BUT ON THE OTHER HAND

Orthodox rabbis and Thomistic theologians are forever on-the-other-handing. There's not a topic on earth for which they can't find a totally opposite point of view. This drives their single-minded friends absolutely crazy. And yet, there's crazy and then there's crazy....!

If you like your world in no-nonsense black&white, this sort of crazy will -- well, it'll drive you crazy. On the other hand (see they have me doing it already!), if you like your world in complex shades of gray, you'll appreciate this type of thinker and their nuances. The black&whiters are easy to spot. People like Harry Truman, General Patton, Clint Eastwood, Tony Soprano, and George Bush II. The gray ones include people like Adlai Stevenson, General Montgomery,Tom Hanks, Mrs. Soprano, and George Bush I.

But wait -- these are not simply academic choices to be chattered about on CNN and the History Channel. In a dictatorship, sure, there's nothing much to chatter about; you learn how to salute, end of civics lesson. However, in a democracy, not knowing the difference between blacks, whites and grays can be downright harmful to your health.

Four classic everyday examples --
* Medicine: Everyone knows the grand promises from the rhapdsodicTV ads and on the cool labels. But it's all those on-the-other-hands written in small print that we better know as well. ICU's and cemeteries are filled with folks who didn't bother reading them. Instead, they chose the flashier "hand" and missed the crucial "other hand."
* News: We've got scores of networks, hundreds of channels, millions of blogs. That's more information per cubic foot of life than any other hundred civilizations in the history of the world. And yet what shines so reassuringly white today can turn into confusing grays tomorrow, and by the next news cycle become down-right black. When any blathering commentator sticks a self-righteous hand in our face, be sure to see if there isn't "another hand" somewhere.
* Sports: Now here we have coaches, managers and columnists to pick our colors for us. At the beginning of each season, every team "has a chance this year to go all the way." That white gets grayer with each blown game and each dumb injury. Later in the year, you know the colors are fading to black whenever everyone starts every sentence with "next year..."
* Love: Strange as it may seem, love belongs on this list too. Today, love is packaged and peddled like every other product here. It's right there waiting for us in our choice of Angelina hair shampoo, Cleopatra skin cleansers, Brad Pitt abs builders, Britney botox-procedures, and Bruce Springsteen sex boosters. Everyone of them shines there before our eager libidinal eyes with glowing white promises. In a culture ruled by the Beautiful People, it's only natural to feel a compulsion to be beautiful too. Beautiful, that is, as defined by the beauty peddlers.

We can't clap with one hand. A handy reminder that in life there's always "the other hand."