Think about shoes. On my days off I wear running shoes. I need the arch support and the cushion. But many of my friends ask me why I wear those shoes, only kids wear those shoes. But I look at the pointy-toed shoes women wear and I wonder about how silly it is to be so vain as to wear something as painful as those things.

So what are we really thinking about each other? We wonder why on Earth are they drying fish on the clothes line (if it's a sunny and reasonably dry day, the fish will dry quickly and shouldn't be much of a health hazard) and they wonder why we eat so much fast food. We wonder why they spit on the sidewalk, and they wonder why we leave a huge carbon trail behind us. We wonder why they can't make tap water drinkable, and they wonder why we wash our clothes so much. We wonder why their kids spend so much time on school work, and they wonder why our kids use drugs, drink alcohol, have weapons and use violence to solve problems. We wonder why their classrooms are messy on the first day of school and they wonder why so many foreign teachers can't do simple algebra, chemistry, physics, or have written articles or books for publication. (They probably also wonder why some many foreign teachers can't pitch in and help set up classrooms.)

We wonder about their conformity and they wonder about our dissent. (Or is it the other way around?)