SPLITTING THE DIFFERENCE.....

......BETWEEN WOMB AND WONDER

Reduced to our most common denominator, we're a mix of womb and wonder. There's this eternal tug of the protective womb from which we came, but also the daily lure of the exciting wonder toward which we dream. Sometimes it simply comes down to the way we get up in the morning...

Rainy days and Mondays get us down. Outside, little more than another sunless, gray routine; inside, the warm womb of our bed. A compelling metaphor for the perfect safety of our mother's womb. Plus, along the way, all those other wombs of safety. If we were lucky -- loving parents and family; caring teachers; interested neighbors; safe streets at night tucked inside secure neighborhoods of friends and playgrounds, kites and penny candy.

For anyone blessed (cursed?) with such felicitous memories, life can seem as if a series of womb-like moments. Inside the arms of the one you fell in love with, the rooms you lived in, the feel of the infants you helped bring into the world, the faces of all those neighbors and store owners and Good Humor drivers and mail carriers that have populated your life.

Oh yeah -- that warm bed looks awfully inviting. And yet, we also feel the lure of the new day. The love of the hunt. The passion of pursuit. All that wonder that waits just outside our front door. It's called life!

When you think about, maybe you can have both. Like Linus's little blue blanket, you can always tuck it inside your deepest pocket during whatever new adventure you take on. Now that's womb coupled with wonder -- the best of both worlds.

......BETWEEN THE 'ME' AND THE 'US'

One of life's longest debates has to do with how good and/or evil we are. Theologians, philosophers and of course Fox News have all checked in on this question. Everyone has their preferred answer.

Speaking for myself, I've finally reconciled these apparent opposites -- the inherent Goodness of humanity side by side with its equally inherent Evil. Perhaps it all comes down to the numbers. That is to day, as individuals we're a pretty decent lot. Work for our wages, love our mates and kids, pay our bills, pick up our litter.

This Evil thing gets into the picture mainly when we come together in groups. On the expressway, in malls, at concert halls, in sports stadiums, and in street rallies of whatever kind. Something sorta happens to us! And usually it's not good!

Call it group dynamics, mob psychology, or the power of the majority, but so much of what's best about us as individuals changes when we're gathered together. As citizens, as voters, as spectators, and especially as angry protesters who always seem to be looking for a lynch rope to solve their anger.

If true, the "me" may always be slightly better than the "us." However, having suggested the problem, neither "me" nor "us" has much of a solution...