WHO NEEDS SARAH, WE'VE GOT JOE!

For those culture warriors who miss Sarah Palin, not to worry. We've got Joe Biden. A more down-home, press-the-flesh natural you won't find this side of the Alaskan reef...!

I say that with non-ideological conviction, because Joe personifies those solid, old-time family values that you gotta like no matter what your party. (Well maybe that doesn't include the Paris Hilton brand of post-moderns, but then that's their loss). Joe -- just like Sarah but with brains -- embraces those basic, blue collar virtues like hard work, strong fidelity, and deep faith. The ideal vice-president. Where Obama is cool, Joe is hot...while the president appeals to our heads, Joe touches our hearts....and if Barack rarely stumbles, we can feel right at home when Joe does.

In music, they call this counter-point. The ancient Chinese speak of yin and the yang. In Hollywood they talk about the buddy-movie formula. Whatever the descriptor, this kind of delicate balance exists all throughout our lives. Frankly, without it, our lives would be far less rich. Consider....

Today we have the instant power of email. Fortunately counter-balancing that is the old through-rain-and-snow post office.I call it fortunate, because while email is faster, snail-mail has a face. And a smile. And a steadiness plodding down my block every morning that makes we feel human communication is still human.

Today we also have the Internet. Super powerful, super fast, super everything. Luckily, though, we still have the counter-balance of the daily newspaper. Unlike the Niagara of instantaneous but unedited information on my screen, my newspaper has a local address, a local staff and a local mission that makes it feel like a good neighbor.

Today we have researchers and statisticians. They have this habit of advising us what we think, how we do our thinking, and what it all means to our lives. Fortunately we still have the counter-balance of our churches and temples where a very different breed of wise ones speak to us. Less in terms of antiseptic hypotheses, more in terms of divine hopes. While I admire the researchers and statisticians, when life suddenly blows apart they really don't have what it takes for me to put the pieces back together.

Today we have a booming young generation, and youth is terrific. I know, because I was once. And yet would it betray my gray to say it is always fortunate that youth has with its sails the rudders of age. Each generation needs the other if that desired delicate balance is to be realized.

Oh and one more counter-point. Science and nature. Both are indispensable to our lives, the first providing us with answers, the second with questions. Science comes from people, nature from God; and while answers are always essential, questions are always more thrilling. I reflect on this every time night I look at the moon and realize how the work of science helped us reach it, but how the inspiration of nature is what asked us to try....