Comeuppance has been stalking them for centuries." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story finds Comeuppance stalking the CountryClubCulture, one that once excluded our incumbent until he created a parallel one where he got to blankball aspirants.

Comeuppance: CountryClubCulture

"Their Comeuppance has been stalking them for centuries."

The United States has always been divided by class, if by nothing else. As F. Scott Fitzgerald’s narrator stated in his 1926 short story The Rich Boy, “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” Even if they aren’t really all that different, they certainly seem to want to be recognized as different, as exhibited by what appear to be their obviously exclusionary lifestyles. In every truly prosperous person’s portfolio lurks a country club membership, often treasured as validation of the difference they seem to need to assert so vehemently. Country clubs have storied histories as persistent bastions in overt opposition to any notion of E Pluribus Unum, for they were first and foremost exclusionary. Out of many, a select few were chosen, with a member typically inviting a desirable candidate, and the membership voting on whether to actually allow them in as a member. Historically, Jews, blacks, and other “undesirables” were excluded from consideration. These were originally white, male Christian institutions. Women could join as spouses of actual members. Fees were assessed based on each club’s status. Our local little version is not nearly as exclusionary as it once was, and relies upon self-selection to survive.

Today, anyone willing to cough up the $9,500 initiation fee and $440/month dues for a regular golf membership, with a $60/month food minimum, is welcomed. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Comeuppance: Escalating "Maybe that means that he secretly wants to be sent there too?" Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story finds me reporting on how our incumbent seems to be a master at Escalating before ultimately chickening out.

Comeuppance: Escalating

"Maybe that means that he secretly wants to be sent there too?"

Our incumbent’s Comeuppance seems inevitable because he possesses a single defense, or perhaps that defense possesses him. When faced with even a minor conflict, he always escalates. I do not mean to suggest, by mentioning this fact, that he has not amply lived up to his newly minted reputation as also always ultimately chickening out, but on his way to the henhouse, he tends to escalate whatever tempest he’s stumbled into this time. He seems especially blessed in his ability to attract tempests, so he’s forever producing headlines and sparking provocative commentary. “What’s he up to now?” Nobody seems the least bit surprised when (never if) another controversy emerges, for he spawns them as reliably as a low-pressure ridge produces tornadoes. He might go into business as Calamity, Incorporated if he weren’t already so damnably busy perverting the sacred office of our presidency.

I speak today of his Escalating nature, for his cure for whatever even distantly threatens him always involves escalation. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Comeuppance: SelfSabotaging "Maybe his omniscience amounts to his Comeuppance." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story finds our incumbent SelfSabotaging while unwittingly exhibiting his signature reverse Midas touch!

Comeuppance: SelfSabotaging

"Maybe his omniscience amounts to his Comeuppance."

At some indefinite point, our incumbent became a caricature of himself, an open running joke that he himself never suspected. Oh, his spider senses might have registered his growing unpopularity, but he had never developed the senses to accept such judgments. To him, he was a misunderstood genius, a wrongly maligned savior. He never stopped believing his own propaganda. Comeuppances work like any other experience. They ultimately demand acceptance, but like any difficult-to-swallow medicine, they often spark a process. Disbelief commonly accompanies initial twinges that something might be amiss. Anger might reasonably follow and precede some bargaining, which often feels like negotiating with an insistent demon. Acceptance might follow, but as a practicing malignant narcissist, our incumbent has been cycling through his disbelief, anger, and bargaining stages without seeming to come any closer to exiting into acceptance. His Comeuppance might manifest in just this cycling and end with him never even suspecting that he was never anything but the very soul of accepting.

Advisors and supportive followers eventually come to see the swirling, and they begin their own cycling toward their own unwished-for acceptance. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Comeuppance: Irrelevancies "... just more Irrelevancies pretending they're dancing on that stage." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story reminds me that Irrelevancies might be the most common form of Comeuppance.

Comeuppance: Irrelevancies

"Few will mourn what had already become just more Irrelevancies pretending they're dancing on that stage."

Most presidential acts are destined to become Irrelevancies. Heartfelt proposals meant to transform mostly fall far short of their promise. A few of the least obviously brilliant ideas might eventually morph enough to contribute to making a real difference, but these will largely go unnoticed. The first nuclear reactor accident was not the result of clever technology failing, but of a maintenance man accidentally dropping a wrench: an inadvertence. That innocent incident rendered all the clever safety mechanisms deliberately embedded in the technology irrelevant. Much of what we insist must exist for any society to thrive will likewise probably ultimately amount to simply more Irrelevancies. I might rail about people who wear their pajamas to shopping centers, but I suspect this practice will not ultimately cause the fall of anybody’s civilization. My youthful self would not have believed that I would one day voluntarily submit to vaccinations in the meat department of my local Safeway store, for that would have been unthinkable. When the unthinkable becomes commonplace, old insistences have already become Irrelevancies.

