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Holiday Letter 2025
Here it is early 2026 already and I’m just getting to my holiday Letter. 2025 was long, significant, and hard. For all the things that were good and I’m proud of, it was a difficult year I was happy to put to bed.
The year began with the bustle of moving into our new home. Shae and I bought a 1910 turnkey house in Leavenworth, Kansas at the end of last year and because she is a wonder it was quickly unpacked and decorated. Our things merged nicely and we only had to purchase a handful of items to have a beautiful tricked out house.
Shae, being a photographer has a great eye for light, composition, and color and I live in a house way cuter and put together than I have any right to. I have made good use of the kitchen to put out mostly healthy, scratch cooking, increasingly on a budget as the year progressed.
We have a formal dining room and got a nice dining room table to match my grandma’s china cabinet. We put it to good use with game nights and monthly gatherings of friends and associates. Shae has the Illuminati card game one of my particular favorites and we had several great games. Shae and I played a lot of chess and then Carcassone this year.
I continued my election organizing with the https://newamerican.community We posted over 100 learn articles based on needs identified in a comprehensive survey. We made contact with lots of County party organizations and provided fundraising and technical support to 20 different organizations. The County Party Orgs have a lot of potential but need a lot of consistent mentoring and follow up to make qualitative capacity improvements.
We also fought troubled private prison provider CoreCivic, who sought to reopen their troubled facility as an ICE detention facility. They applied for a permit in February and I wrote a blistering op ed to the LV Times calling for the permit to be rejected. A couple days later they withdrew from the permitting process and announced they were going to reopen.
I continued to write op eds and helped form a local opposition group and worked with regional allies to encourage the city of Leavenworth to defend their land rights. Leavenworth sued and won a temporary injunction. CoreCivic sued and lost. Appeals are pending with a hearing in February and CoreCivic applied for that permit with hearings scheduled in the spring.
Being part of a movement that is the only local community to stop an ICE detention facility has been satisfying. Here’s a link to one of my op eds if you want to learn more: https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/readers-opinion/guest-commentary/article303489741.html
Through all the organizing and activism I brought the Practical Guide to Building a Better World through the publishing process. I had a book release in Leavenworth and follow up events Columbia, Toledo, Farmington Michigan, and Bowling Green Ohio. You can get books directly from the publisher: https://breadandrosespress.com/products/the-practical-guide-to-building-a-better-world
I’ve had lots of media attention, more for the CoreCivic organizing then the book, unfortunately. The highlight was the NY Times coverage of The Pots and Pans March but my profile didn’t make the piece. I did get a nice profile in Voyage Minnesota.
https://voyageminnesota.com/interview/meet-mike-trapp-of-leavenworth-kansas/
The best book sales event I did was a training on working with homeless folks with the Missouri United Methodist Church homeless ministry team. It was a well attended powerful event and I got paid and sold a bunch of books. I have scheduled the training with the Daniel Boone Regional Library in Columbia for Saturday April 2nd. I hope to schedule more of those next year.
Last year we started Clear Creek Solutions LLC to manage the PAC. The consulting firm now pays the bills and the PAC is a volunteer effort. Our big contract is with Https: AnneforKansas.com Anne Peralker is an immigration attorney and moderate Kansas mom who is on fire to defend the constitution and the rule of law. She has a trust buster sensibility and when Kansas sends her as the first Democratic Senator since 1932 she will be the harbinger of the new FDR who will restore the federal system and address inequality and affordability.
In addition to the protest stuff I’ve been making the rounds doing some poetry and supporting the local arts. My gig work hasn’t paid as well this year and my savings are depleted so I’ve had to cut back. Shae has done well and is picking up the slack.
She took us and the boys to Chicago this summer and Seattle for Christmas. Aside from some trips to Columbia and a quick trip to OKC when Shae lost her brother and the book tour I’ve stuck close to home.
I stick with the gym and have had a year of physical training. I’m down to about 205, 15 pounds from my target weight and packed on muscle. I’ve corrected my posture and gait issues that were chewing up my knees. I’m almost bone on bone, but I hope to stay off knee replacements for another 3 years. I also resolved my fatty liver disease and have a clean bill of health.
I’ve read some great books. Four by my editor at Bread and Roses Adam Gnade, a book on military strategy I got a lot out of (I have to read Clausewitz), a book on Kansas petroglyphs, On Authoritarianism, Rules for Radicals (5th time or so) and other great books. My favorite was about Boss Tom Pendergast which was great in local history and practical politics.
Next year I am wrapping up at the gym and looking to improve my fitness with more activity and at the Leavenworth Community Center. I am going to do 4 weeks of Stoic spiritual exercises starting next Wednesday and inviting others to participate with me.
Look for at least a weekly post on developing virtuous habits and having a happy flow of life. I also plan to do more book promotion and continue to look for a career type job because of the insurance thing.
Thanks for sticking with me constant reader. I hope your next year is happy, healthy, and blessed.
Spiritual Exercises
Greetings Faithful Readers and New Friends. It’s been awhile since I’ve posted. Someone attacked me on Facebook and brought up a blog post and referred to this humble repository as a little read blog. It has had its ups downs for sure, but I am working it more into my plans and you will see regular content through 2026. It promises to be a momentous year and I want to develop this leadership.
I’ve struggled a bit this year which curbed my joy and my productivity and my relationships more than I am comfortable with. I’ve taken a moment to reassess and identify what I’m bringing to the situations that are causing me trouble. To that end I am committing myself to 4 weeks of stoic spiritual exercises.
