Good morrow all and welcome to my bench- one bench among many in the train station we call Earth.  My bench is long and there is always room for you, the passerby and fellow pilgrim, to set a spell with me and spit random babblings, conquer / ponder the universe, play thumb war or just observe as time expectant wriggles by.  This is our institution and we utilize it as we see fit.  And I ask only one thing of visitors to my [loaned] bench:

Remember that you are human.  Remember, then, that I am human.  The only thing that separates you from me and me from you is distance.  Distance can be removed by a variety of means.  The one method that will never be used to remove that distance is force.  And so that means your presence as Visitor is expected to be one of peace.  War does not exist at my bench and so if I have offended you with any of my words, either approach me with mutual respect or don’t bother stopping by.  My philosophy (well, one of them) is that the one who is offended bares the fault of the offense.  Life and all things therein are what you make them once they are in your grasp.  Words that oppose your view are to be absorbed and placed carefully in safe corners.  If I hear or read words that might offend me, it is my duty to take them in and do good with them, or simply cast them aside and move on to the next obstacle.  A gentleperson’s debate is golden as long as it stays gentle.

And we all share the same planet.  We all have basically the same questions.  We are all searching for basically the same thing.  And I know that the worst way to try and settle my inquest is walking over others, pushing them aside, beating them down as I climb to a destination and holding them back while I scratch my way forward.

Perhaps there’s a bit of cheese in all of that.  But without cheese, we would be a bunch of sorry saps- sitting around waiting for the bus that simply won’t arrive, while our whiskey glasses dry out and out puffing pipes settle off.

Enjoy.