It's a driver's market. They are going to go where they can get the best rate.

You have to treat the drivers you do have now with respect, and we have the best compensation package in the business. Our dock workers are encouraged to obtain their (commercial driver's license). If they have it, they get paid a little more money.

Everyone is worried about the driver shortage.

While we are running some 7-8 percent ahead of last year both in tonnage and revenue, we feel we could be much stronger without the union's activities. They've had very limited success with (organizing) our employees. So now they are trying to intimidate our customers.

We're expecting anything from the Teamsters at any time. No day is a particularly good or bad day. We don't feel they have the numbers to seriously hurt this company. That's the bottom line. We are prepared.

Certainly we can say that the pace of modern life, increased and supported by our technology in general and our personal electronics in particular, has resulted in a short attention span and an addiction to the influx of information. A mind so conditioned has little opportunity to think critically, and even less chance to experience life deeply by being in the present moment. A complex life with complicated activities, relationships and commitments implies a reflexive busy-ness that supplants true thinking and feeling with knee-jerk reactions. It is a life high in stress and light on substance, at least in the spiritually meaningful dimensions of being.