093007

 

                                                                                     Kansas City to Kearney, MO

Sunday September 30, 2007

                  
     6:12am  I'm all loaded up and ready to go. I woke up around six. I crashed out over by the Vet's Park. Not in the Vet's Park. I crashed out under these trees by the Marriot. I'll take a picture. I'm going to try and find a morning cigarette. It wasn't the Marriot the I crashed next to. It was Embassy Suites.

                   Last night I crashed out pretty early. At like nine thirty or ten. Yeah, a little bit after ten. I got enough sleep. I had woken up at four twenty and then I went back to sleep and woke up at six.

                   I'm at Westport and Broadway. I'm going to sit down on a chair and smoke a cigarette I found on the ground.

                   I'm reading Ishmael. On page 25. There's some good shit there.

"It all started a long time ago, ten or fifteen billion years ago," I began a few minutes later. "I'm not current on which theory is in the lead, the steady-state or the big-bang, but in either case the universe began a long time ago."
At that point I opened my eyes and gave Ishmael a speculative look.
He gave me one back and said, "Is that it? Is that the story?"
"No, I was just checking." I closed my eyes and began again. "And then, I don't know-I guess about six or seven billion years ago-our own solar system was born. . . . I have a picture in my mind from some childhood encyclopedia of blobs being thrown out or blobs coalescing . . . and these were the planets. Which, over the next couple billion years, cooled and solidified. . . . Well, let's see. Life appeared in the chemical broth of our ancient oceans about what-five billion years ago?"
"Three and a half or four."
"Okay. Bacteria, microorganisms evolved into higher forms, more complex forms, which evolved into still more complex forms. Life gradually spread to the land. I don't know . . . slimes at the edge of the oceans . . . amphibians. The amphibians moved inland, evolved into reptiles. The reptiles evolved into mammals. This was what? A billion years ago?"
"Only about a quarter of a billion years ago."
"Okay. Anyway, the mammals . . . I don't know. Small critters in small niches-under bushes, in the trees. . . . From the critters in the trees came the primates. Then, I don't know-maybe ten or fifteen million years ago-one branch of the primates left the trees and . . ." I ran out of steam.
"This isn't a test," Ishmael said. "The broad outlines will do-just the story as it's generally known, as it's known by bus drivers and ranch hands and senators."
"Okay," I said, and closed my eyes again. "Okay. Well, one thing led to another. Species followed species, and finally man appeared. That was what? Three million years ago?"
"Three seems pretty safe."
"Okay."
"Is that it?"
"That's it in outline."
"The story of creation as it's told in your culture."
"That's right. To the best of our present knowledge."
Ishmael nodded and told me to turn off the tape recorder. Then he sat back with a sigh that rumbled through the glass like a distant volcano, folded his hands over his central paunch, and gave me a long, inscrutable look. "And you, an intelligent and moderately well-educated person, would have me believe that this isn't a myth."
"What's mythical about it?"
"I didn't say there was anything mythical about it. I said it was a myth."
I think I laughed nervously. "Maybe I don't know what you mean by a myth."
"I don't mean anything you don't mean. I'm using the word in the ordinary sense."
"Then it's not a myth."
"Certainly it's a myth. Listen to it." Ishmael told me to rewind the tape and play it back.
After listening to it, I sat there looking thoughtful for a minute or two, for the sake of appearances. Then I said, "It's not a myth. You could put that in an eighth-grade science text, and I don't think there's a school board anywhere that would quibble with it-leaving aside the Creationists."
"I agree wholeheartedly. Haven't I said that the story is ambient in your culture? Children assemble it from many media, including science textbooks."
"Then what are you saying? Are you trying to tell me that this isn't a factual account?"
"It's full of facts, of course, but their arrangement is purely mythical."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You've obviously turned off your mind. Mother Culture has crooned you to sleep."
I gave him a hard look. "Are you saying that evolution is a myth?"
"No."
"Are you saying that man did not evolve?"
"No."
"Then what is it?"
Ishmael looked at me with a smile. Then he shrugged his shoulders. Then he raised his eyebrows.
I stared at him and thought: I'm being teased by a gorilla. It didn't help.
"Play it again," he told me.
When it was over, I said, "Okay, I heard one thing, the word appeared. I said that finally man appeared. Is that it?"
"No, it's nothing like that. I'm not quibbling over a word. It was clear from the context that the word appeared was just a synonym for evolved."
"Then what the hell is it?"
"You're really not thinking, I'm afraid. You've recited a story you've heard a thousand times, and now you're listening to Mother Culture as she murmurs in your ear: `There, there, my child, there's nothing to think about, nothing to worry about, don't get excited, don't listen to the nasty animal, this is no myth, nothing I tell you is a myth, so there's nothing to think about, nothing to worry about, just listen to my voice and go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep. . . .' "
I chewed on a lip for a while, then I said, "That doesn't help."
"All right," he said. "I'll tell you a story of my own, and maybe that'll help." He nibbled for a moment on a leafy wand, closed his eyes, and began.

