FROM THE STOOL

OPINIONS

Almost everyone, save the brain dead, has opinions of varying intensity on just about any subject.

If two people agree on everything, one of them isn't needed. It never fails to amaze, however, that two essentially average people can look at the same piece of art, the same movie, eat the same dinner, drive the same car, listen to the same songs, watch the same game, and reach diametrically opposed opinions on their relative merits, or the level of enjoyment derived.

When I listen to George W. I think flub-a-dub, while many of my closest friends and associates think Lincoln. Calf's liver and onions – chicken livers – goose liver patι – heaven from my perspective, hell for my family.

Elvis will always be the King – alive in the hearts and minds of rock devotees after the world has long forgotten Brahms, Beethoven and Bach. A point of view not shared by most symphony lovers.

Fast food, contemporary art, X-rated films, The French, seatbelts, guns, abortion rights, the French, Cuba, China, Russia, Iran, Texas, Indian food, snakes, rats, cats, assisted suicide, breast enhancement, the French – subjects capable of bringing even the closest of friends and relatives to blows.

Have you ever wondered what kind of argument you would get from the guy who paints his house orange in a sedate up-scale suburban neighborhood – the guy who puts an old junked car body up on blocks in his front yard – or the guy who surrounds his garden with ceramic pink flamingos?

Throughout the world body piercing has moved from ears to noses, nipples, and navels, notwithstanding age or gender. Basketball players have joined Buddhist monks and Hare Krishnas in routinely shaving their heads.

For a long time raw fish was largely eaten in shells at the seaside – today sushi is a universal phenomenon found everywhere from supermarkets to drive-thru's in every state in the union.

Is the USA Today a worthless rag or a brilliant summation of news for the busy? Is Scotch euphoric or medicinal? Why drink coffee without caffeine? – Beer without alcohol? – Smoke lettuce cigarettes? From my point of view a party built around tofu, bean sprouts and bottled water is about as uplifting as a wake. The typical bottled water carrier (see previous article) feels exactly the same about a steak based martini bash.

Depending on your point of view, George Carlen is either funny or filthy – Jimmy Swaggart either sacred or sickening – George W. either dumb or dyslexic. To some teenage women, a young man with earrings and a Mohawk hairdo is sexy – to most of their fathers a dreadful apparition.

Homogenous, one dimensional societies, however, rarely succeed. Mongrels make better pets. Sameness and uniformity breed boredom and discontent. Diversity produces individuality, creativity, and constructive argument. Better ways are found by people who don't accept the status quo. If everyone liked Scotch, there wouldn't be enough to go around. Opposites do attract – one man's pleasure is another's pain. While our choices may differ wildly, we can be very thankful we have them – an opinion few would dispute.