There is still too much anti-intellectualism here, too many people who can't or don't appreciate real thinking and what being enlightened means.

@AlasBabylon Not to mention Nationalization and Isolationism. Most of the people who have said to me, "Why do you want to go there? You live in the best country in the world!" have never been anywhere else.

Thanks for the comment. and I admire your love for gardening. I never found the time or place in my life to learn about growing things and everything I try to grow has always died. I do love things that grow, however, especially trees and, in fact, I would include trees in my definition of god.

BTW, There is one thing that grew. This plant (I think it is something like shifalera ?) was left for nine months on the terrace of my house in Spain every year for 9 months. When I returned in Spring it looked like a stick in the dirt! I would water it and it would begin to sprout leaves again but remained the same size. This went on for over thirty years! I finally bought a new house and planted it in a foot deep trough outside my front door. After two or three years it looked like this! I love that tree and would put it right up there with "Lazarus" if I believed in the Bible. (BTW, this picture is about 8-10 years later and it is trimmed down considerably every year. If not, it would no doubt grow as high as the roof and fall over!)

I agree with you on all of those.