Here we are, six billion years or so in the making. Some long way we've come from the cave status, huffing around with no indoor plumbing or written language. Some way we've come.

Today, as I was coasting down Main St., on my way to school, I stopped at a red light, peering at my fellow commuters, sipping coffee, enjoying their sacred defrost and morning radio talk shows. Then, as I swiveled my head to the left, I caught a glimpse of Phoenix Park where sleeping bags and shopping carts scattered themselves among the rot iron benches. Shabby men and women laid themselves over blue chess tables like they had lost the world championship of 1981.

Some way we've come.