EVERY YEAR, BEFORE MY BIRTHDAY, my sister asks what I would like. My answer is always the same: “I already have everything.” That’s not intended as a self-proclamation of inner nobility, but because I truly am comfortable with what I have, warts, patches, blue skies and all.
Of course … that’s not to say that there aren’t a few things that I could use or would like; their presence would enhance, but their absence does not detract from, my life and by extension that of those around me:
- A working lightsaber, phaser or rubber-band machine gun
- A functional jetpack, hovercraft, or warp-capable spaceship camper
- Pair of blue jeans, size 36-29
- Pair of grey or khaki slacks, size 36-29
- Several black long-sleeved T-shirts, size L
- Socks, grey or black cotton
- Cast-iron skillet
- A pea coat
- Flight lessons (single-engine private)
- A gift certificate for Artscroll, Feldheim, Orion Telescopes or Archie McPhee
- A functioning national health-care system, especially now that my COBRA benefits have run out and I am still undiagnosedly disabled
- A successful diagnosis of and treatment for chronic pain, nausea and dizziness
- Knowledge of and conversation with extraterrestrial sentience
- Or at least the discovery of some sort of extremophilic goo on Europa, or Ganymede, or Titan, or Mars
- A full set of TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY and SW:CW DVDs
- An implemented solution to the Arab/Israeli conflict
- What the hell, all conflicts
- An end to the militant ignorance in our national discourse
- And the uncivil snark in our civic discourse
- And the attituder-than-thou vacuousness in our popular culture
- More compassion for everyone, by everyone
- Bring the boys (and girls, now war-weary men and women) back home
- Total conversion of the world’s economies to a moneyless libertarianism
- Some sort of remote-control robot servant, with laser beams, a big cooler and a self-cleaning hibachi.
That’s the view from approaching 48. (Which I will turn at 12:55 a.m., Monday, March 22, 2010. Wheee.)
Neal @ March 17, 2010
MORE ON THE EFFABLE FRAMING of ineffability: Back in November, I wrote a flashfictional fable (or, if you will, a flashfable (c) 2010 Neal Ross Attinson) “Awe and Inquiry”. I called it that because it seemed an apt metaphor for one variety of spiritual experience (plus, I like the way it sets up the punchline).
Once it scrolls off the front page, I tend to forget what I’ve written. Imagine my pleasure to find “Awe and Inquiry” being read, not once, but several times — onvce a day for the last couple weeks, in fact. According to my .log files, it’s sweeping Eurasia one computer at a time: England, Sweden, Denmark, Ukraine, Moscow, the Netherlands, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran and, just this evening, Prague.
I have no idea why, but it doesn’t seem to be a series of globetrotting bots so much as a closed connection within the (real and original) Matrix. To everyone who’s wandered by here, including the Brit who found me while Googling “Robert anton wilson recipe golem” on his or her iPhone: thank you for reading. Really, thank you. After all — it’s why I write.
Neal @ March 15, 2010
