Not being a religious freak I’m surprised that I’m feeling the spiritual like it was rain. It’s soaking me with the one-two punch of possibly the two holiest people on earth landing in America at about the same time, the Pope, supreme father of the Catholic faith, that has been called a western religion arriving on the east coast and the Dalai Lama, the holiest of the Tibetan Buddhist’s, and an eastern religion, arriving on the west coast. There’s a bit of irony not wasted on me in where they landed, I mean if they both landed on the same coast at the same time I’m sure the continent would have tilted into one of the great oceans. The Pope, to clear the air, stated he was ashamed of the pedophile priest problem in America and promised a reckoning with it and then took a detour in his tour of Washington DC to speak to some victims of this heinous crime, not enough, but acknowledgement is a beginning. At the General Assembly the Pope encouraged human rights to be the foremost goal of the world. He will take in Ground Zero and give a mass at Yankee Stadium to end his stay. The Dalai Lama, talked about kids doing something good for someone else and stated parents are the most important people on earth in a speech in Seattle. He took a detour on his tour by visiting a crowd of Tibetan monks in Minnesota, who thought that they were only going to see him via a video relay from the Mayo Institute. These little detours by both of the Holy Ones, straying from the script, that must be so full of PR, security and political red tape, are very refreshing acts. The Dalai Lama will travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan and then to Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. The two Holy Ones will never cross paths. The Pope leaves April 20 and the Dalai Lama will arrive in New York April 21. This non-path crossing again is a bit ironic in my most imaginable mind; again that continent spilling into an ocean scenario is enticing. As I analyze my reaction to these ‘Two Gods On Earth’ visiting and I say this with an understanding that some people would scoff, as I might at that description, but the thing is I feel that with such a hole in the overall spirit of America in a war that everyone has realized that we were hoodwinked into and now have to deal with the horrors of what we have created and seem to have no control over, and an economy that is tanking, a mortgage debt calamity, not to mention a political calamity that mocks everyone’s intelligence and finally a nationwide malaise that is playing out in front of us by a media that is anchored in excess and exaggeration, yes, people need a rise in their spirit, and if these two Holy Men can give it to a certain populace then so be it, because I think the rising of spirit is contagious like yawning and laughing and I’d like to have a little of that contagion...