This story (Ishmael said) takes place half a billion years ago-an inconceivably long time ago, when this planet would be all but unrecognizable to you. Nothing at all stirred on the land, except the wind and the dust. Not a single blade of grass waved in the wind, not a single cricket chirped, not a single bird soared in the sky. All these things were tens of millions of years in the future. Even the seas were eerily still and silent, for the vertebrates too were tens of millions of years away in the future.
But of course there was an anthropologist on hand. What sort of world would it be without an anthropologist? He was, however, a very depressed and disillusioned anthropologist, for he'd been everywhere on the planet looking for someone to interview, and every tape in his knapsack was as blank as the sky. But one day as he was moping along beside the ocean he saw what seemed to be a living creature in the shallows off shore. It was nothing to brag about, just a sort of squishy blob, but it was the only prospect he'd seen in all his journeys, so he waded out to where it was bobbing in the waves.
He greeted the creature politely and was greeted in kind, and soon the two of them were good friends. The anthropologist explained as well as he could that he was a student of life-styles and customs, and begged his new friend for information of this sort, which was readily forthcoming. "And now," he said at last, "I'd like to get on tape in your own words some of the stories you tell among yourselves."
"Stories?" the other asked.
"You know, like your creation myth, if you have one."
"What is a creation myth?" the creature asked.
"Oh, you know," the anthropologist replied, "the fanciful tail you tell your children about the origins of the world."
Well, at this, the creature drew itself up indignantly-at least as well as a squishy blob can do-and replied that his people had no such fanciful tale.
"You have no account of creation then?"
"Certainly we have an account of creation," the other snapped. "But it is definitely not a myth."
"Oh, certainly not," the anthropologist said, remembering his training at last. "I'll be terribly grateful if you share it with me."
"Very well," the creature said. "But I want you to understand that, like you, we are a strictly rational people, who accept nothing that is not based on observation, logic, and the scientific method."
"Of course, of course," the anthropologist agreed.
So at last the creature began its story. "The universe," it said, "was born a long, long time ago, perhaps ten or fifteen billion years ago. Our own solar system-this star, this planet and all the others-seem to have come into being some two or three billion years ago. For a long time, nothing whatever lived here. But then, after a billion years or so, life appeared."
"Excuse me," the anthropologist said. "You say that life appeared. Where did that happen, according to your myth-I mean, according to your scientific account."
The creature seemed baffled by the question and turned a pale lavender. "Do you mean in what precise spot?"
"No. I mean, did this happen on the land or in the sea?"
"Land?" the other asked. "What is land?"
"Oh, you know," he said, waving toward the shore, "the expanse of dirt and rocks that begins over there."
The creature turned a deeper shade of lavender and said, "I can't imagine what you're gibbering about. The dirt and rocks over there are simply the lip of the vast bowl that holds the sea."
"Oh yes," the anthropologist said, "I see what you mean, Quite. Go on."
"Very well," the other said. "For many millions of centuries the life of the world was merely microorganisms floating helplessly in a chemical broth. But little by little, more complex forms appeared: single-celled creatures, slimes, algae, polyps, and so on. "But finally," the creature said, turning quite pink with pride as he came to the climax of his story, "but finally jellyfish appeared!"