We’re entrained to believe that our President is the most powerful person in the world. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Comeuppance: Weekly Writing Summary for the Week Ending 9/24/2026 Thank you for following along! ... Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The administration that can't seem to administer anything is entirely fictional. Comeuppance: MakeBelieve Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story declares the current administration (that can't seem to administer anything) entirely fictional.

Comeuppance: MakeBelieve

"Our current president only exists in fictional form on some livestream that never was alive, ripening for his Comeuppance."

Donald J. Trump’s second term was almost entirely a fictional affair. This alone explains why it had no central theme beyond incoherence. It was not just that the incumbent was increasingly displaying the effects of his widely speculated prefrontal dementia, something he referred to as “fake news,” but that he lacked coherent purpose. He had no reason even to become president. No agenda. No motive, other than self-service, which had always stood in for his missing character. He recruited an equally unfocused cohort to populate his administration that, unsurprisingly, never once proved itself capable of administering anything. It would have been a complete joke had it not injured real people by inflicting actual damage, much of it inadvertent. It was as if we’d elected a chimp president. He could wear the uniform, albeit cut funny for his figure, but he couldn’t steer anything, much less our ship of state. Anybody could explain his track record by randomly sticking pins into something, drawing the resulting perimeter, and calling it a work of original art. It was all a fiction.

Much of whatever anything becomes results from our own more or less willing suspension of disbelief. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Hush! This Data Center Appreciation Society story examines the Non-Disclosure Agreements often maligned by data center opponents. datacenterappreciationsociety.substack.com/p/dcas-hush

This Data Center Appreciation Society story examines the Non-Disclosure Agreements often maligned by data center opponents.

https://datacenterappreciationsociety.substack.com/p/dcas-hush

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Comeuppance: TheArc "That overlong Arc of Decency will perhaps this time finally inflict his Comeuppance." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/comeuppanc...

This Comeuppance Story marks the first in a new series that will witness what promises to be an absolutely epic Comeuppance of the most deserving incumbent in the once-proud history of our Presidency.

Comeuppance: TheArc

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"That overlong Arc of Decency will perhaps this time finally inflict his Comeuppance."

Twenty-one months ago, on the Winter Solstice, anticipating the inauguration of who, I felt certain, would prove to be the worst President in the history of our country and probably in the history of this world, I began writing a series I entitled NextWorld. In it, I reviewed a few of my memories from his forgettable first term and speculated on how those patterns might manifest during his second. He seemed no less malignant than he had been through his first attempt, and I had no good reason to expect he wouldn’t be worse through his second. I needed reminding because I had reset into a contented complacency through Biden’s Presidency. I know that many seemed deeply dissatisfied with Biden’s performance, but their complaints seemed petty to me after observing his predecessor’s turn. I was preparing myself for an eclipse, where a reliable sun would be overshadowed by forces far more malignant than any moon.

I took no pleasure in this exercise. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Prosperity: ProsperityLost "Prosperity always returns with renewed vengeance." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story, the final installment of this series, speaks of ProsperityRegained, even though I entitled it ProsperityLost; a purposeful paradox.

Prosperity: ProsperityLost

"Prosperity always returns with renewed vengeance."

I lost my Prosperity the same way Milton described Adam and Eve losing their paradise, for neither event ultimately amounted to much of a loss. I could consider them each a trade, and perhaps, even a fair one. Eve ate of the apple of the Tree of Knowledge, a decidedly good decision if only because it assured that she’d never be a dumb broad (excuse the pejorative). Adam, when confronted with the choice between abandoning his true love to lonely exile or accompanying her, chose to take a bite of Eve’s apple and trade his physical paradise for a more mobile emotional one. True, both traded infinite goodness for the vagaries of finite existence, but they gained considerable plot momentum in the process. Imagine where literature might have matured from a world consumed by unending sameness. In retrospect, if not in prospect, their ParadiseLost was an infinite emotional gain: true love.

