ONE

What if one comes up with enough ideas to last a life time
What good would they be if one does not write them down
One wonders if success is measured by how many awards one wins
Or is it measured by reaching the best sellers list or having a hit movie adaptation
Could it be how many lives that are touched through ones work
What if that number is only ONE
How do the words written on the paper differ from the words on the screen
What does the written word mean
Can the true interpretation be gleaned at first glance
Are the true wonders absorbed by the careful and vigilant

Star-Child

I have just finished another read through of, 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke and I have to say that it will forever be one of my favorite books. The chapters are crisp, to the point and leave you turning the page even if it is two in the morning and you have to go to work in five hours. As I read it, my inner thoughts of creativity are sparked and my mind envisions the wonderful sights painted by Mr. Clarke, seen through the eyes of Dave Bowman. The concepts put forth in this science fiction novel will propel mankind forward towards a future where, hopefully we realize our full potential. Who knows, maybe one day each of us will become a Star-Child.

Questions of a Loner

As I approach the big 3-0, I find that most of my time is spent writing and contemplating the past, present and future. When I was younger I always thought I would be married with children by this time. But as the saying goes, ‘If you want to see God laugh then tell him your plans’.

This constant contemplation has ultimately got me to thinking about the process of raising our children. I say our (even though I have none myself – I do have nieces and nephews) children because it takes a village to raise a child. Now-a-days we seem more concerned with our own well-being as opposed to that of the future. Because ultimately, the children are our future and pretty much everything we do effects their inheritance (whether its stocks and bonds and trust funds or this big blue ball of a planet we call earth).

Therefore I ask myself the question, how are we raising them. We try to protect them from things they are not ready for but will eventually face in their lifetime and hope for the best. How do we guide them towards who they are meant to be? Does independence and individuality even matter anymore? Or do our personalities become smudged, smeared and mixed together into the ‘group think’ mentality as we grow older and conform? Is it more difficult by far to be independent of our inner shackles that we place upon ourselves as opposed to the shackles others place on us? How does the individual define what it is to be thyself, to be a man, woman or a human being for that matter? What are the fears of young Americans, of young people across the globe? How often do our nightmares become reality which inevitably holds us back from taking a step over the unseen and into the pitch black darkness of the unknown?

The only answer I can come up with is that, if we attempt to understand the darkness in our hearts that each human possess, spend some quality time with ourselves, and thus know your true self. 

I Am

I am an artist
I am a writer
I am the creative juice that oozes through the pores of late night dreams
I am an after thought at the end of the story
I am strong, yet humble, powerful and graceful
I am the legal owner, the elite protector
I am the sun in the dark
I am a wink and a kiss on the cheek
I am a nerd, a geek
I am the secret you quietly keep
I know who I am
I am a man
Yes, the A man, the B man, the C man, even the X man
I am the next man, the best man, the He man, the Ice man, the Super man
I am the it man
I am the sh!t man

By Andre Alan

Mark Twain

The Creator sat upon the throne, thinking. Behind him stretched the illimitable continent of heaven, steeped in a glory of light and color; before him rose the black night of Space, like a wall. His mighty bulk towered rugged and mountain-like into the zenith, and His divine head blazed there like a distant sun. At His feet stood three colossal figures, diminished to extinction, almost, by contrast -- archangels -- their heads level with His ankle-bone.

When the Creator had finished thinking, He said, "I have thought. Behold!"

He lifted His hand, and from it burst a fountain-spray of fire, a million stupendous suns, which clove the blackness and soared, away and away and away, diminishing in magnitude and intensity as they pierced the far frontiers of Space, until at last they were but as diamond nailheads sparkling under the domed vast roof of the universe.

At the end of an hour the Grand Council was dismissed.

They left the Presence impressed and thoughtful, and retired to a private place, where they might talk with freedom. None of the three seemed to want to begin, though all wanted somebody to do it. Each was burning to discuss the great event, but would prefer not to commit himself till he should know how the others regarded it. So there was some aimless and halting conversation about matters of no consequence, and this dragged tediously along, arriving nowhere, until at last the archangel Satan gathered his courage together -- of which he had a very good supply -- and broke ground. He said: "We know what we are here to talk about, my lords, and we may as well put pretense aside, and begin. If this is the opinion of the Council -- "

"It is, it is!" said Gabriel and Michael, gratefully interrupting.

"Very well, then, let us proceed. We have witnessed a wonderful thing; as to that, we are necessarily agreed. As to the value of it -- if it has any -- that is a matter which does not personally concern us. We can have as many opinions about it as we like, and that is our limit. We have no vote. I think Space was well enough, just as it was, and useful, too. Cold and dark -- a restful place, now and then, after a season of the overdelicate climate and trying splendors of heaven. But these are details of no considerable moment; the new feature, the immense feature, is -- what, gentlemen?"

"The invention and introduction of automatic, unsupervised, self-regulating law for the government of those myriads of whirling and racing suns and worlds!"

