"Absinthe Makes My Heart Grow Greener"

Thanks to Rita for the title of this blog entry. Thanks to Ashleigh for this thought: "Games for the elderly: CONNECT THE DOTAGE." At lunch today, I saw happiness in action: a Chinese owner, an Hispanic server, customers of European, African and Indian descent. I can die happy any day now - my city is integrated socially. Thanks to Jason G last night for the draughts of Highland Gaelic Ale and Warsteiner König Ludwig Weissbier.

Every now and then I wake up in the morning with the images of every one of the billions of people alive and dead and their versions of what life is all about - no one culture dominating the other except in the minds of individuals and their belief in mob rule. Today was one of those days. In the half-dream state I saw every one of us laughing joyously at the other, able to see our faults humourously in the eyes of everyone else. For us, death is a joke, either as a transition into another life of some sort or as fodder for the next joker to pick up. Let us laugh and enjoy ourselves. Never speak of ill of someone absent from you (no matter whether dead or alive) - that person misses the chance to come back with a funny one-liner - otherwise, say something hilarious that we can all laugh at.

We don't have to like each other but we can laugh together if we're willing to drop down our guard and not take ourselves too seriously. How else can we overcome the fear-mongering and hate that warring factions incite us to reiterate?

I read an article about "Islamic extremists" causing the deteriorating conditions in Somalia that's trying to spread into Somaliland. The author of the article was spreading hate in the language of love. What is an Islamic extremist? It is a man-child, typically, trained to hate the world and kill others because of poor economic conditions. What's the old saying about turning swords into plowshares? I can't remember the saying but I remember its meaning - we are capable of raising one another up or tearing one another down, sometimes at the same time.

Testosterone-based machine gun battles in the name of religious extremism - no matter which religion one person attaches to its action (Christian, Islamist, Zionist, Hindi, Buddhist, Atheist, Scientist, Apache, Shoshone, Cherokee, Eskimo, Ainu, Aborginal, Aztec, Mayan, Incan) - are stoppable when we want to act upon them and redirect them for other purposes.

I am a male of my species. I have testosterone running through my blood. I see red and feel the emotion "fight" not "flight." I am imperfect. I like watching a good fight on the futbol/football/rugby field or in the boxing/kickfighting ring. I am not a woman but I am born of woman. Women are half the population of my species. They own the rights to this planet as much as my gender does. I will not change who I am but I am willing to listen to others who are not like me and change my actions. I can have conflicting thoughts in my head and still be myself. Two-dimensional activities are for cartoon characters, not members of my species. I can see the world through the eyes of heterosexuals and non-heterosexuals, knowing that many species increase their chance of survival through multigenderal beliefs, just as I understand that to have a mainly vegetarian diet to increase my health, I can still eat meat sometimes, too.

Why are people easily swayed to have single-issue minds and beliefs? Because it's easier on the brain, I think. Not all of us have been trained at an early age to hold conflicting images in our thoughts and still get up in the morning to conquer the world.

Living ain't easy. We die of diseases we never heard of. We get killed by people who never knew us, their addled brains sending vehicles directly into our path out of nowhere. We kill each other over a handful of coins.

But we can still laugh at ourselves anyway. If you can't laugh, then why live? If you can't see that all your anger and rage about how to live life is just as ridiculous as the person's anger and rage who's facing you while both of you have conceived and grown successful children, then don't get in an argument to begin with.

Today I am happy and full of mirth. I have looked at people who looked at me angrily and we both ended up smiling at each other. There is nothing more fulfilling than that, other than perhaps the smile of a baby's face who was crying, who saw me and then who smiled. The smile of that baby is deep-down in every one of us, if we care to remember. I care. I care about you. I'm willing to make fun of myself and I'm willing to make fun of you. We don't have to like each other. We can still jump into the ring and bloody each other up. But we can get out later and laugh about it over a glass of your favorite liquid - water, tea, coffee, alcohol, sports drink - you name it.

If you choose to use mechanical weapons of war to face each other, I won't stop you. Just don't ask me to join. Don't try to brainwash me into believing what you're doing. Set aside a very large area for you and your opponent(s) to play wargames, telling the people in that area your purpose, especially those who are illiterate and don't read the news - in this case, ignorance is an excuse for not fighting. Feel free to recruit whomever will play along. If that's your business, then have at it. My fight's not with you. My friends and associates use mechanical devices for other purposes, some not friendly but all in the pursuit of happiness.

Gandhi was right but so was Genghis Khan. We are a world of people with differences. How we handle those differences depends on you. There is no right way. There is only your way. My way or the highway, as we say. Choose your playpen and don't get angry if someone won't join you. There's a world full of playpens to choose from. Choose wisely. If you get suckered into climbing into someone else's playpen, it's your own fault - if you don't like their game, too bad. They made the rules and they own the ball, and now they own you. Every one of us has the ability to build our own playpen. I've built mine. Wanna play a game?

You do? Okay, my game goes like this - I pass a secret on to you, whispering as quietly as I can and then you pass that secret on to someone else, and so on, until...