When The Muse and I entered exile, seventeen years ago this year, we similarly forfeited our own hard-won paradise. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Prosperity: ProsperityMachinery "…the least of what every Prosperity demanded in return." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story, the next-to-last in this series, examines the nature of the Machinery Prosperity depends on. Largely invisible when it's working properly, it can be troubling when encountered.

Prosperity: ProsperityMachinery

"…the least of what every Prosperity demanded in return."

Prosperity requires a vast company of supporting characters. It’s neither an island nor an isthmus, but an integrated element within recursive layers of ecosystem, some of which we’d really rather not acknowledge. If living requires some level of complicity, Prosperity seems to demand an even greater involvement in operations no sane person would ever volunteer for. Such seems to be Prosperity’s price. It’s not just laziness that insists we compromise ourselves in these ways, or convenience, for much of what our grandfathers never needed to consider has become essential to maintaining the Prosperity we’ve grown more than merely accustomed to. Many of these compromises—if, indeed, they can still be properly considered compromises—arise from genuine improvements which always bring along some number of unwanted externalities. The Villa Vatta Schmaltz had no indoor plumbing or electricity when it was built in 1907. This must be why the bathrooms are anything but spacious and inconveniently located. The upstairs bathrooms began their lives as a sleeping porch.

Much of the ProsperityMachinery we so utterly depend upon stays comfortably invisible to our daily lives. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Prosperity: Pwospwairatee "… I might reasonably thrive on a few of my more reassuring misconceptions." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story confesses how little I understand about the subject after more than thirteen weeks spent considering.

Prosperity: Pwospwairatee

"… I might reasonably thrive on a few of my more reassuring misconceptions."

Now, after thirteen weeks spent considering Prosperity, I am realizing just how immature and generally juvenile my conception of the subject had been. I remain largely ignorant of it, since simple consideration rarely yields wisdom; more likely, dissatisfaction. Confessing my ignorance probably produced no more than negative knowledge, certain aversions as opposed to mature understandings. I might be little better for the effort, though I suspect I might possess a better appreciation of the depth of my former misunderstanding. It will likely be a life’s work to recover and construct much better than I’ve already grown too accustomed to. I don’t have all that much life left now.

At least I know that my Prosperity was never my possession. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

This Prosperity Story considers Prosperity's essential NonBinary nature. Prosperity: NonBinaryProsperity Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story considers Prosperity's essential NonBinary nature. It does not thrive on either/or controversy, but demands both/ands.

Prosperity: NonBinaryProsperity

"…grateful we can actually employ our old, reliable Walla Walla Way."

True Prosperity might be NonBinary, defying specific classification. It seems to be anything but all-or-nothing, eschewing either/ors in favor of some flavor of both/ands. It tends to smother under clever definitions, and might sometimes even be mistaken for degradation. Environmentalists often get sideways with Prosperity because they treat externalities as if they define an entire context. They seem to entrap themselves too easily in impossible imperatives, casting themselves as the only noble ones and defending traditions nobody else seems to fully appreciate. They perceive change as degradation and stasis as somehow possible in a world that’s necessarily either economically expanding or contracting. Those pursuing Prosperity must remain mindful, too, of the environmental stewardship every development demands, though they risk being cast as an adversary to apple pie when they suggest that perhaps a diet of both butter and guns might be necessary and not impossible or necessarily degrading.

Our controversies devolve into strict dichotomies these days. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

.Prosperity: Weekly Writing Summary for the Week Ending 9/17/2026 Thank you for following along! ... Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story contains a handy summary for each of this week's stories and a further inquiry with my Third Party Perspective Editor on how this week's writing promoted the Prosperity Series.

Prosperity: Weekly Writing Summary for the Week Ending 9/17/2026

This week’s Prosperity dispatches arrived as the series entered its final approach. The writing ranged from the historical accounting in Legacy to the nonlinear economics in Cascades, from the paradox in Unsecurity to the epistemological honesty in PresumptiveProsperity, from the anthem in ScaryProsperity to the quiet triumph in Restoring. The Muse walked back into her garden. The pickup toodled out to the farm market. The mechanic wouldn’t take a nickel. In these final installments, the series found that Prosperity naturally expands beyond its originating boundaries—and that might be all it ever does.

Thank you for following along! ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Prosperity: Restoring "Restoring Prosperity properly refocuses its inherent potential." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story considers Restoring ProsperityLost.

Prosperity: Restoring

"Restoring Prosperity properly refocuses its inherent potential."

