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When the age of the machine began, it was also the age of the restoration of humanity. With the universal income scheme came national and international volunteering schemes. Finally, we could do the work we loved, get the training we needed, follow our hearts. It was true freedom. We took care of nature and each other using old school and high tech; we had real communities and festivals and dance.
Our science found cost-free and easy ways to prevent problems rather than the most profitable ways to manage yet never solve them. With less stress we became healthier, we learned more easily, studied because it was the most interesting thing to do. We played sports again, played and laughed so much more.
I think, back in your time you never realised what the media had become. Perhaps once it was innocent, encouraging what folks felt was already there, but by 2018 it was a huge part of leading humanity to be indifferent to the needs of others, the self above all.
It is a fact that testosterone does not make people more violent, but acts to boost actions that improve social status. Thus, in a world where the "best a man can be" is kind, warm, nurturing, protective, loving, the master of a craft, a philosopher, athletic... that's what boys will be. Your media made the boys and girls sick, then there was the social media, the cruel education system, the financial system... Here, in the future, we are amazed your kids did as well as they did under all that pressure, that they fought their way out of so many layers of cleverly designed psychological warfare built because of greed... well that and envy, sloth, pride, gluttony...
We learned our brain science; we learned how to love properly; we learned how to take care of the environment; we use our brains to heal instead of harm; we learned how to value all kinds of work. How did you ever think that someone chopping down a forest for international trade was more important than the mother who stays home to raise her kids?
We only ever see blue while the sun shines; so while it's there, the blue, take heart, for in these moments you are far closer to being healed than those who take comfort in the coldness of a void.
The shoppers are most odd, it's as if they see pizza, ice-cream and staff as much the same... products, things to acquire and the means to acquire them. It's a disconnect of sorts, a brain-blip. If these people met the cashier at a barbecue they'd greet them, ask about their kids, enquire after their health and make jokes... but here there's a coldness, a rudeness that comes of seeing them in the same way as a product... "I pay for this food, so I pay for you, so you are a living robot, a possession that services me..."
Mavis is different though. She talks to everyone as if she's met them at a family barbecue. In moments she's having a real chat, the kind of exchange that is kind and emotionally generous. She simply see's people as people, no labels, ever. They are folks being kind enough to help and she is thankful for their help, feeling part of a community wherever she is... even here in these chilly aisles.
Will power is a finite resource, it burns energy in the brain; then once you run out, you give in. So, for the love of God, stop asking me to make all these pointless choices and then wondering why I can't stick to my resolutions. It's like running an athlete nonstop and then wondering why they can't sprint. So, I promise you, give me some peace, give me a world where everything I do isn't morally wrong in some way, then I can be the person I need to be for all of us, me included.
After every mountain peak there's another, yet the climbing is everything. With each stretch I reach higher; with each stride I'm stronger, I keep gaining a little more to carry me through the times of hardship. I feel the winter wind as a coldness to teach me to stay warm inside. I feel sharp rocks as a whisper to walk lightly. Those times the clouds shower me with their icy love, I let it remind me of the tears I prevent by walking these ways... and it makes me move all the faster. That's why I win, 'cause I learn from what's hard and sprint when the weather is fair. So if you wanna walk with me, that would be so sweet, just watch me and learn. One day you'll be the master teaching and I'll be in my rocking chair on some sunny porch. So, are you coming or what?
It was the giggles that were the sails upon our boat, the laughter, the smiles. We saw the funny in everything and that was our bond. We could be serious too; we loved deeply of others more than is generally accepted... so I guess the humour was how we let out the tension that kind of love brings. In those silly moments, we were perfect, and they are the sweetness I need in rough times. That's what a friend can do... it's the love that makes doors in emotional brick walls, the love that makes everything possible.
When we are afraid, when we are under stress, we speed up our brain's "angry-face search app" but, as we get faster, we get less accurate. We start to see angry faces that aren't there, reading calm faces as angry. And the stress hormones don't choose what we fear, they amp up whatever we've learned to fear. That's why society falls apart under ongoing stress - cracking us at our weak-points, spreading hate and indifference like a damn virus.
I love you... kinda. Um, I guess what my brain is trying to spit up is... I would love you if you were kinder. It's just that when it comes to our emotional bank account, you take far more than you give. And, well, I'm okay with giving a lot, but you've become so entitled to it that the most I can do is the minimum you'll accept... and even then you bite me often and look down on everything I'm good at. Even now I can see the blame in your eyes, the disgust multiplying at my "failure," anything but face the true reason for your pain. It's straight from the cold-fish-playbook-101... make the victim a villain as fast as possible, often with a simplistic moralistic argument that takes into account none of the emotional capital. You're a relationship-vampire and I'm done being drained.
Grumpy is when my inner dragon comes to play, it's something I'm working on controlling... but, the thing is, it's just there to protect me, as a friend. And it comes with the snarls and the barks and my job is to ensure it's not hurting those I love. I think we all have an inner dragon, its' just that some folks have never had to summon theirs and I'm happy that they have been so blessed... because once you have one, it guards and seeks potential danger, alert to the smallest of things, only sleeping when everything feels safe. So yes, my grumpiness is me, it's my pet dragon, but it sure would help a lot if things around me were calm.
In that time before people were writers, when the spoken word was the way of the world, we were the wise women. They would come to us with a choice, faces of puzzlement and fear, and we would ease it. They would ask, "Which?" We would find the way of the great spirit, the one who is love, heal their worried soul and they would be happy once more. Then came the fear of the paranoid ones, and "Which?" became "Witch!" We always were your friends, we who could use simple words to heal and feel the goodness of God giving subtle directions, answering prayers in clues for eyes of the soulful. So please come again, yet feel that you say, "Which?" and we will help the best we are able.
Come to me in your summer time, when our laughter is as the daisies in the grass. Come to me in your winter time, when you feel as if ice freezes your heart and blood. For I am your shelter, your guardian, your forever home... always with an open door, the key always in your pocket, and a love that is always yours.
The autumn breeze carries fine drops, each one a promise of the rain to come. As newly chilled air moves the clouds, streaks of brilliance break through from a patient sun. I let my eyes rest for a moment, feeling the ambiance of street, hearing the sounds, taking in the aroma, letting my brain be still. Then when I want to see, it's as if I just arrived here, beamed in from some other place and time, able to see clearly.