Nothing much came out of me for ninety seconds or so, except maybe waves of baffled fury. Then I said, "That's not fair."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't exactly know what I mean. You've made some sort of point, but I don't know what it is."
"You don't?"
"No, I don't."
"What did the jellyfish mean when it said, `But finally jellyfish appeared'?"
"It meant . . . that is what it was all leading up to. This is what the whole ten or fifteen billion years of creation were leading up to: jellyfish."
"I agree. And why doesn't your account of creation end with the appearance of jellyfish?"
I suppose I tittered. "Because there was more to come beyond jellyfish."
"That's right. Creation didn't end with jellyfish. Still to come were the vertebrates and the amphibians and the reptiles and the mammals, and of course, finally, man."
"Right."
"And so your account of creation ends, `And finally man appeared.' "
"Yes."
"Meaning what?"
"Meaning that there was no more to come. Meaning that creation had come to an end."
"This is what it was all leading up to."
"Yes."
"Of course. Everyone in your culture knows this. The pinnacle was reached in man. Man is the climax of the whole cosmic drama of creation."
"Yes."
"When man finally appeared, creation came to an end, because its objective had been reached. There was nothing left to create."
"That seems to be the unspoken assumption."
"It's certainly not always unspoken. The religions of your culture aren't reticent about it. Man is the end product of creation. Man is the creature for whom all the rest was made: this world, this solar system, this galaxy, the universe itself."
"True."
"Everyone in your culture knows that the world wasn't created for jellyfish or salmon or iguanas or gorillas. It was created for man."
"That's right."
Ishmael fixed me with a sardonic eye. "And this is not mythology?"
"Well . . . the facts are facts."
"Certainly. Facts are facts, even when they're embodied in mythology. But what about the rest? Did the entire cosmic process of creation come to an end three million years ago, right here on this little planet, with the appearance of man?"
"No."
"Did even the planetary process of creation come to an end three million years ago with the appearance of man? Did evolution come to a screeching halt just because man had arrived?"
"No, of course not."
"Then why did you tell it that way?"
"I guess I told it that way, because that's the way it's told."
"That's the way it's told among the Takers. It's certainly not the only way it can be told."
"Okay, I see that now. How would you tell it?"
He nodded toward the world outside his window. "Do you see the slightest evidence anywhere in the universe that creation came to an end with the birth of man? Do you see the slightest evidence anywhere out there that man was the climax toward which creation had been straining from the beginning?"
"No. I can't even imagine what such evidence would look like."
"That should be obvious. If the astrophysicists could report that the fundamental creative processes of the universe came to a halt five billion years ago, when our solar system made its appearance, that would offer at least some support for these notions."
"Yes, I see what you mean."
"Or if the biologists and paleontologists could report that speciation came to a halt three million years ago, this too would be suggestive."
"Yes."
"But you know that neither of these things happened in fact. Very far from it. The universe went on as before, the planet went on as before. Man's appearance caused no more stir than the appearance of jellyfish."
"Very true."
Ishmael gestured toward the tape recorder. "So what are wt to make of that story you told?"
I bared my teeth in a rueful grin. "It's a myth. Incredibly enough, it's a myth."

