FredL

Wellll, OK Carmi. I hereby accept your proposal for a cease-fire.

As for money being the truest measure of a person's feelings.......

First of all, I sure felt a surge of gratitude for Atilla weighing in pretty much on my side of the dispute. What a guy!

But, I think he has overstated the case. I bet he'd agree. Human feelings are so complex! It is hard to say ever for sure what another person feels or is motivated by. It does seem fair to say that actions speak louder than words, but I baffle myself, at times, by the things I do. I find myself doing the strangest things, especially when I have conflicting feelings or motives. It seems like as often as not, rather than responding to one feeling or the other, I will go off on some crazy tangent, as if I was an object choosing a vector which reacts to both forces. I'm very aware that my "good reasons" for doing things are often not my true reasons. That is, when I can figure either one of them out.

I don't think money is the only important thing in the world. Far from it!

But I do not choose to underestimate its significance.

In the case of bonsai, I don't know whether you remember the comments I made awhile back contrasting the ideas of "precious" and "vauable". At that time, I made a plea for the importance of things that are precious to us as well as those things that are valuable. I went on and on (perhaps you don't recall it now because you fell asleep reading it at the time) about how important to us precious things are and how, in these times we live in, precious is being lost in favor of valuable. And that I felt in all the discussion of what makes Bonsai great art (valuable), what makes it precious to us individually was being lost.

So, I guess, bottom line, I admit to a degree of confusion and ambivalence on this interesting but elusive subject. Atilla's comments, for me, contain alot of truth. But yet.......I find myself thinking there is alot more to the issue than he points out.

And Carmi, thanks for letting us know you are able to be friends with even (gasp!) Black Americans. Makes me feel like even a half breed Indian guy like myself might someday win your friendship!

Best regards, Fred