“Please return your tray tables to their full upright position.” This common command stands here as the simplest example of Restoring. What was undone might be redone. What seemed irrevocably lost might be capable of Restoring, if not itself, then, perhaps, a successor or substitute. ProsperityLost might serve as the first move in a cyclical pattern of Restoring Prosperity again. I will pine after an exact replica of whatever I lost, even though Restoring that might well shortchange me. I rarely imagine replacing it with something better than whatever I lost. This amounts to an aspirational affliction, perhaps due to a faulty imagination, or maybe I simply imprinted on that ProsperityLost so the loss became my Prosperity, at least temporarily; plenty of nothing beats nothing left at all.

Six weeks and change after The Muse broke both ankles, her osteopath released her from wearing the boots that stabilized the broken bones. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The genuinely scary prospect of realizing Prosperity on an unimaginable scale. Prosperity: ScaryProsperity Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story speaks to the genuinely scary prospect of realizing Prosperity on an unimaginable scale.

Prosperity: ScaryProsperity

We stand on the precipice of the greatest discoveries in the history of this world so far. How could it possibly be otherwise, as we stand here with all of human history receding behind us? This might be why every day seems so imperiled right now. With the promise of even modest Prosperity, externalities seem to become more prominent. We see mostly downsides and forget how fraught every prior radical improvement initially seemed. There were always naysayers; they often even dominated whatever discussions surrounded the emerging opportunity. Remember, most Americans were Tories during the Revolution. If people had been able to access their druthers, they would have probably passed up every opportunity to rewrite history, preferring to stay home, however uncomfortable, over dangerous exploring and potentially discovering great good fortune. Prosperity in the past has often come into its futures kicking and screaming bloody murder.

How embarrassing when the future dawns brighter than anyone ever imagined it could be again. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Prosperity: PresumptiveProsperity "…Prosperity stands in good company because of this." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story asserts that all Prosperity must at root be Presumptive. Not one of us actually understands.

Prosperity: PresumptiveProsperity

"…Prosperity stands in good company because of this."

I have a physicist friend who seems to hold vast amounts of arcane knowledge. He can pull full-blown proofs out of seemingly non-existent air. He often corrects my misconceptions, and I never fail to find fault with myself then for not having accumulated what he considers casual knowledge, but then we held different foci both in our choice of professions and in our personal lives. It was a wonder we ever encountered each other, given how different our worlds seem. We have each retained our grounding orientation, though we agree on more than either of us probably had any right to anticipate. We are vastly different and also quite disarmingly similar. As a result, we are quite compatible.

I remember the first time I encountered the kind of knowledge the world might expect me to retain. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Prosperity: UnSecurity "Trying to buy security with Prosperity yields neither." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

For those of us who have been feeling guilty about losing our Prosperity, this story explains why there's never any possible defense against Prosperity's many enemies.

Prosperity: UnSecurity

"… and they usually cost much more than Prosperity ever bargains for."

Our Prosperity was never really secure. Its security was usually merely presumed, for there could never have been an adequate defense against its many enemies, and it always had its enemies, many of them. It survived, while it survived, as a matter of apparent grace, without coherent explanation. It came, but was always capable of leaving or, more likely perhaps, of being snatched away for no apparent reason. There were always those who insisted upon assaulting any decency, as if their special gift was the superpower to sour others’ experience. They were always trouble, and everyone knew they were or would be real trouble before their story ended. They were often just jealous, envious of others’ apparently better circumstances, angry at themselves for where they landed, but also at least equally angry at others for prospering. It never made sense to assault themselves, though they were capable of severely wounding themselves and would wound themselves on occasion, but continuous self-destruction makes little sense, even to almost complete idiots. Regardless of the defense erected against such forces, Prosperity would often lose, especially on the first round or two, though it would always retain an ability to recover and renew. It mostly made no sense to maintain a robust defense, since it could eventually renew and recover infinitely as it wished. Prosperity was always persistent.

A piece of Prosperity’s perversion insisted that we needed to maintain a more active defense. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Prosperity: Cascades "We seem at least obligated to deal with this world as it is,…" Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story describes what we experience as magic: Prosperity rushing down a narrow ravine, like a series of Cascades.

