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Many things should never be compromised; things such as honesty, truthfulness, and compassion. These are basic virtues, and when they are absent, disagreements result. When virtue is absent, a solution will be difficult to find. For example; if one or more parties are greedy, hateful, or can’t see the situation clearly, polarization will be the outcome.

Seeing clearly is a rarity. Our vision is usually skewed by an agenda of some kind, which involves something we either want badly, or already have and want to hold onto. If it weren’t for desire, conflict would be the rarity, instead of seeing clearly being the rarity.

Current divisive issues are good examples of strong wanting – wanting things to go our way. Typically, we see only one side of a disagreement simply because of the strength of our convictions. The question is; are our convictions truths, or merely opinions? If we see them as truths, how can compromise be possible?

Therefore, in order to compromise, we must sort out what is opinion and what is truth, and whether or not truth is something that we can define. Is truth static, that is; is our truth something we can count on regardless of circumstances? If it is, then how can there be disagreements, unless, of course, someone else’s truth is different from ours! Then, we must question truth itself.

Are there different truths? Perhaps we are deceiving ourselves if we think that truth is a commodity we can capture for ourselves, something not always moving. The truth is; truth is slippery! Perhaps the truth doesn’t exist as a concept, and only exists in the circumstances of each moment.

A blanket disavowal or acceptance of something as a truth cannot react to an immediate situation. What is happening at this very moment will always beg for clear action outside the parameters of concepts and conclusions. If we are shackled by our truths and convictions, by our past conditionings that are no more than our thoughts and opinions, we will never be able to react appropriately. Seeing clearly in each moment, moment to moment, might just be the ultimate truth, but that’s why it’s so elusive; it’s ever changing. You cannot lay a hand on it.

Right action results from seeing each moment clearly, and each moment is different from the last. Therefore, each moment requires its own type of action. Living in the past or considering the future takes us out of the moment and catapults us back or forward into ideas, and ideas are much too slow to react in the immediacy of the moment. Then we find ourselves paralyzed, confused by concepts because thought is always after the fact; only truth is immediately in sync with the fact.

When we are unable to live each moment, laws and rules become necessary. Natural virtue; compassion, honesty, and truthfulness arise in each moment, but when we are not in that moment with them, when we are caught in our mind games of thought and concept, virtue becomes lost. Then we need decrees and commandments, because we are too confused and paralyzed to react from our hearts. Unlawful acts never come from the heart, always from confused minds; minds that are neurotic and obsessed because the criminal mind believes in thought, and believes that thought is the truth, that thought is actually himself or herself, and their actions always follow the dictates of these thoughts.

All thought is dead. Thought happens after the immediacy of each moment and is merely a record – not the creativity of aware beings. Creativity is too alive, too engaged to stop long enough to dwell in the past in thought, which is much too slow. Thought is not only slow, but thought is the past, and the past projected into the future. Therefore, thought is never real, thought is unreal, it distances you from the reality of the moment, even though this is where most of us spend our entire existence; lost in thought.

This explains why compromise and finding the middle ground is so difficult; we are caught in concrete cement jackets of concept and thought without any possibility of a live interchange of immediate experience. We talk at each other instead of with each other, and instead of finding new creative solutions; we fight over things that have happened years ago, never seeing that this is all in the past and that things have changed. We do this because we believe in our thoughts, no different from the criminal, and because of this, we are capable of neurotic activity. It only depends upon how far we are pushed or how much we want things to go our way.

Look at the world; Christians fighting Muslims, Hindus fighting Buddhists, and all because of concrete opinions about who’s ideas are truth, or who will dominate a piece of geography. God forbid that someone who believes other than us would move in next door!

Would the world be a better place without strong religious beliefs that only seem to separate us? I don’t know. Is religion what keeps people in line, or do people keep in line because of a basic human element, a natural virtue that separates us from the animals? Does religion therefore only divide us and cause bloodshed? These are questions that any free thinker should ask, because when we are in the moment, without the burden of the past or fear of the future, none of these concepts exist. In the moment, religion doesn’t exist. Religion is only an afterthought, after the ineffable is touched for a moment.

Touching that which is called God, or Reality, or Universal Truth, or whatever we wish to call it can never be done outside of this precious moment. If we are caught up in our concepts and thoughts, we will never experience the only thing that truly changes lives.

The possibility of this experience belongs to all of us, and if we ever are able to understand this universality, the world will become a more peaceful place. It all begins with each of us finding the middle ground.

