FredL

Carmi, I think your stereotypes are showing. I defined my catagories in a variety of ways, including monetary. Walter made about as many observations about monetary value as I did. As you may have observed if you have been reading this forum for awhile, I am constantly harping on the spiritual aspects of Bonsai while Walter has often made fun of my fondness for "Oriental hocus-pocus" (to use his term).

I think your descent into bashing American stereotypes is regrettable.Last week, I got into a rather heated debate with a guy who I consider a jerk over remarks he made about his belief that Jews are a bunch of money grubbing shysters who control the US and European banking systems. And alot of other observations in the same vein. Well, you get the idea. I told him that I was virtually the only one in my college fraternity who wasn't Jewish and that over my life an entirely disproportionate number of my close friends had been Jewish and that I knew from personal experience his assertions were absolutely false. So you're not the only one that I've gotten into a dispute with recently over stereotype bashing.

I think your observations of American society are totally off base. For all its faults, the US is the most genuinely religious society in the world today, as well as the most generous.

It is amazing to me at times how a person's "mental models" and paradigms filter and distort what (s)he experiences. Thanks for being today's example of this.

Best regards, Fred