Prosperity: Cascades
"We seem at least obligated to deal with this world as it is,…"

Economics works in mysterious ways, and doesn’t always seem to work at all. Prosperities can rise and fall with startling speed, partly because they do not move linearly. Both Prosperity and penury can fool the eye that expects straight-line predictability. Both require systems thinking even to begin to comprehend, and even then they might still seem mysterious. Ruinous change can seem to occur faster than instantly, especially for those who can’t register nonlinear variation. Beneficial shifts can occur just as seemingly erratically, probably because both Prosperity and Penury tend to operate as Cascades. Their values do not travel via thin, straight wires, but through wilder splashes, as if they were water racing through a rocky ravine. So much apparently random variation litters their courses that accurate prediction seems unlikely, if not impossible. This might be why they both just seem to happen.

Accounting for both Prosperity and penury might be best attempted after the fact, once a period of insulating time has passed. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Prosperity: Legacy "This will be the work by which future generations will judge patriots." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story foreshadows the end of this series and the reparations we will be required to pay to all those our government illegally arrested, incarcerated, and deported. Regaining our Prosperity Lost should properly cost us more than the Marshall Plan did.

Prosperity: Legacy

"This will be the work by which future generations will judge patriots."

With fewer than ten installments of this Prosperity series remaining, I start foreshadowing the ending here. I must have explained the process by which I intended to consider Prosperity in this series, a method I might label Dialogic. Rather than start with the ending in mind, I began with questions, honestly intending to inquire, then inquire again, following the story however it seemed to unfold. This tactic might explain the winding pathway this series must have seemed to have been taking. I began each writing session a little bit baffled about where the unfolding story might lead me next, for in this type of analysis, the subject guides the writer rather than the writer crafting the plot. The plot emerges, and the writer trusts that it must. This writer chose, day to day, so only in that way did I influence the resulting flow. The storyline has emerged from the process rather than the process or the author guiding it, so I have not employed foreboding until now, and not only because I couldn’t have known enough about where the Dialogic method would lead me, but also because foreboding couldn’t have served any possible purpose if my purpose was genuine discovery. But we both know an end seems near now, and we both wonder where this expose might be going.

It has been demonstrating its Legacy with every installment. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Prosperity: Weekly Writing Summary for the Week Ending 9/10/2026 Thank you for following along! ... Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This Prosperity Story considers the pillars supporting Prosperity: Innogrance. Prosperity: Innogrance Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story considers two crucial pillars supporting Prosperity: Innocence and Ignorance: Innogrance.

Prosperity: Innogrance

"Who knows where this game of Prosperity goes next?"

My sense of Prosperity seems to depend upon two critical, if rarely deliberately acknowledged, resources: innocence and ignorance, in some proportionate mix: Innogrance. Some of my sense of Prosperity certainly stems from what I do not presently know or even suspect, an innocence. It just never occurred to me to consider that stuff. The rest of my sense of Prosperity might reasonably stem from my ignorance. Had I known how to create the Prosperity I presently enjoy, I doubt that I would have managed to produce anything close to what I have experienced. Prosperity seems to be one of those states that require some blind backing into rather than clever forward strategy. Sure, strategy, however clever, might well contribute its share, but Innogrance seems responsible for producing the balance.

This balance seems just as delicate as you might suspect. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Prosperity: TheApneas "…the promise to be rid of something that's only present by the evidence of its absence." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story considers a prominent first-world Prosperity problem, one defined solely by evidence of its absence: TheApneas.

Prosperity: TheApneas

"…the promise to be rid of something that's only present by the evidence of its absence."

As I recounted in my ADecentNight story, posted as a part of my Decency Series, both The Muse and my internist have been after me to volunteer for a sleep study at our local sleep center. They suspect, on scant evidence, that I might “suffer” from a condition they call Sleep Apnea, a condition in which I cannot quite muster a belief. I find TheApneas, as a class, to represent the most interesting category of human difficulty, because they are defined as the presence of the absence of something. This formulation makes my head ache, so I avoid thinking about it very much. Even when I think about it, I make no headway toward understanding or acceptance because its very definition seems entirely paradoxical. I’m left failing to interpret a calculus with nothing more powerfully interpretive than my usual meager long division. Further, if found to be “suffering” from this apparently imaginary disorder, the treatment involves being sentenced to wearing essentially a vacuum cleaner over my face, in lieu of sleeping. How such a nightmarish treatment might cure something that, by definition, exists only by not existing, deeply baffles me, and should.

I suspect that TheApneas qualify as first-world disorders. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Prosperity: SlipperyProsperity "I tolerate working harder for it than it ever seems to work for me." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity identified two kinds of Prosperity: sticky and Slippery.

Prosperity: SlipperyProsperity

"I tolerate working harder for it than it ever seems to work for me."

