System Requirements

I don't believe I'm important to the advance of the history of our species. I know I am because I am a member of my species. But, having no loyalty other than to my oath of monogamy, upon whose altar I burn sacrifices and divine secrets from the ashes, I ask myself why that duty alone suffices not.

It will not matter in another 50 years that at this moment the goldenrod and ironweed blooms snapped my gaze to the outdoor grid, wet from a fading mid-latitude cyclone. Yet it does matter. My voice and their purple and gold pixels on the green and brown yard background sound alike, although in my species' view voices speak louder than pollen windbags.

I ponder when in an individual's history does one purpose alone infest one's cells. A million million codependent organisms traveling as one body, limited to a century of solar revolutions and we want to focus on one set of skills? Some do, yes. So don't.

I sit here sounding out my thoughts using one medium in one language, a mirror upon which I view both my oath of monogamy and the inflexibility of settling on a single life's goal.

Survival. Living. Life. Success. Fun. Adventure. Love. Familiarity. Words that define life as an individual specimen. I crave success but I don't crave money. My monogamous partner craves money to celebrate success more comfortably, to share our love with others by buying them what they cannot afford, another definition of success.

Down the road from me, a woman, president of her local electronics business, won the opportunity to sit with Sarah Palin, representing two women's level of success. Rhetoric swirls around the event but as an independent observer, I don't care. Independence is putting our species above politics and religion, while noting where the pendulum of our species' beliefs leaves tracks in the sand for divining the future.

I have many goals at odds with each other and if I listen to the echoes of my thoughts of those goals then I can drive myself to the banana farm. Instead of forcing conflicting views in my head to conform to one world goal, I ask myself, in a moment of lucidity, lunarly plotted in someone's horror-scope, I'm sure, do my goals have to balance each other out in order to find future moments of happiness within me? No. I can desire women as sexual objects and see men as sexual peacocks and still believe our society has a place for the two genders to work on non sexually-oriented goals, with room for understanding that we're still sexual creatures, some open to sex with many, many flirting as if and some satisfied with one lifelong sexual partner.

I can dream of a space-traveling species and dream of a species dedicated to frugal living. I can see the attraction of semi-closed subcultures for homogeneous society seekers and see the value of no fences between neighbours.

My goal is the goal of life, a safe world in the midst of galactic dangers. I am not altruistic. I'm realistic. I have no fear of a single world culture. Our species is already pretty well connected, while providing safe havens for those who do not know about or who do not want to be part of the grid. World power is shared because no single person, group or country controls the world's resources except as a single species on one planet. We may bounce back and forth like sports teams trading players, but it's still a "no winner takes all" game.

I have more than I need but do the people around me have needs I can meet and still be myself? I don't know. I observe my world and look for "yes" rather than "no" or "not." I affirm my world and my place in it by writing satirical sketches. That's what I do, who I am. We are who we are, including our thoughts and actions in the moment, related to our goals. Trying to define who we are by who we are not diverts our attentions from who we are to become.

All of us know the human condition. Our thresholds for pain vary but we all know pain. Our experience of one human caring for another varies but we all know love, its highs and lows. If a neighbour wants to put up a security fence or trade barrier, so be it. At the same time, that neighbour has less say in what the neighbour association wants to do. Privacy and security are interesting concepts. We all know what humans are capable of - we can react to our worst behaviours or reach out and lift up our best behaviours. Which behaviour/condition do you wish to reinforce?