"That is it!" said Satan. "You perceive that it is a stupendous idea. Nothing approaching it has been evolved from the Master Intellect before. Law --Automatic Law -- exact and unvarying Law -- requiring no watching, no correcting, no readjusting while the eternities endure! He said those countless vast bodies would plunge through the wastes of Space ages and ages, at unimaginable speed, around stupendous orbits, yet never collide, and never lengthen nor shorten their orbital periods by so much as the hundredth part of a second in two thousand years! That is the new miracle, and the greatest of all -- Automatic Law! And He gave it a name -- the LAW OF NATURE -- and said Natural Law is the LAW OF GOD -- interchangeable names for one and the same thing."

"Yes," said Michael, "and He said He would establish Natural Law -- the Law of God -- throughout His dominions, and its authority should be supreme and inviolable."

"Also," said Gabriel, "He said He would by and by create animals, and place them, likewise, under the authority of that Law."

"Yes," said Satan, "I heard Him, but did not understand. What is animals, Gabriel?"

"Ah, how should I know? How should any of us know? It is a new word."

[Interval of three centuries, celestial time -- the equivalent of a hundred million years, earthly time. Enter a Messenger-Angel.]

"My lords, He is making animals. Will it please you to come and see?"

They went, they saw, and were perplexed. Deeply perplexed -- and the Creator noticed it, and said, "Ask. I will answer."

"Divine One," said Satan, making obeisance, "what are they for?"

"They are an experiment in Morals and Conduct. Observe them, and be instructed."

There were thousands of them. They were full of activities. Busy, all busy -- mainly in persecuting each other. Satan remarked -- after examining one of them through a powerful microscope: "This large beast is killing weaker animals, Divine One."

"The tiger -- yes. The law of his nature is ferocity. The law of his nature is the Law of God. He cannot disobey it."

"Then in obeying it he commits no offense, Divine One?"

"No, he is blameless."

"This other creature, here, is timid, Divine One, and suffers death without resisting."

"The rabbit -- yes. He is without courage. It is the law of his nature -- the Law of God. He must obey it."

"Then he cannot honorably be required to go counter to his nature and resist, Divine One?"

"No. No creature can be honorably required to go counter to the law of his nature -- the Law of God."

After a long time and many questions, Satan said, "The spider kills the fly, and eats it; the bird kills the spider and eats it; the wildcat kills the goose; the -- well, they all kill each other. It is murder all along the line. Here are countless multitudes of creatures, and they all kill, kill, kill, they are all murderers. And they are not to blame, Divine One?"

"They are not to blame. It is the law of their nature. And always the law of nature is the Law of God. Now -- observe -- behold! A new creature -- and the masterpiece -- Man!"

Men, women, children, they came swarming in flocks, in droves, in millions.

"What shall you do with them, Divine One?"

"Put into each individual, in differing shades and degrees, all the various Moral Qualities, in mass, that have been distributed, a single distinguishing characteristic at a time, among the nonspeaking animal world -- courage, cowardice, ferocity, gentleness, fairness, justice, cunning, treachery, magnanimity, cruelty, malice, malignity, lust, mercy, pity, purity, selfishness, sweetness, honor, love, hate, baseness, nobility, loyalty, falsity, veracity, untruthfulness -- each human being shall have all of these in him, and they will constitute his nature. In some, there will be high and fine characteristics which will submerge the evil ones, and those will be called good men; in others the evil characteristics will have dominion, and those will be called bad men. Observe -- behold -- they vanish!"

"Whither are they gone, Divine One?"

"To the earth -- they and all their fellow animals."

"What is the earth?"

"A small globe I made, a time, two times and a half ago. You saw it, but did not notice it in the explosion of worlds and suns that sprayed from my hand. Man is an experiment, the other animals are another experiment. Time will show whether they were worth the trouble. The exhibition is over; you may take your leave, my lords."

Several days passed by.

This stands for a long stretch of (our) time, since in heaven a day is as a thousand years.

Satan had been making admiring remarks about certain of the Creator's sparkling industries -- remarks which, being read between the lines, were sarcasms. He had made them confidentially to his safe friends the other archangels, but they had been overheard by some ordinary angels and reported at Headquarters.

He was ordered into banishment for a day -- the celestial day. It was a punishment he was used to, on account of his too flexible tongue. Formerly he had been deported into Space, there being nowhither else to send him, and had flapped tediously around there in the eternal night and the Arctic chill; but now it occurred to him to push on and hunt up the earth and see how the Human Race experiment was coming along.

By and by he wrote home -- very privately -- to St. Michael and St. Gabriel about it.

Written By - Mark Twain

CT STAND UP!

Star Wars Rap

Can You Relate

Relationships are tough, messy but needed for everyday human social life. When you sit down and talk to someone for thirty minutes you might just realize that you have certain intangibles in common despite their physical differences. When a group of people sits down together and bounces ideas off of one another, social norms are formulated and we get the added dynamic of understanding what it is that motivates our peers. We get an idea of what values and situations have shaped their thought process. I know that some people hope for the day when racial lines will fade into the rear view mirror of our society and we can all come together as one people; hopefully I will live to see that day.