Two weeks ago, it was errand day. I walked to town. On the way, there's a beautiful old church and out front are two large stone tablets. Since I know the commandments by heart, I'd never read the stones. But this time I did. I read them once, then twice, then three times. I'd made no mistake. Someone had messed up. One commandment was missing, and another commandment had been added.

Now, I'm not religious, but my frame of moral reference revolves around the ten commandments. I'd never realized before, how much I relied on those commandments, until I saw those stones where someone had written them down wrong.

I read them again. Yup, the commandment that says to keep the sabbath holy was missing. The new one was straight out of the Reagan playbook. Yup, the one about not coveting your neighbors wife, was followed by one that said you can't covet your neighbors possessions. The message was loud and clear - not coveting your neighbor's possessions is far more important than the sabbath.

This has bothered me so much, I won't be able to walk on by again. Next week, on errand day, I will stop in and have a talk with the preacher. I want him to know that keeping the sabbath holy was the one commandment I have always struggled with the hardest. To arrive at my age, only to discover, I could have made up my own commandments is infuriating. You have no idea how much more I could have accomplished in life, if those darned ten commandments had not forced me to think about what I was doing.

I tell this story, by way of saying, it doesn't matter how free you believe your thinking is, every thought you have began in someone else's mind.