BTW, Swordmaker, I'm keenly interested in your responses to the Haiku at the bottom of post #863, if you wouldn't mind too much.
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3632589/posts?page=863#863
I found every one of them quite profound, true, and insightful. They describe the state of affairs present today in short meaningful ways that cause one to think.