"I told you yesterday that the story the people of your culture are enacting is about the meaning of the world, about divine intentions in the world, and about human destiny."
"Yes."
"And according to this first part of the story, what is the meaning of the world?"
I thought about that for a moment. "I don't quite see how it explains the meaning of the world."
"Along about the middle of your story, the focus of attention shifted from the universe at large to this one planet. Why?"
"Because this one planet was destined to be the birthplace of man."
"Of course. As you tell it, the birth of man was a central event-indeed the central event-in the history of the cosmos itself. From the birth of man on, the rest of the universe ceases to be of interest, ceases to participate in the unfolding drama. For this, the earth alone is sufficient; it is the birthplace and home of man, and that's its meaning. The Takers regard the world as a sort of human life-support system, as a machine designed to produce and sustain human life."
"Yes, that's so."
"In your telling of the story, you naturally left out any mention of the gods, because you didn't want it to be tainted with mythology. Since its mythological character is now established, you no longer have to worry about that. Supposing there is a divine agency behind creation, what can you tell me about the gods' intentions?"
"Well, basically, what they had in mind when they started out was man. They made the universe so that our galaxy could be in it. They made the galaxy so that our solar system could be in it. They made our solar system so that our planet could be in it. And they made our planet so that we could be in it. The whole thing was made so that man would have a hunk of dirt to stand on."
"And this is generally how it's understood in your culture-at least by those who assume that the universe is an expression of divine intentions."
"Yes."
"Obviously, since the entire universe was made so that man could be made, man must be a creature of enormous importance to the gods. But this part of the story gives no hint of their intentions toward him. They must have some special destiny in mind for him, but that's not revealed here."
"True."

"Every story is based on a premise, is the working out of a premise. As a writer, I'm sure you know that."
"Yes."
"You'll recognize this one: Two children of warring families fall in love."
"Right. Romeo and Juliet."
"The story being enacted in the world by the Takers also has a premise, which is embodied in the part of the story you told me today. See if you can figure out what it is."
I closed my eyes and pretended I was working hard, when in fact I knew I didn't stand a chance. "I'm afraid I don't see it."
"The story the Leavers have enacted in the world has an entirely different premise, and it would be impossible for you to discover it at this point. But you should be able to discover the premise of your own story. It's a very simple notion and the most powerful in all of human history. Not necessarily the most beneficial but certainly the most powerful. Your entire history, with all its marvels and catastrophes, is a working out of this premise."
"Truthfully, I can't even imagine what you're getting at."
"Think. . . . Look, the world wasn't made for jellyfish, was it?"
"No."
"It wasn't made for frogs or lizards or rabbits."
"No."
"Of course not. The world was made for man."
"That's right."
"Everyone in your culture knows that, don't they? Even atheists who swear there is no god know that the world was made for man."
"Yes, I'd say so."
"All right. That's the premise of your story: The world was made for man. "
"I can't quite grasp it. I mean, I can't quite see why it's a premise."
"The people of your culture made it a premise-took it as a premise. They said: What if the world was made for us?"
"Okay. Keep going."
"Think of the consequences of taking that as your premise: If the world was made for you, then what?"
"Okay, I see what you mean. I think. If the world was made for us, then it belongs to us and we can do what we damn well please with it."
"Exactly. That's what's been happening here for the past ten thousand years: You've been doing what you damn well please with the world. And of course you mean to go right on doing what you damn well please with it, because the whole damn thing belongs to you."
"Yes," I said, and thought for a second. "Actually, that's pretty amazing. I mean, you hear this fifty times a day. People talk about our environment, our seas, our solar system. I've ever heard people talk about our wildlife."
"And just yesterday you assured me with complete confidence that there was nothing in your culture remotely resembling mythology."
"True. I did." Ishmael continued to stare at me morosely. "I was wrong," I told him. "What more do you want?"
"Astonishment," he said.
I nodded. "I'm astonished, all right. I just don't let it show."
"I should have gotten you when you were seventeen."
I shrugged, meaning that I wished he had.

     7:20am  I'm done with my breakfast break. I still had some pecans left from Luther, Oklahoma. Thanks, Shirley. I love you.

