This week, the release of the Epstein files led to a conversation I never expected to have—one with my son.

As he asked questions, I felt a quiet sadness rise in me.

How is it that I even need to explain to this young man—who means so much to me—that such things exist in our world?

I was trying to stay informed, so I began researching—and then I stopped.

It was too much. I know my limits.

That pause led me to an important question:

How do we stay informed and act as responsible members of our community without subjecting our minds to things that distort us?

Here’s what came to me.

I don’t believe we live in a perfect world, or that there aren’t people who do horrible things.

Ignoring that would be irresponsible—and can even perpetuate the very harm we claim to oppose.

At the same time, I also know that what took place here does not represent the average human being.

I’m not interested in studying how low the human race can go, but quite the opposite—who we can become.

The fact that this crosses political and cultural lines keep us from pointing fingers and maybe helps us to truly address what happened here.

There will always be men and women whose lives are so empty—despite money and power—that they chase the next stimulation because they are not settled in their hearts.(This happens to poor people also.)

Somewhere along the way, they weren’t truly cared for—not materially, but emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

Or they simply were never taught to care about something deeper than their own pleasure, popularity or power

That kind of inner poverty can lead people into places and behaviors they never imagined.

Am I 100% certain about every detail? No. I wasn’t there.

But it is, sadly, a familiar human story for some broken people.

If there is anything sobering here, it’s this: money, pleasure and power do not solve the problem of meaning.

If anything, they expose its absence.

For anyone who still believes that a little more money would finally fix their life, this is a hard but necessary reminder—money is needed, but it cannot replace actually living.

More than anything, I pray for the victims, and that something like this never happens again.

When my son and I talked further, I told him plainly: this is not the world I choose to live in.

I encouraged him to guard his mind—not by ignoring this, but by choosing where he places his attention.

I shared what I learned from Viktor Frankl, who taught that freedom always requires responsibility.

Without a worthy purpose, we distract ourselves with pleasure and drift into meaninglessness—sometimes with devastating consequences.

I told him to take his life seriously.

To know that God has a purpose for him.

And that purpose will always involve some form of service—not because we are forced into it, but because it is a great honor.

A person truly living their meaning could never deliberately harm another human being and still be aligned with their highest potential.

If I had one wish, it wouldn’t simply be that justice is served, but that those responsible would be forced to truly face the pain they caused—and that we would understand how they participated in such things, so they never happen again.

Until then, I will continue to study what a human being can become.

It’s interesting that we fast-track technology, artificial intelligence, and convenience, yet we remain strangely primitive when it comes to developing the full capacity of the human heart.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once wrote,

“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”

I'll reword that in saying after we have mastered all technology and automated all we could that we will finally get serious of loving each other and living from our hearts instead of just our heads and the world will evolve in an unimaginable way.

So, if all of this is a bit much for you, I understand but do not lose hope.

Keep your focus on your purpose and becoming who you really are.

This is not only possible for each of us but necessary.

All the best,

Bert