Values Are Not Trendy Items That Are

I Am A Member Of A Small, Nearly Extinct Minority Group, A Kind Of Urban Lost Tribe Who Insist, In The Face Of All Evidence To The Contrary, On The Sanctity Of Being On Time. Which Is To Say That We On-timers Are Compulsively, Unfashionably Prompt, That There Are Only Handfuls Of Us In Any Given City And, Unfortunately, We Never Seem To Have Appointments With Each Other.

Parents Remain Our Touchstones, Fellow Travelers, Even After Death. They Are Both Missing And Present.

Alternative Lifestyles, The Emotional Fly-drive Packages Of Our Times, Come Equipped With A Set Of Clothes, A Choice Of Authors, A Limited Menu Of Sports And A Discount Coupon Book Of Clichés.

We Each Have A Litany Of Holiday Rituals And Everyday Habits That We Hold On To, And We Often Greet Radical Innovation With The Enthusiasm Of A Baby Meeting A New Sitter. We Defend Against It And - Not Always, But Often Enough - Reject It. Slowly We Adjust, But Only If We Have To.

Today, Much Of Journalism And Politics Are In A Kind Of Collusion To Oversimplify And Personalize Issues. No Room For Ambivalence. Plenty Of Room For The Personal Attack.