Prosperity seems to exist in two distinct forms: Slippery and sticky. Sticky seems to be the more noun-like of the Prosperities. These might serve as outward manifestations of Prosperity possessed, though they can be misleading, as appearances are not always what they seem. Many of the Prosperities seem slipperier, either because they have no physical presence or because their presence simply seems far less apparent than their sticky counterparts. The art we display on our walls, and the books we so proudly exhibit on our shelves, serve as prominent examples of our sticky Prosperity. Indeed, our very home, The VillaVattaSchmaltz, represents probably the stickiest Prosperity we possess, though, yes, it sometimes seems as if The Villa possesses us more than we possess it. Either way, its presence seems inescapably sticky.

Much of The Muse and my Prosperity was never reducible to mere possessions, however grand those might appear, for our underlying Prosperity seems decidedly less sticky than art, books, or address. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Prosperity: NotInsurance "…Prosperity is NotInsurance, and never will be." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story appears to remind me and you that our Prosperity, regardless of how secure it might make us feel, never was and couldn't possibly ever be insurance.

Prosperity: NotInsurance

"…Prosperity is NotInsurance, and never will be."

Prosperity spawns predators and pretenders. As medical insurance became more available, so-called “medical cards” emerged to serve those still frozen out of insurance markets, especially for prescriptions and dental services, which are often the most difficult kinds of insurance to afford. To this day, Medicare offers nothing to cover dental expenses, which often peak after one retires. Prescription drug plans have also become notorious for becoming worthless just at the time someone might actually need to rely on them. So, a ready market always awaits some latest scam. Our conservative friends and enemies have been most active in this shadow market, pushing plans that appear to supplement missing elements of seniors’ coverage, but which tend to promise more lavishly than they ever deliver. In recent years, states, which regulate insurance markets, have begun demanding that these alternatives to insurance coverage be clearly labeled, “This Is NotInsurance,” though these warnings make little difference to those without viable alternatives.

Make no mistake, this is not an insurance company problem, but a public policy one. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Prosperity: CreatingWorlds "…inevitable complications always present when CreatingWorlds." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story finds me and the Muse CreatingWorlds, and a fresh Prosperity in the process.

Prosperity: CreatingWorlds

"…inevitable complications always present when CreatingWorlds."

The kitchen smells yeasty, like bread dough with a distinctive fruity backdrop. The scent hovers below overwhelming, still subtle but inescapable, reminiscent of the underlying fruit, but distinctly different. I mentioned to The Muse, as we stirred the pots containing fermenting Mirabelle plums, that I felt as though I was getting to know this fruit far better than I ever had before. Before, we’d rendered it into jam or tarts, or simply consumed it fresh; we saw only its very narrowest representation. After picking it this year, I pitted the fruit and set it out to slowly and quite deliberately rot, rendering its sweetness into alcohol and thereby Creating Worlds that didn’t exist before. This ritual might be as old as civilization, for Mirabelle plums have probably always produced exponentially more fruit than anybody could consume fresh. Ruled by the inexorable laws of Late Summer, the fruit’s natural yeasts and sweetness would set it to festering without any human intervention. Over millennia, a process of sorts has emerged that we can use to do what nature, left to her own devices, could have accomplished unassisted.

I suppose that just these sorts of activities once regulated the civilized world. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Prosperity: Blooming "… an opportunity to prosper inevitably presents itself as a different-shaped guitar." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story finds its purpose lurking in a differently shaped guitar.

Prosperity: Blooming

"…to identify an opportunity to prosper when it inevitably presents itself as a different-shaped guitar."

Prosperity seems to come and go on something akin to Sandberg’s little cat feet, though everyone who ever owned a cat, little or otherwise, knows just how loud their arrivals and departures can sound. Our cats, Max and Molly, hit the floor with a distinct plop so far from stealthy that nobody can smell stealthy from there. They proceed to march down the upstairs hall, for they most often come and go via a second-story window they access by climbing up the back trellis and storming up the kitchen roof. I hear each footfall as they “creep” down the stairs, and can audibly follow their progress through the front hall and the dining room, even though both rooms’ floors are covered with shock-absorbing vinyl planking, before taking their final launch up and onto the kitchen table, where they hope I’ve left them some kitty treats. I usually have. These cats have learned that their Prosperity reliably exists on the kitchen table, and they are not the least bit shy about directly pursuing it there.

