There seem to be only a few things that are important to the vast majority of Americans these days:
---having as much "stuff" as possible (clothes, shoes, cars, jewelry, video games, iPhones...) no matter how many hours they have to work to earn money for this stuff
---not having to work hard for anything (there seems to be a time-saving, work-saving widget for everything these days...making more time for us to sit on our butts and watch TV)
---being able to do and say whatever they want, no matter what effect it has on others (that's "their" problem...right?)
---feeling great, 100% of the time, no matter what they have to do -- or ingest -- to get there, and without having to make any sort of effort to get there (counseling, compromise, weight loss, etc.)
---having other people behave exactly as we want them to behave, to permit all of the above
My husband has instructions (and permission) to shoot me in the head if I ever get to the point where I care so little about my fellow man that the above become more important than living out my days here as a decent, respectful, kind human being.
Amen, sister Elana
GL
not on a soapbox, more like a bar of soap (whoops!)
p.s. I always remember the soap comments in A Christmas Story..."Over the years I got to be quite a connoisseur of soap. Though my personal preference was for Lux, I found that Palmolive had a nice, piquant after-dinner flavor - heavy, but with a touch of mellow smoothness. Life Buoy, on the other hand... YECCHH!"