I used to have this philosophical argument with my father, which was unusual since words most often between us were emotional and irrational. The discussion was about black and white and gray. He dismissed gray areas as the realm of the indecisive and weak. Even as a young lad, I was drawn to the gray as subtle and nuanced and profound. I loved the story of the trickster god who walked down the street of a town with a hat that was blue on one side and red on the other, and the townfolk on one side hailed the god with the blue hat and the other side saluted the god with the red hat. When he reached the end of the street, he switched the hat around so the same people saw blue or saw red and were adamant about what was true. It was the worthiest conversation I ever had with my father, the temporal, the current, the real, vs. the spiritual and the unknown. Today's world shakes the value of this epic discussion with sound bites, political correctness and unedited text messages. And now finally we have false facts, which tell the townfolk that red is blue and blue is red so that nothing in fact is true, and all is chaos.

Gary Maggio

Albany