     7:28am  I came to the Walgreen's. They let me use the restroom.

     7:45am  I came out of Walgreen's. I brushed my teeth and stuff. I took a shit and washed my hands and everything.

     8:31am  I'm still walking down Broadway. I just passed the IRC building. I'm going to eat some more pecans. I can see downtown from here. I'll take a picture.  

     8:44am  I stopped in front of this hamburger place and layered down.

                   Trains.

     8:53am  I'm going to hit up Denny's here at 16th and Broadway.  

     8:55am  The greedy asses at Denny's told me no.

     8:57am  Walking by the Kansas City Convention Center.

     9:10am  I took a picture of Justin and Kelly. Justin gave me a cigarette. I appreciate it, brother. Everybody gets credit, thanks.  

                  
                   He gave me two cigarettes. I got to tell them my story and everything.

     9:15am  Turning right on 11th Street by the Lyric Opera House of Kansas City.

     9:23am  Please Love, feed my belly. I'm hungry. I walked all the way from Westport, like forty blocks and shit.

                   I'm wearing my PEACE THROUGH WEED shirt again.

     10:01am  The nice driver who hooked me up last time is hooking me up again with a ride to Independence Square. He said there's lots of Mexican Food restaurants there.

     10:16am  I just dropped off on Independence Avenue and Monroe. There are lots of Mexican restaurants here. I'm going to eat somewhere. Just you watch.

                     I'm over here by the Apple Market.

                     Paleteria Chihuhua.  

     10:21am  Pablo Ortiz en le Paleteria Chihuahua me esta dando comida. Te lo agradezco, señor. Todo el mundo recibe credito, gracias.

     11:24am  The nice lady driving the 24 is giving me a courtesy ride downtown. I'll catch the casino bus to the highway. Everybody gets credit, thanks.

     11:27am  I am back at the transit center.

                     Be sure to include the stuff on page 61:

"As you see, I left a book beside your chair," Ishmael said.
It was The American Heritage Book of Indians.
"While we're on or near the subject of population control, there's a map of tribal locations there in the front that you may illuminating." After I'd studied it for a minute, he asked me what I made of it.
"I didn't realize there were so many. So many different peoples."
"Not all of them were there at the same time, but most of them were. What I'd like you to think about is what served to limit their growth."
"How is the map supposed to help?"
"I wanted you to see that this was far from an empty continent. Population control wasn't a luxury, it was a necessity."
"Okay."
"Any ideas?"
"You mean from looking at the map? No, I'm afraid not."
"Tell me this: What do the people of your culture do if they get tired of living in the crowded Northeast?"
"That's easy. They move to Arizona. New Mexico. Colorado. The wide open spaces."
"And how do the Takers in the wide open spaces like that?"
"They don't. They put bumper stickers on their cars that say, If you love New Mexico, go back where you came from.'"
"But they don't go back."
"No, they just keep coming."
"Why can't the Takers of these areas stem the flood? Why can't they limit the population growth of the Northeast?"
"I don't know. I don't see how they could."
"So what you have is a gushing wellspring of growth in one part of the country that no one bothers to turn off, because the excess can always flow into the wide open spaces of the West."
"That's right."
"Yet each of these states has a boundary. Why don't those I boundaries keep them out?"
"Because they're just imaginary lines."
"Exactly. All you have to do to transform yourself into an Arizonan is to cross that imaginary line and settle down. But the point to note is that around each of the Leaver peoples on that map was a boundary that was definitely not imaginary: a cultural boundary. If the Navajo started feeling crowded, they couldn't say to themselves, `Well, the Hopi have a lot of wide open space, let's go over there and be Hopi.' Such a thing would have been unthinkable to them. In short, New Yorkers can solve their population problems by becoming Arizonans, but the Navajo couldn't solve their population problems by becoming Hopi. Those cultural boundaries were boundaries that no one crossed by choice."
"True. On the other hand, the Navajo could cross the Hopi's territorial boundary without crossing their cultural boundary."
"You mean they could invade Hopi territory. Yes, absolutely. But the point I'm making still stands. If you crossed over into Hopi territory, they didn't give you a form to fill out, they killed you. That worked very well. That gave people a powerful incentive to limit their growth."
"Yes, there is that."
"These were not people limiting their growth for the benefit of mankind or for the benefit of the environment. They limited their growth because for the most part this was easier than going to war with their neighbors. And of course there were some who made no great effort to limit their growth, because they had no qualms about going to war with their neighbors. I don't mean to suggest that this was the peaceable kingdom of a utopian dream. In a world where no Big Brother monitors everyone's behavior guarantees everyone's property rights, it works well to have a reputation for fearlessness and ferocity-and you don't acquire such a reputation by sending your neighbors curt notes. You want them to know exactly what they'll be in for if they don't limit their growth and stay in their own territory."
"Yes, I see. They limited each other."
"But not just by erecting uncrossable territorial boundaries. Their cultural boundaries had to be uncrossable too. The excess population of the Narraganset couldn't just pack up and move out west to be Cheyenne. The Narraganset had to stay where they were and limit their population."
"Yes. It's another case where diversity seems to work bet better than homogeneity."