My Prosperities do not seem to come so reliably or noisily. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Prosperity: Weekly Writing Summary for the Week Ending 9/03/2026 Thank you for following along! Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story contains a handy summary for each of this week’s stories and another inquiry with my Third Party Perspective Editor on how this week’s writing furthered the Prosperity Series.

Prosperity: Weekly Writing Summary for the Week Ending 9/03/2026

This week’s Prosperity dispatches arrived in the shadow of ExistentialDread and emerged into AutumnRains. The writing ranged from the clinical precision of CTSD to the paralyzing honesty of ExistentialDread, from the epic sermon of ReClaiming to the procrastinating wisdom of WithoutHeadlights, from the philosophical revelation of Thawing to the portrait of Prosperity as AutumnRains. The AutumnRains arrived. The Mirabelle wine processing began. The Muse showered and then slept in her own bed for the first time in six weeks. The series found, at last, that Prosperity might be a more or less continuous Thawing — neither liquid nor solid, but mist.

Thank you for following along! ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Prosperity: AutumnRains "I revel in my AutumnRains' reappearance." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

In this Prosperity Story, Prosperity returns with the AutumnRains.

Prosperity: AutumnRains

"I revel in my AutumnRains' reappearance."

Moisture well represents our Prosperity here in this desert steppeland, now trying to pass for Middle American town and pasture. It is beautiful here in springtime when this valley could pass for Ireland, after the Winter and Spring wheat conspire with the Canola to turn the late summer beige stubblefields into a checkerboard of Prosperity after the Winter rains, fogs, and snows have left our soils saturated. This country fasts through its Summers, often seeing no more than passing hints of its Prosperity through June, July, and August. It always feels dicey, as if we might not make it through to the AutumnRains each year. My friend Randal reports that he measured the driest August in at least the prior ten years, with only +.07 inches of SummerRain registered against -4.94 inches of evaporation. Through summers, we typically lose more moisture than we gain, straining our conviction that we didn’t really choose to live on the edge of a freaking desert. I keep my yard Middle American New England emerald, just the way God never once intended.

The AutumnRains return— if not precisely reliably, then inevitably—and they arrive like Prosperity returning from another harrowing Hero’s Journey. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Prosperity: Thawing "…neither liquid nor solid, but mist." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity... And, follow me on BlueSky: @pureschmaltz.bsky.social

This Prosperity Story finds me Thawing after feeling frozen in headlights without any headlights present. I suspect Prosperity might sometimes freeze, then thaw, depending on a sense of possibility.

Prosperity: Thawing
"…neither liquid nor solid, but mist."

A surprising period of Thawing typically follows one of my frozen-in-the-headlights-without-the-benefit-of-headlights experiences. Whatever had so effectively inhibited me from engaging dissipates. Not all at once, and never quite completely, but a few openings appear out of what had previously seemed like blinding, inhibiting, frozen mist. I climbed the ladder. I harvested the fruit I’d feared I’d left to rot. My world seemed to right itself, or at least start moving in that general direction. Moving! I accomplished something! I once again sense that I possess actual latitude for action. I feel capable of choosing, at least on a limited basis. I can choose, then I can choose again, and I recognize the fundamental cycling that underpins my Prosperity; for what was Prosperity if not the sense that I might choose more or less freely, that I was less imprisoned in my world than I was an intermittent master of it.

I first sense a loss of Prosperity as a limiting of choices. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Prosperity: WithoutHeadlights "…teetering on the edge of some tragic change in fortune..." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

In this Prosperity Story, I catch myself doing deer-in-the-headlights one better, for I often find myself frozen WithoutHeadlights to blame.

Prosperity: WithoutHeadlights

"…teetering on the edge of some tragic change in fortune if I cannot get this tendency under better control."

I heard myself proclaiming that I have been doing that fabled deer-in-the-headlights reaction one better, for I’ve been frozen as if caught in headlights on a dark forest road WithoutHeadlights present. I suspect that this reaction might not be classified as a talent, though I also imagine that it might, like deer’s reaction to bright lights, offer some evolutionary benefit, or used to offer one, before cars made such interactions dangerously commonplace. I can’t tell which of my native responses to such perturbations are positive ones and which might be more dangerous, though I carry opinions. I usually feel guilty when I notice that I’m frozen WithoutHeadlights again, as this must be a snowflake’s response signifying something shameful. I imagine myself more powerful, and capable of shrugging off most threats, though in real life, my vulnerabilities continually surprise me. I occasionally qualify as a superhero, but fleetingly, and only ever in my own mind.

