Are We One? Or Two?

Quote of the day:
“Cogito ergo sum.” (“I think, therefore I am.”)
--Rene Descartes

Mistaken quote of the day:
“Cogito eggo sum.” (“I think, therefore I am a waffle.”)
--Descartes Befour Dayhorse

Follow-up to Dwelling on Dwelling Prices:
“Median home prices seem to have soared: from $7,400 (1950) to $62,200 (1980) to $219,000 (2005). But since 1968, those gains equal less than 2 percent a year, after inflation.”
--Today’s "Life" magazine

Follow-up to "Chicken Little Has Crossed the Road":
The movie "An Inconvenient Truth" comes out on DVD in a few days. If you haven’t seen it, take the time. It’s worth it, however you feel about Al Gore.

More on "Rudyard Kipling and Ted Haggard":
We separate, categorize, and do battle. Are our thoughts distinct from our being, as most Descartes interpretations would conclude? Are there really two separate “beings” in each of us? Are they at war? Should they be?

This is very hard to talk about because conflict is around us everywhere. Sometimes it’s obvious, other times it’s not. Consider the battles we hear about in the news each day. Honest hard-working citizen versus indifferent big government. America versus terrorists. Gang versus gang. Tom Cruise versus Brooke Shields.

Conflict is central to much great literature and art. Often the conflict is very simply drawn--the good guys versus the bad guys. Think 95% of classic western movies. Think Star Wars. We seem to prefer hats to be clearly black or white. No grey hats for us.

Yet our experience tells us that life is not a black-and-white enterprise. It happens in living color.

Can we handle that, or do we have to continue separating, categorizing, and battling? Is it helpful to wall ourselves off from parts of ourselves? Is it helpful to see parts of ourselves in others and fight with them?