You’ve probably seen a house of cards. Some people can make amazing structures out of simple playing cards, leaning them together by fours until they have used a whole deck or more. However, no matter how fantastic the finished work is, we all know that nothing holds it together; the whole “building” is fragile and will eventually fall. Such is the nature of any edifice that lacks cohesive power: without a binding force, it will come apart, often with disastrous results. Thus we get our cliché: “It will fall like a house of cards!”

There is a strange connection, a recurring theme in some well-known places around the globe, spanning different cultures with diverse religions. In Vatican Square, Mecca, Jerusalem and even in Washington, DC are found prominent, architectural monuments: huge stone obelisks which have their origins in ancient Egypt. It seems incongruous that such disparate locations and cultures around the world would feature monuments based on this ancient symbol.

“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” That old saying that simply means one should not be unappreciative for gifts. Yet, many are less-than-thankful about the “gift” described in the news recently as the “horse-for-beef scandal” now affecting Europe and the United Kingdom.

Those of us whose lifespan goes back to the Great Depression can still recall the image of grown men selling pencils on street corners. The common attitude saw life as a day-to-day struggle for existence. The United States had stalled in its tracks, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a monumental job on his hands seeking to stir up a nation to get out and try. What a contrast from today’s economic difficulties, which seem to bring out totally different attitudes: “You owe me!” and “It’s my right!”

While areas of the American West are going up in flames, northern India has been inundated with monsoon rains, mudslides and devastating flooding. Over the last few weeks, “Swollen rivers have swept away entire villages” (BBC, July 15, 2013), and more than 5,700 people are presumed dead following flooding in late June when severe weather affected more than 4,000 villages (ibid.).