 
                        20010525.00

     Thank you for including my e-mail address in the list
to which you sent the article "Only in America."  I think it
is important for you to understand, to be critical of, and
to accept the incongruities of American culture. In the
process, you develop your own ideas of how things should be,
how people should act, and, in the end, how you yourself
should act.

     When I was your age, I learned to be critical of the
world around me, and my own father, in turn was critical of
me for being critical. Only as I write this do I become
aware of the logical contradiction in my father's being
critical of me for being critical.

     As you are undoubtedly aware, some of the incongruities
mentioned in the article are trivial, some are significant;
and they are not at all limited to America. As a matter of
fact, it is often observed and commented on that, especially
in consequence of the effect of television and of the
Internet, the American way of life is becoming the way of
life in countries all around the world. In Japan, England,
France, Germany, Russia, India, even in the Islamic nations,
the lives that people live are becoming more and more
American.

     Nonetheless it is constructive to be critical first of
all of situations close to home, and ultimately of oneself;
because that is the only way one can become what one wants
to be: and becoming what one wants to be is the only
achievement that matters.

                         * * * * *