This passing summer has been a struggle for me. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Prosperity: ReClaiming "What begins as slander always eventually ends as ashes..." Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story finds me contemplating the epic poem this time will most certainly inspire, for we are in nearly desperate need of heroes bent on ReClaiming ProsperityLost.

Prosperity: ReClaiming

"What begins as slander always eventually ends as ashes,
once the epic heroes show up to ReClaim their birthright."

We live in a time that might have been specifically designed to spawn one of those immemorial epic poems. Ours would be known as ProsperityLost and written by someone hopefully far more secular than Milton and less reckless than the probably apocryphal Homer. Ours would be no less epic, however, for we lost something far more precious than even a biblical Paradise or an ancient Greek empire, for our Prosperity had the decency to aspire without explicit expectation that it would result in any physical manifestation. We were free to believe without regard to the likelihood that any of us or our progeny would ever really realize the promise, yet that promise held. Hell, it was born self-evident! With it, we could succeed as a mere matter of birthright or adoption, for we were largely, by design, a nation of immigrants, citizens by some designation superior to race, creed, or even religion. We shared a dream of Prosperity rather than any individual lording over any other. We aspired to equality rather than any dominion over.

The enemies of this curious state were with us from before the fabled American Revolution, in which a minority asserted rights no nation had ever once guaranteed before or had any idea how to uphold. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

... we complied as if hypnotized. Prosperity: ExistentialDread Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story describes the effect our adolescent incumbent hoped to induce in the Prosperity he and his MAGA "supremacists" had always been so envious of. Their success always depended upon the Prosperous experiencing ExistentialDread, and we complied as if hypnotized.

Prosperity: ExistentialDread

"…will this just become another excuse in the already overlong list of reasons why I can't have the Prosperity I once believed I deserved?"

One sure sign that Prosperity feels threatened comes when a persistent ExistentialDread descends. Periodic ExistentialDread offers no real information about the present or future, for these come and go as an inescapable part of any aware existence. To exist has always been to sense threats to continuing that existence, and, as long as these remain intermittent, they offer no real threat to anything, let alone existence. These come as more or less wake-up calls, increasing awareness of the inescapably temporary nature of all existence, of which human existence has never served as any exception. In some ways, intermittent dread serves as a gift. It can sharpen focus and reawaken a lost sense of urgency or significance. Love seems to flourish with a touch of dread in the mix since it can reassert the importance of assertion itself, reminding one that they’re more isthmus than island and should find reasons to appreciate sustaining relationships. But when the Dread turns Existential, and moves in claiming it holds a long-term lease, hinting at permanent residence, Dread’s few benefits quickly evaporate into much worse than nothingness.

The certainty that ExistentialDread brings remains just as illusory as any other certainty in this existence, but it carries a uniquely threatening gravity. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Concomitant Traumatic Stress Disorder. Prosperity: CTSD Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

This Prosperity Story speaks to the trauma that causes damage before it's past, while it continues to inflict, complicating any response: Concomitant Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Prosperity: CTSD

"I dare not wait until this insult ends to start taking better care of myself."

Traumatic Stress Disorders do not necessarily wait until a trauma passes. The overly popular Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was very likely first experienced in its Concomitant form, while the trauma was still present. Trauma sows enough confusion that it’s often extremely difficult, if not absolutely impossible, to reflect upon the unfolding experience in the moments it occurs; hence, the much more common recognition of PTSD than its CTSD, Concomitant Traumatic Stress Disorder, predecessor. Trauma seems to be so busy winding up my spring that it might be relatively easy to overlook its presence. Sure, it’s upsetting, but what isn’t? In the moment, it often seems as though the stressors must just be passing through me, transitory upsets apparently leaving little lasting damage. Later, though, Post the Tramatic Stress, Disorders might emerge without having a clear or present cause. Then they can be confusing, as someone clearly not presently threatened by anything starts behaving as if under active siege. Then, if at all, the stories might begin to reemerge and some sense-making might start occurring.

If the trauma lasts longer than an episode or two, it seems probable, if not certain, that some more permanent wounding might be occurring. ...

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PureSchmaltz @pureschmaltz.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Prosperity: Weekly Writing Summary for the Week Ending 8/27/2026 Thank you for following along! ... Find the rest of this Story on my PureSchmaltz Blog: www.projectcommunity.com/PureSchmaltz... Or, find it in my PureSchmaltz Substack Library: davidschmaltz.substack.com/p/prosperity...

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