"A week ago," Ishmael said, "when we were talking about laws, you said that there's only one kind of law about how people should live-the kind that can be changed by a vote. What do you think now? Can the laws that govern competition in the community be changed by a vote?"
"No. But they're not absolutes, like the laws of aerodynamics. They can be broken."
"Can't the laws of aerodynamics be broken?"
"No. If your plane isn't built according to the law, it doesn't fly."
"But if you push it off a cliff, it stays in the air, doesn't it?"
"For a while."
"The same is true of a civilization that isn't built in accordance with the law of limited competition. It stays in the air for a while, and then it comes down with a crash. Isn't that what the people of your culture are facing here? A crash?"
"Yes."
"I'll ask the question another way. Are you certain that any species that, as a matter of policy, exempts itself from the law of limited competition will end by destroying the community to support its own expansion?"
"Yes."
"Then what have we discovered here?"
"We've discovered a piece of certain knowledge about how people ought to live. Must live, in fact."
"Knowledge that a week ago you said was unobtainable."
"Yes. But . . ."
"Yes?"
"I don't see how . . . Hold on for a minute."
"Take your time."
"I don't see how to make this a source of knowledge in general. I mean, I don't see any way to apply this knowledge in a general way, to other issues."
"Do the laws of aerodynamics show you how to repair damaged genes?"
"No."
"Then what good are they?"
"They're good for . . . They enable us to fly."
"The law we've outlined here enables species to live-enables species to survive, including the human. It won't tell you whether mood-altering drugs should be legalized or not. It won't tell you whether premarital sex is good or bad. It won't tell you whether capital punishment is right or wrong. It will tell you how you have to live if you want to avoid extinction, and that's the first and most fundamental knowledge anyone needs."
"True. All the same . . ."
"Yes?"
"All the same, the people of my culture will not accept it."
"You mean the people of your culture will not accept what you've learned here."
"That's right."
"Let's be clear about what they will and will not accept. The law itself is beyond argument. It's there, plainly in place in the community of life. What the Takers will deny is that it applies to mankind."
"That's right."
"That hardly comes as a surprise. Mother Culture could accept the fact that mankind's home is not the center of the universe. She could accept the fact that man evolved from the common slime. But she will never accept the fact that man is a not it exempt from the peace-keeping law of the community of life. I accept that would finish her off."
"So what are you saying? That it's hopeless?"
"Not at all. Obviously Mother Culture must be finished off it you're going to survive, and that's something the people of your culture can do. She has no existence outside your minds. Once you stop listening to her, she ceases to exist."
"True. But I don't think people will let that happen." Ishmael shrugged.
"Then the law will do it for them. If they refuse to live under the law, then they simply won't live. You might say that this is one of the law's basic operations: Those who threaten the stability of the community by defying the law automatically eliminate themselves."
“The Takers will never accept that."
"Acceptance has nothing to do with it. You may as well talk about a man stepping off the edge of a cliff not accepting the effects of gravity. The Takers are in the process of eliminating themselves, and when they've done so, the stability of the community will be restored and the damage you've done can begin to be repaired."
"True."
"On the other hand, I think you're being unreasonably pessimistic about this. I think there are a lot of people out there who know the jig is up and are ready to hear something new-who want to hear something new, just like you."
"I hope you're right."

