PAUL:	What do we know about 
	ourselves ?  

	What do others know about us ?  
	
	What is there to know ?  
	
	What is the price we pay to 
	know about others, not even 
	considering the price we pay 
	when others try to know about 
	us.  
	
	Why would anybody want to know 
	anything about us anyway ? 
	(where I buy my shoes or what 
	magazines I read)
	
	And then when they do find out 
	about our, well, I hesitate to 
	say “deepest”, or “darkest”, 
	how about best-kept.  When 
	they do find out about our 
	best kept secr... buying 
	habits or desires, they prey 
	on us in a cold-blooded, 
	conscience-less atavistic grab 
	for nothing more significant 
	than our wallets or our credit.
	
	They merely take advantage of 
	the unwary us.  We 
	involuntarily provide them 
	with information about our 
	weaknesses, our human 
	failings, our foibles, with no 
	concern about what that does 
	to us.
	
	They don’t care about who we 
	are, really.  They don’t want 
	to know us in any of the 
	socially accepted non-Biblical 
	ways.
	
	Then they go on their merry 
	way, looking for another bozo 
	who believes in the free-
	market, and in chic and style 
	and vogue, and in home-buying, 
	leaving us behind, vacant, 
	used, and scared to death to 
	ever buy anything or read 
	anything or watch anything 
	else ever again.
	
	
	“Good-bye, sucker,” “hello, 
	shopper, what can I find out 
	about you that will separate 
	you from some of your money ?”
	 
	A guy phoned me last night at 
	home trying to sell me 
	Valentine’s Day cards.
	
SIGH