I'm in Saudi Arabia and just spoke with an American man who lives here but grew up in Arizona and lived in Dallas for a time. Yes, this world is small. There's also a man next to me who breathlessly stumbled onto the plane with mad eyes and tangled hair. His whiskey snores are puttering from his exhausted mouth, and he's spilling into my seat.

The empire. It rules with a hard fist. It dominates and conquers. It grows and produces; it lives and lives on. Every year there's a new harvest, but the worst storms never bring famine. Hunger maybe, but only for a time. Resilience is a powerful soil.