Two years ago, after stepping away from the directorship of a nonprofit I put together and implemented 4 weeks of spiritual exercises I developed while on an epic road trip through the Southwest. It cleared my palate of the stress I had been carrying and helped me develop the focus to both write and publish a book but also address my obesity and overall lack of physical fitness.
Two years previously, after completing my third term on the Columbia, Missouri city council I had gone on an epic road trip and completed a bastardized version of the spiritual exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, bookended by Crowley’s Book 4 exercises from part 1 (basically Buddhist meditation).
For those exercises they are completed 2-5 times per day with prayers and readings and 5 senses meditations (think visualization but with all 5 senses). Its ordered around the life of Christ as moral teaching and also involves colloquys (imaginary conversations with God, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary).
Most significantly it involves a conscience check. I used the time to work on my ego. Whenever I would note an egoistic thought I would touch my heart. Taking a month and focusing on the content of your heart and striving to be better is powerful. I see why the Jesuits do it annually.
I had tried them once before in the early 2000s while backpacking in Big Sur and was also profoundly impacted. That time I had powerful colloquys and I felt that if I continued down that path I would irrevocably break with consensus reality and that that was not being asked of me.
I wrapped them up after 2 1/2 weeks, called my dad and learned he was passing through Fresno and hitchhiked over to meet him for one last ride in the big rig. I correctly guessed it would be my last chance for a ride along with The Popster and it was. I’ve never regretted it.
The 2021 version wasn’t mystical at all. I’d had some of that during my COVID homelessness organizing and these exercises were more of an act of discipline and sober reflection. I “received” 2 messages: to get a job and live humbly and to make a small lifestyle change, which I did.
I came out of that a lot more keyed into philosophy and less interest in mystical experiences. I continued to deepen my study of stoicism and other ancient philosophies over the next couple of years.
I felt that I had gotten what I needed out of discipling myself to work humbly for a board of directors. I again thought a major life change should be road trip and spiritual exercises. I thought of reworking Ignatius’s system to stoicism.
I realized though that the stoics already had a system. Leaning heavily on Pierre Hadot’s What is Ancient Philosophy I organized them around the 4 virtues: Wisdom, Justice, Bravery, and Temperance.
I had morning mediations where I set goals for the day. Unread from primary texts: Epictetus’s Discourses and Enchiridion, Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, and Musonius Rufus and nothing else. I also memorized verses for each virtue and used the Ignatian conscience checks.
Wisdom involved a focus on study and reflection. Justice emphasized pro social interaction and philosophical conversation. Bravery involved physical exercise. Temperance involved vegetarianism and rigorous portion control.
I grew more focused and disciplined and kept that self motivation through writing The Practical Guide to Building a Better World. With setbacks and gear shifting I again am called to take on spiritual exercises. This time, no road trip but to be made real in my home environment.
I am also going to open them up to the public as a shared project with my community. I will be posting about it here and there will be an IRL version in Leavenworth and an online version available everywhere. More details to follow and I’ll be looking to start early in the new year.
If you are interested in my book it’s not too late to get it before Christmas direct from my publisher. https://breadandrosespress.com/products/the-practical-guide-to-building-a-better-world
Keep following for details as well as my traditional Holiday Letter coming soon.
All Over the Place
When I read my old posts I mostly just gave a rundown on what I’ve been up to and how I’ve been feeling. With the book coming out, stopping CorrCivic opening a detention facility, running a PAC in a tough world of national democratic fundraising, cooking and eating food, the house and the yard I’m jamming all the time. I’ve sworn to stop that and embrace the puttering pace but that vow has been overwhelmed by events.
On to the good stuff and the victories. I had a nice profile piece done in an online Minnesota publication. https://voyageminnesota.com/interview/meet-mike-trapp-of-leavenworth-kansas/
The book is out and I have the official launch planned for Leavenworth at the Red Hibiscus on July 8th 4pm-6pm. https://facebook.com/events/s/ribbon-cutting-mike-trapp-book/696092123306330/
With all that I managed to insulate my cubby. Our historic home was a rental so first steps have been eaves, shoring up the crumbling brick and gaps in the retaining wall.
If you want to buy the Practical Guide to Building a Better World. See me and save postage. Today I’ll be in Columbia through Tuesday. Hit me up if you want to hook up with a book. You can also pick one up from my publisher.https://breadandrosespress.com/products/the-practical-guide-to-building-a-better-world
I also caught Pride and gave the governor of Kansas a book and told her to run for Senate. She said “hell no” so I met with another great prospect yesterday. Gave the Christian Nationalists some words at the County Commission on the dangers of Christian sectarianism and a little lesson on Jesus’s core message. It’s a lot and it’s all over the place and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The Practical Guide to Building a Better World
I can’t believe I wrote a book. What was only an idea at the end of 2023 is this giant beautiful thing becoming more real every day. The milestones have come so thick I have not been able to celebrate each one. Today I want to acknowledge the ISBN #
The Library of Congress is under attack. The President fired the Head Librarian without cause and claims to have appointed the Deputy Director of Commerce, I think, as its head. The staff there point to the name and the fact that the president has no power over the Library of Congress and had two folks escorted from the property. The alleged new acting chief librarian has not yet tried to enter.
Having a book enter the Library of Congress has been something I’ve looked forward to as I moved my manuscript from rough draft to a perfected piece of physical media. I am not surprised that every good thing is under attack. A would-be authoritarian’s desire to control the Library of Congress is understandable. Preventing that misuse of power is baked into the system. We shall see what prevails.
Today, I still celebrate and proudly share my ISBN # 978-1-939899-86-6
You can preorder at Bread & Roses Publishing
https://breadandrosespress.com/products/the-practical-guide-to-building-a-better-world
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