Yanagisawa

Two men get on a plane and go to coach...they peer into first class and see a gentleman in a funny hat reading the paper.

"Look, there's the Pope," says one.

"Can't be," says the other.

"I swear that's the Pope," says the one.

"I'm very sure the Pope is going to fly commercial," says the other.

"I'm certain that's the Pope," says the the one, "I'm going up to ask him!"

He saunters up to first class, sticks his head through the curtain, and adresses the gentleman, "Excuse me sir, aren't you the Pope?"

The gentleman puts down his paper, glowers at him, and says, "Why don't you just f**k off!!"

The man goes back to his seat.

"Well, was it the Pope?" the other man asked.

"I don't know, he wouldn't say"

Are you really ready to scuffle over theodicy, or was that a rhetorical question? If you're ready to rumble over this heavyweight issue then you should take it outside. (Outside being the doctrinal threads.)

In the Way I had actually forced myself to believe that emotions were evil...they only got in the way of "believing the Word"

I just recently realized that emotions are our God-given means to engage the world around us - that glassy eyed stare was real because we willingly turned off our emotions, thus disengaging from external stimuli.

Caught part of "Pleasantvill" on TV the other night...seemed to speak to this issue.

I contend that Maryanne is winning by a landslide because, as red-blooded American males, (I cant speak for the women) we may fantasize about the luscious, dessert-like Ginger, but always come home to the meat and potatoes girl-next-door.