Page 8 - WhoAreWe...

person. I would just listen to him and not say a whole lot.
One day he said: Alan, what's wrong with you? Why don't
you have any opinions? And I said: Well, I do have some,
but only on the subjects I have been able to really research
and learn about. I was very busy with many things. I was
playing in a band full time and all of my efforts were
musical and they took virtually all of my time and then
some. I replied that until I can spend some time and really
learn about the subjects I am going to keep an open mind,
mostly observe and try to learn and not talk about it so
much. Then he said that everything was just common sense
and obvious and you just had to read the bible and you'll
instantly know everything you need to know. I just told him
that I'd let him know when I had some real opinions to
discuss.

I guess there are some things that can be inherently obvious
as fundamental rights and wrongs, and you may feel them
from a very young age. I did, but didn't feel the need to
outwardly speak about them until later in life, until a
reasonable amount of wisdom was (hopefully) attained.

To me, an initial collection of smaller, simpler truths was
fairly easily acquired. All the right stuff leads eventually to
a state in which all people are equally loved and respected
and everyone shares the world together in peace, harmony,
and dignity. All the stuff that causes fighting, human
disparagement and marginalization, person-to-person
resentment, and blind hatred with the ultimate outcomes of
murder, war, and other violence is wrong. The rub, of
course, is clearly discerning one from the other, and in all
the times you need to.

I got older, did a of learning, reading, had broad personal
experience, and exercised much in the way of deep
contemplation and self-introspection. I am learning, or at

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