Just a handful of years

No one should get the idea that I'm making fun of people who love their country. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I am merely saying that I, personally, don't understand the fascination, because you are born where you are born by mere chance and whatever it is you call your country today might something very different tomorrow.

What I suspect lies behind these feelings, though, may be worth thinking about, namely, our common, individual desire to belong: to be a part of something meaningful, to be accepted, to know there is something greater than ourselves, something that gives us a feeling of safety, security, and being welcome ... somewhere we are not just lone, often lost, individuals, isolated, alienated, and lonely.

We humans are, at bottom, social creatures. We need and desire the company of others. We're not rugged individualists who can survive on our own (well, except for a couple of eccentric hermits). We function best in groups, and this is OK. It's what makes us what we are and it is something we need to seriously recognize and acknowledge, not merely hoot and holler about from time to time. It's never about just "I" or "me", part of being human is knowing and embracing "we". Studies have shown that we do best in groups that do not exceed about 150 individuals. Fortunately, for us, each of our 150-people groupings overlap with other 150-people groupings of people in our group. While the intensity of the relationship decreases, the principle of relationship remains: we cooperate, we try to get along with one another, not necessarily compete. Cooperation is the natural state of being, not competition.

Obviously, that's not how things are in the world today, for a whole litany of reasons, most of them bad ones. It is unfortunate that things have developed this way, for our world is not a better place for it. We have inverted the natural state of things, from cooperation to competition, and while we have made great advances in some areas, we have ruined and destroyed a lot along the way. I think we can get just as far, less destructively, if we are true to who we are. It's time to change our minds and shake off that which is simply alien to our nature.

If anything, this simple message is at the heart of just about everything I have been posting on this blog for the last five years. The official anniversary is tomorrow. A lot of words have flowed over the network in that time, to be sure, but when one writes, one always wonders whether one is making any sense as well. Anyone who has ever tried to find something worthwhile to say for any period of time, regardless how short, knows precisely what I'm talking about. For some, five years is nothing, but for others it's half a decade, a significant chunk of life. I would be lying if I said I was weary of writing, but it is not always easy to find the right words to say what it is I really mean. Sometimes it flows, and sometimes it is simply very frustrating.

On this occasion, then, I would like to thank all of you who bother to read these posts. Whether you agree or not does not matter: I write so that you can read, and I appreciate that you do. For those whose feel their toes have been stepped on, I'm sorry, but I can only call things as I see them. I would be doing both you and me a disservice to simply be agreeable all the time. We're allowed to and should disagree on things, for it is only in the interaction, in the dialog, that truth may be found.

None of us is born with the Truth. We all have it search for it together.

President's Day

This weekend is a holiday weekend in the States, and if you ever thought you'd forget that fact, you're terribly mistaken. Even if you only watch a little TV, you won't escape the commercials, and you won't escape the sales going on for every consumer item, large or small, just to celebrate this day. After all, what could be more fitting than taking a holiday weekend, one of those long weekends American loves so well, to pay homage to ... presidents?

Yep, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were both Aquarians. In the search for a way of avoiding offering more vacation time, those two birthdays were put together to be celebrated on the third Monday in February, and to be henceforth known as President's Day.

Two of the greatest icons of American history: the Father of the Country (Washington, first president, perpetuated on the ubiquitous one-dollar bill) and the Signer of the Emancipation Proclamation (Lincoln, 16th president, during the Civil War and perpetuated on the five-dollar bill) get to share a holiday all their own. Of course, the prominence in American society ... or should I say the American economy (I'm not sure there's much of the former anymore, but I'm convinced there's a lot of the latter) ... of these two gentlemen on the country's currency is really the tip-off to the holiday just ahead: buy, buy, buy, buy, buy.

I don't doubt for a minute that this is exactly what all good Americans will do this holiday weekend. We may like history, but we love today. And the more we spend today, the brighter the future ... or so the mantra goes. I still think, though, that a little more emphasis on history, particularly recent history, could also be in order. After all, most of the folks I've been talking to lately don't seem to be quite as optimistic as they used to be.

Reality: what a concept

Did you ever wonder what is real? I don't mean just reacting to a stupid statement or being involved in some terribly inexplicable situation. No, I mean "real" in the real sense of the word.

Did you ever ask yourself if you weren't perhaps in some alternate reality in which the laws of physics and behavior that you thought you understood just didn't apply? I don't mean that jaw-dropping reaction to something someone says or does. No, I mean "reality" in the real sense of the word.

OK, maybe there's been a science-fiction story or two too many recently. Maybe it was that last old episode of Twilight Zone I found online. Or maybe, just maybe, it's being somewhere you thought you were familiar with only to realize that even though you spent a good portion of your life there, you might as well be visiting a foreign country. Who knows?

I actually think I'm starting to get where writers get their material. Every good comedian I've ever known insists they don't make up their material, they just take it from everyday life. What's good enough for comedians, must be good enough for the rest of those who write. You don't have to make it up at all. You just have to look around you.

Could it be that the best fiction going is reality?