AT LAST LADIES THE LAST WORD ON DRINKING COFFEE

OK, lets be honest....there really IS no last word on coffee or anything else science puts its fine minds to. Scientists say this is because they are always testing and re-testing. Doubters say this is because they are dealing with some things beyond even science [AKA, what science calls problems-still-to-be-solved doubters simply conclude are mysteries-to-be-lived].

Personally, I'm not uncomfortable with the doubters. Which is why I doubt the recent 14-year Harvard study among 51,000 women which concluded "the more coffee you drink, the less likely you are to become depressed." I might have been less skeptical had some scientists not recently concluded Einstein himself may have been wrong by 60 nanoseconds in his classic Theory of Relativity.

Leaping from science to society, maybe a lot of ideas we once defined as mere Myths need to be re-examined too. When a society calls something a Myth, it often means it's content to dismiss the whole idea as a mere fiction. Say the idea of a Garden of Eden....ancient aliens...Atlantis... UFOs... American Exceptionalism.

Wait just a minute.

If a society decides to collectively embrace such ideas as real and true -- well, the linguistic debate is over. Because societies will now collectively act upon what they embrace. Myths, in other words, can quickly shift from idea to belief. From thought to action. From imagination to actualization. Need proof...? Take the hundreds of societies who embrace the story of Eden sublimating it into 5000 years of efficacious Judaic-Christian religions. Or take the many wars into which America has entered with flags flying in the belief of our Exceptionalism among the nations of the world.

After awhile other Myths come to mind. Collective ideas in a society which -- whether documentably true or not -- become truths larger than any mere documentation! Consider. Our "destiny to settle the New World." Our "pacification of the Native Americans." Our "rugged tall-in-the-saddle glories of the Old West." Our "shining city on a hill." Our "right to be be Number One in all we do."

Lets conclude this way. Going from science to society to football. When coaches like Notre Dame's fabled Knute Rockne inspire their team at half-time to believe "we can't lose," how do you react after the players go out and live-the-myth by 30 points?? Personally, I think we re-think everything we think. From Einstein to religion to half-time mythologies to our morning cup of coffee.