Page 74 and 75:

I sat there dazed for a while, then I recalled seeing a bible in Ishmael's odd collection of books. In fact, there were three. I fetched them and after a few minutes of study looked up and said, "None of these has any comment to make on why this tree should have been forbidden to Adam."
"Were you expecting them to?"
"Well . . . yes."
"The Takers write the notes, and this story has always been an impenetrable mystery to them. They've never been able to figure out why the knowledge of good and evil should have been forbidden to man. Don't you see why?"
"No."
"Because, to the Takers, this knowledge is the very best knowledge of all-the most beneficial for man to have. This being so, why would the gods forbid it to him?"
"True."
"The knowledge of good and evil is fundamentally the knowledge the rulers of the world must exercise, because every single thing they do is good for some but evil for others. This is what ruling is all about, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"And man was born to rule the world, wasn't he?"
"Yes. According to Taker mythology."
"Then why would the gods withhold the very knowledge man needs to fulfill his destiny? From the Taker point of view, it makes no sense at all."
"True."
"The disaster occurred when, ten thousand years ago, people of your culture said, `We're as wise as the gods and can rule the world as well as they.' When they took into their own hands the power of life and death over the world, their doom assured."
"Yes. Because they are not in fact as wise as the gods."
"The gods ruled the world for billions of years, and it was doing just fine. After just a few thousand years of human rule, the world is at the point of death."
"True. But the Takers will never give it up."
Ishmael shrugged. "Then they'll die. As predicted. The authors of this story knew what they were talking about."

"And you're saying this story was written from a Leaver point of view?"
"That's right. If it had been written from the Taker point view, the knowledge of good and evil wouldn't have been forbidden to Adam, it would have been thrust upon him. The gods would have hung around saying, `Come on, Man, can't you see that you're nothing without this knowledge? Stop living off our bounty like a lion or a wombat. Here, have some of this fruit and you'll instantly realize that you're naked-as naked as any lion or wombat: naked to the world, powerless. Come on, have some of this fruit and become one of us. Then, lucky you, you can leave this garden and begin living by the sweat of your brow, the way humans are supposed to live.' And if people of your cultural persuasion had authored it, this event wouldn't be called the Fall, it would be called the Ascent-or as you put it earlier, the Liberation."
"Very true. . . . But I'm not quite sure how this fits in with everything else."
"We are furthering your understanding of how things came to be this way."
"I don't get it."
"A minute ago, you told me that the Takers will never give up their tyranny over the world, no matter how bad things get. How did they get to be this way?"
I goggled at him.
"They got to be this way because they've always believed that what they were doing was right-and therefore to be done at any cost whatever. They've always believed that, like the gods, they know what is right to do and what is wrong to do, and what they're doing is right. Do you see how they've demonstrated what I'm saying?"
"Not offhand."
"They've demonstrated it by forcing everyone in the world to do what they do, to live the way they live. Everyone had to be forced to live like the Takers, because the Takers had the one right way."
"Yes, I can see that."
"Many peoples among the Leavers practiced agriculture, but they were never obsessed by the delusion that what they were doing was right, that everyone in the entire world had to practice agriculture, that every last square yard of the planet had to be devoted to it. They didn't say to the people around them, `You may no longer live by hunting and gathering. This is wrong. This is evil, and we forbid it. Put your land under cultivation or we'll wipe you out.' What they said was, `You want to be hunter-gatherers? That's fine with us. That's great. We want to be agriculturalists. You be hunter-gatherers and we'll be agriculturalists. We don't pretend to know which way is right. We just know which way we prefer.'"
"Yes, I see."
"And if they got tired of being agriculturalists, if they found they didn't like where it was leading them in their particular adaptation, they were able to give it up. They didn't say to them selves, `Well, we've got to keep going at this even if it kills us, because this is the right way to live.' For example, there was once a people who constructed a vast network of irrigation canals in order to farm the deserts of what is now southeastern Arizona They maintained these canals for three thousand years and built fairly advanced civilization, but in the end they were free to say, `This is a toilsome and unsatisfying way to live, so to hell with it.’ They simply walked away from the whole thing and put it so totally out of mind that we don't even know what they called themselves. The only name we have for them is one the Pima Indians gave them: Hohokam-those who vanished.
"But it's not going to be this easy for the Takers. It's going to be hard as hell for them to give it up, because what they're doing is right, and they have to go on doing it even if it means destroying the world and mankind with it."
"Yes, that's the way it seems."
"Giving it up would mean . . . what?"
"Giving it up would mean . . . It would mean that all along they'd been wrong. It would mean that they'd never known how to rule the world. It would mean . . . relinquishing their pretensions to godhood."
"It would mean spitting out the fruit of that tree and giving the rule of the world back to the gods."
"Yes."

