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I would like to take this opportunity to digress from the current train of thought, or stream of blogginess if you will, to offer a couple of interpositions. One is inspired by a recent blog comment, the other is a "credit where credit is due" tiradette. (I think I just invented a word.)

I want to make it clear that in my exploration of circumstantial proofs of the existence of God that I am not trying to convert or convince anyone. I am sharing the thought process I, as a lifelong advocate of "intelligence is enough for me" and adherent of the religion of self-sufficiency, went through in allowing myself, perish the thought, to accept the existence of a Supreme Being and even more to accept my inferior and supplicative relationship to said being. I would look pretty foolish abdicating intellectual responsibility for my own set of rules for conducting my life if I was only accepting the rules of a non-existent being whose moral code was made up by a bunch of men thousands of years ago. This was a HUGE paradigm shift and I was not going to tread lightly. We are talking about overcoming the crashing gulf of cognitive dissonance that I had maintained all my life, not to mention 25 years of socialization as a man where I learned that you are to be self-sufficient and to surrender to any man (or God) is anathema to your being as a man. (I think that is one reason women find spirituality easier to embrace than men. Just look at participation in most churches.)

Perhaps I am beating a dead horse by exploring all these topics meticulously. Perhaps there is some amount of "easy topics for the next few blog posts in order to not stop writing while I think up the next thing to write about" syndrome. Perhaps I should just get on with the spiritual quest that led me to today and not partake of this primrose path. I'll consider it over the next few days. Stay tuned...

Now, for a rant about the topic of the extremes of wealth and poverty.

I picked up a book today. The title is Failing at Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls and I am looking forward to reading it. I also have books like The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Young Men which is a fantastic, eye-opening book. You can also look at the Portland Press Herald's special report here.

I am somewhat of a passionate scholar of the issue of the equality of women and men. I firmly believe that establishing the equality of men and women isn't a matter of women attaining what men have. It isn't about just treating everyone the same. It is about eliminating everything that hinders people from exploring and reaching their full potential. It is about stopping the definition of things by gender when they don't need to be. Anyway, I digress in my digression.

I am not railing against Myra and David Sadker, the authors of the book I picked up today. I laud them for their efforts. I laud the efforts of anyone that points out how people are getting short-changed, particularly when it is how our children are getting short-changed by our education system. The problem is not that our education system favors boys over girls or girls over boys. THE PROBLEM IS THAT OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM IS GROSSLY UNDERFUNDED! Schools should never have to wonder where funding is going to come from, or how many children they can fit into a classroom, or which programs are going to get cut, or which teachers are going to be let go. Schools are not mills where you feed children in at age five and retrieve them at age eighteen just to send them off to jobs or higher education or whatever. They are vital elements of society. Baha'u'llah says: "“Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom.”

Here is a thought. If class sizes were smaller and educators were plentiful enough to actually tailor education to the needs of children and to develop relationships with their students, perhaps we wouldn't have children who are so under-served and ostracized they feel the need to shoot people. (I'm not justifying these horrendous acts by blaming it on schools. These are individuals who make the decisions to act in heinous ways.)

How higher education is messed up, how municipalities get put in the position of "robbing Peter to pay Paul" when it comes to funding education, the racial impact of public schools, and where the money that should go in to education actually goes are topics for another day. Suffice it to say that children, regardless of gender, in most of our public school systems are paying a price that our society can ill afford. It is short-sighted in the same way chopping down rainforests is. Those who have money can bypass the issue by choosing private schools or tutors or whatever.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program.