Good morning Boys and Girls.

I find myself smack dab in the middle of one of the stages I go through at least once a year; sometimes a little more often. It's a stage of "clarity", I suppose, when some of the unrelated topics and events I've thought about - and sometimes even researched over the course of months - crystallize a bit. It seems once they've stirred around in my head and popped into my conscious thoughts thousands of times, often presenting questions I've taken the time to answer to my own satisfaction - or realized that there simply ARE no answers to them - eventually the answers - and even the questions themselves - coalesce into a cogent stream of knowledge I can point to, understand, and finally include in my mind's library, where they are stored, along with their predecessors, on a very long but sparsely filled shelf I long ago labeled "things I know for sure".

You might think I happily anticipate these episodes since I tend to come out of them - they tend to last two or three weeks - feeling as though I've gained a little wisdom. I don't, though. -Not at all.

In the past, over the course of a few of these annual "spells", I've flushed out my own understanding of what I believe Jesus was all about, and the myriad reasons so many people feel the need to make him something he wasn't. I've come to understand why faith is important, but how blind faith is nothing less than an insult to our creator.

A few years ago, I came to understand my own limitations; both those placed on me by my own makeup, and those I've placed on myself by my lack of education; and how by doing so, I freed myself to explore those things within my mental grasp with more fervor, delight and satisfaction.

The last one I went through was personal and I won't bore you with it, but it was meaningful to me, and once again helped me understand more about the sort of person I am. It was a tough one though; I can tell you that much. It took place last January and really made me dislike myself for a few weeks. Oh well.

This one centers around other people. -Lots and lots of other people. I think I've come to realize that some people will NEVER listen to reason, no matter what. It's a lousy thing to realize. I've always believed that a proper argument, supported by simple checkable facts, would sway any reasonable person to adopt a logical position.

Alas, it's not so.

The chilling part I'm dealing with, is coming to understand this: it never will be so, either.

I find it depressing. But, in order to get on with my life, I have to accept that many many otherwise reasonable people are able to embrace crazy thoughts, cling to them like life preservers, and not a damn thing will ever get them to let go; to let go of those thoughts or thought processes; to change their minds. Especially if it's part of their "underlying philosophy" about life - usually something they've been taught by their parents, or some other person in authority early in their life - there is not a damn thing anyone will ever be able to do to get them to give an alternative point of view more than a cursory, suspicious, and ultimately dismissive glance.

Oh well.

Off to Des Moines, Friday or Saturday.

Be good to everyone.