The statue The Thinker was famous when I was a youngster. The Thinker reminds me of one of my favorite television characters, Mr. Spock. Mr. Spock critically analyzed all that he saw and heard…and even felt…he was half human you know… The thinking seems to be an underutilized ability in our society. Have you ever met someone who can sell igloos to Eskimos? Or what about someone who has a good deal on the Brooklyn Bridge? We get several calls per day on our landline that are for the purpose of selling us a thing that seems too good to be accurate and it is.

Marketing is fascinating. It has entered all fields of our lives. Some faiths will tell you to not think…or believe or question their doctrinal dictates…but rather to accept them without question as coming directly from the mouth of God. God and I have not set down for a one-on-one chat in some time…the phone line seems to be one way and then I listen for the spiritual edification of my Christian faith.

Politicians tell us that they love us…at election time. For the past many years, they have assured us that they have the same Faith as we do and that their political opponent does not. They live to do God’s Work and that self-same work is aligned with their constituent’s narrow views of their fellow human being’s worthiness.

Lonley we are. Loneliness contributes to a plethora of physical maladies. Our friends and confidants and comrades are on TV. We gather to visit with family and friends and can not tear ourselves away from our iPhones. Our best friends that are just behind our screens tell us what to think and we believe them. When the ocean wave of logical thinking smacks up against the rocks of our accepted doctrine of life…we understand that the ocean waves are…false waves.

‘One out of every two Americans is experiencing loneliness,’ according to the Surgeon General. So we search for groups behind the screen who we can identify with. We never have to physically meet them…but they influence us. For some their doors are locked and their guns are loaded and they are afraid of their own shadow.

Thinking is fundamental…