News You Can Use

Old words. Perspective. Change. Reality. Hope. For millions of years, mammals have roamed this planet, or so we understand our fossil history to tell us. For billions of years, life as we define it has occupied this planet. We do not know with certainty (that is, through the eyes of our species) so we let ourselves treat the record of the growth of this planet as an open debate, using doubt, logic, reason, emotion, belief and faith to move the debate forward.

I am a student of the past, especially of history that is useful to my existence today. Most of the information I need comes from observing living specimens but I also gather important data from recently dead members - those in the last few decades, centuries and millenniums (or millennia, if you prefer).

I accept that I will never know with certainty that I am a Being's personal plaything, part of a Being's belly button, or just a random output of the complexity of a universe unaware of the meaning of life. I do not need to know why I am here. I accept the fact that I am here and received ethical/moral training from others who held belief and faith in one reason why we're here.

My concern is what I'm going to do now that I'm here, when I will act upon information I have and where I will see the results of my actions reflected back to me.

Today was a work day for me. I replaced a set of leaking parts in a bathroom sink and used a hand scythe to cut down the overgrowth that blocks the view of our vehicles when leaving the driveway to enter the country road.

After finishing the work and eating a late lunch, I stood on the front porch and looked at the front yard. I kicked empty nut shells and watched insects flying in the air. An insect larva crawled across the handrail. I thought about my friends, family and business associates.

I realized that I will never be more than one person. I am not Superman. I am not able to split into multiple people and go around saving the world. I am me, happily so. But I am more than me. I am the people around me, the people I know and the history of the people I've studied. Thus I am Superspecies. Ubersapiens. Able to push over mountains and build skyscrapers in a single bound.

A friend of mine runs a plumbing repair and supply business for a couple of owners. He agonizes over whether he should take the leap and start his own business. We joked about the recent plumbing problems on the International Space Station and if there was a future for his business off-world. Plumbers In Space!! Crapman and Plunger Boy to the rescue.

We're only as strong as we think we are. Sometimes we're stronger than we think we are. I agonize over the suppression of those seeking liberty in the form of political democracy (Iran, Guinea, etc.). I know that change and hope are intertwined. I know that to succeed in the market you've got to upset the apple cart (emptying it through sales or emptying for something more beneficial to you and your customers). We overcome resistance to change by recognizing the change and its effects/affect on others, then moving to give beneficence to all involved, both the changers and the changed.

I have spent the last couple of weeks focused mainly on local inhabitants to see who I am and what I am capable of. I cannot build a story for characters to interact and succeed if I don't know what they/we are really made of.

I look at the world economy and wonder if our typical definition of economic strata - lower, middle and upper classes - is sufficient to get our species to the next level of success. If we continue to stress the differences, then we build exaggerated expectations for those moving between economic levels. I have lived and worked with people from one end of the economic spectrum to the other (although I have never personally lived long-term in extreme poverty or extreme wealth) - in all cases, I met people who had different motivations for living that were contrary to their economic and/or social structure.

We talk of envy and jealousy in relation to what we or others have. We will always have these characteristics in one form or another, integral to our genetic material as they are. If we define a perspective of perfection in how to live out the dreams of hope in our thoughts, treating ourselves and others with actions toward meeting that perfect image, then we can mute the effect that envy and jealousy have by sharing the successes our near-perfect actions achieve.

As our future plays out in front of us, we'll integrate our beliefs in one form or another, building pockets of resistance to change. My goals of perfection include looking for those pockets and seeing where resistance is necessary for our species to succeed and where resistance is detrimental to our success. I do not care what the pockets stand for or who lives in those pockets. Those people have their lives to lead. I love the people and accept they've found ways to live their lives with success for them in one form or another. I examine their successes and see if there's a way to spread the news of their success to the rest of our species. I examine their failures or negative aspects of their lives the same way.

My species is my species. We have have been here for millions of years or thousands of years but the fact is that we're here now, today, and tomorrow. History can teach us to move forward and history can hold us back. I get bored if I stand in place for too long. I want to move forward. I expect the characters in my stories will want the same thing. Time to pick up my story again and leave the local inhabitants to appear like product placement subplots/storylines woven into major shows on the tellie.