E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Insight Center, SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com His twenty-eight years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His book, A Year to Enlightenment (Career Press/New Page Books) is now available at major bookstores and online retailers.

Visit AYearToEnlightenment.com AYearToEnlightenment.com

It took only days for the markets to react to the perceived needed increase in building materials in the storm ravaged southern costal areas of the United States. It took only a matter of weeks for the storm to have a major effect on the supply and price of available materials on hand nation wide. Some things like plywood and other forms of sheeting were in high demand just prier to the disaster, being used as damage control measures, and now even in higher demand after Katrina’s passing.

Due to the vast amount of damage, and the material needed to rebuild those damaged areas, supplier seeing that shortages in production were inevitable, immediately raised prices to reflect the coming shortages. But the extent of damage was far greater then anyone had anticipated. Reports of damage took weeks and in some cases months to filter into the big picture. All the while suppliers pushed production plants into high gear to try to meet the staggering new demands on materials.

The problems of production quickly became apparent with major shortages in raw material as a result of the damage to southern sea ports where much of the raw materials used in production are received from suppliers around the world. Many of the damaged ports utilized special handling equipment and procedures that would be difficult to duplicate quickly in other sea ports around the country. These post Katrina developments all served to put a server strangle hold on production of Roofing material as well as many other building materials.

Roofing material suppliers diverted in transit shipments to staging areas close to heavily damaged areas. In many cases, larger warehoused stocks of tiles, shingles, metal roofing and related materials were snapped up from large to moderate distributors and transported to Katrina affected areas, leaving many areas of the country with little or no available roofing materials.

Some mistakes were made in the redistribution of roofing materials. Costal areas that are subject to hurricanes have special codes in place that set specific standards for roofing materials, meaning that roofing materials that are approved for use in Nebraska are not necessarily certified for use in hurricane prone regions of the country. Yet virtually all roofing materials were subjected to large quantity redistributions it would seem. One speculation is that companies were hoping for some new guidelines to be put in place that would allow them to use the currently unapproved materials by utilizing upgraded and modified installation methods that in theory would satisfy the roof testing standards. But this is only speculation.

Never the less it quickly became apparent to contractors and home owners nation wide that going to the local lumber yard or Lowes’ or other building supply store and obtaining roofing materials will be a much more expensive and challenging experience, possibly for some time to come. It is not uncommon for local distributors to have to wait weeks or even months for roofing materials to become available. Even those materials that are not costal approved. The reason for this type of shortage is caused by the shift in manufacturing to produce more coastally approved materials, which is where the largest demand in usage is in the current market.

The shortage in conventional roofing materials has brought with it a renewed interest in less conventional roofing ideas in many areas of the country. Metal roofing which some years ago, was commonly thought to be reserved for commercial buildings, is now growing in popularity with home owners. New concepts in metal roofing systems as well as new designs have made it an appealing alternative to such things as asphalt shingles and clay or concrete tiles. Metal roofing in its infancy was less then esthetically pleasing to the eye. New designs have emerged in recent years that can mimic almost any kind of roofing material, making it one of the more versatile roofing materials available.

Due to the large amount of new and repair construction taking place in storm damaged areas, metal roofing too has come to be in short supply along with all other roofing materials, and may remain so for some time to come. Only about halfway through this year’s hurricane season, no major storms causing any significant damage have hit landfall in the United States. But should that change, and a storm would happen to cause even moderate damage along any of the nations cost line, the results could be even more devastating to the roofing and general construction industry, the effects of which will be felt by consumers for years to come.

The shortage in roofing materials, such as clay and concrete tiles has spawned a new industry so to speak; roofing salvage. With material increasingly hard to acquire, there are companies that specialize in sorting through discarded roofing materials searching for undamaged, usable materials that people are willing to pay for in order to complete restorations or repairs.

The total affect of Katrina will ultimately have on the roofing materials industry is hard to speculate on. Will prices continue to rise at the rate we have seen this last year? No one can say for sure, the determining factors are too great. Basic laws of economics apply, low supply plus high demand always drives prices up. Where will it stabilize? Again there is no way to accurately forecast the supply and demand issue long term.

What is clear is that raw material supply lines are opening up again, which is easing the manufacturing bottle neck slightly. It still may be quite some time before the local supplies have stocks affording customers reasonable onsite selections again. It will be a fact of life, that consumers ultimately will pay higher prices.

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