I knew a man once. He knew a lot of things, I mean a real lot of things. He didn't know the things I knew though and because of that I knew that I was superior to him (in my mind at least). I tried to teach him the things I knew but it was hopeless. I even started to pay him to go to college to learn what I knew and he took my money with ne'er a blush but he still didn't learn the things that I knew I needed him to know. He was happy knowing all the stuff he knew because it suited him to know only those things.

He did learn one new thing though. Not learning to know the things I knew and therefore living the way I wanted him to live made me angry; so angry in fact that I made him my enemy and he made me his. We fought, we bled, we lost many things including family members and neighbours but we both defended the right to know what we know as being all that we needed to know. Eventually we agreed to disagree and I gave him some money to make things better in his life and he accepted.

You know what? I now know that what we knew was what we were brought up to believe in. It cost me a lot of money and bloodshed to learn that but I was happy to know that he now knows he can make a lot of money out of not knowing what I wanted him to know even if it does cause him some grief. It is worth it in his way of thinking and, it makes me feel superior to him all over again. That is what wars, any wars are about. just because I cannot accept why you accept your way of life does not mean that I am better than you. It does not mean that you must change to accept only that which I find acceptable but you must accept the consequences if you don't.

The funny thing is that that is exactly what he thinks too. I never knew that!