     12:34pm  The casino bus gave me a courtesy ride. I'm on my way to skip town.

     12:37pm  I just got dropped off close to 35 right next to the Isle of Capri Casino.  

     1:42pm  I gave up hitchhiking on the onramp. All these greedy people. Damnit, I don't know what to do. I guess I'll try and get a courtesy ride back on the casino bus. I'm going to have to wait a whole hour. I wonder if there's another bus I could take.

     1:54pm  The greedy ass bus driver won't give me a ride back! Funk 'dis sheet, mang.

                    I don't know how I'm going to get out of this predicament. Please help me out, Love.

     2:01pm  Michael volunteered me some money for the bus. Everybody gets credit, thanks.

                    Michael told me to look up who again? http://www.ananda.org/

     2:17pm  This is awesome! The greedy ass bus driver wouldn't give me a courtesy ride back. I started walking the jogging path by the river and I see this guy walking up to his car. I said hello and complained about the greedy bus driver. He volunteered me three dollars for bus fare! I talked with him and told him my story. He gave me some Self-Realization book.

     2:36pm  Yes! I got so blessed by Michael, man. He was my angel. He got me out of that predicament I was in. Do you guys still believe in accidents?? Hehe. He offered to give me a ride to the next gas station. I'm aiming for Des Moines, Iowa now. He dropped me off at the gas station. I'm in the bathroom right now taking a shit.

     3:12pm  I gave up. I'm not going to try and get a ride frmo the Conoco. There's not that much traffic. I'm going to go to the QT across the highway. Hope there's some Northbound traffic there.

     3:18pm  Permission to ask for rides granted at the QT.

     3:34pm  Brent is hooking me up with a ride five miles away. I appreciate it, brother. Everybody gets credit, thanks.

                   Brent is going out of his way for me. He's over-shooting his exit for me.

     3:45pm  Brent dropped me off in Kearney at I35 and 92. Pronounced karnay. Let's see if I can ask for rides here at the Shell station.

     3:46pm  Permission granted.

     3:57pm  Kevin just walked to me in front of the Shell and volunteered me some food. He works at the McDonald's across the street. I appreciate it, brother. Everybody gets credit, thanks.

     4:05pm  Kevin also gave me a cigarette.

     6:33pm  About a couple minutes ago I took a picture of Kevin and Liam.  

                   Check out this cool light they have.  

Next day..