When i stated that people who have not taken the time and effort to ask and answer the basic questions about who they really are, what they believe and value and why, about where they are going in life, and what the consequences of those beliefs and actions are adrift in life seems to have struck a sore spot. This is my response.

When I was 22 years old, I lost my focus on college due to a painful breakup with a serious girlfriend. Facing the military draft I volunteered for the Army to get my obligation out of the way. In the Army I faced a massive emphasis on conformity and uniformity, on "don't think; just do as you are told."Facing that forced me to face the fact that I did not know who I really was. For almost my entire life, I had just done what my parents, my teachers, and my church had told me to do. In college, I had just gone along with the crowd. I was adrift in steering currents coming from my culture, my family, my peer group.

In reaction, I began a lifelong effort to define who I am (and not let others define me), where I am going, what I believe and value, and why --and I am a damned sight better and stronger person for it That journey has been aided by the acquisition of knowledge from many sectors and disciplines, related tools of thinking and analysis. and having undertaken and achieved actions of moral and social value. Had I not, I would be like all others who have not undertaken that quest -- adrift in the steering currents of the society and culture surrounding them. I genuinely believe that only those who have also undertaken that quest truly understand themselves. If that bothers you, so be it.