NoJoMo 2 in BookThree: Flight Log 2016

Before I start… I honestly mean it when I say I wish the world could live in harmony and peace. I know that sounds idealistic or “hippy dippy” but… the whole “everyone at each other’s throats” has gotten old and it was never constructive or productive. I’ll do you one better, too. I want to live in a world of peace and harmony… that doesn’t create violence or hate over thoughts. True Statement: If someone sees me and thinks, “God damn, I hate that man. Fucking educated snobby prick!” I DON’T CARE. If someone sees me and gets in my face to tell me “God damn, I hate you. You fucking educated snobby prick!” THEN I DO CARE. If someone sees me and attacks me because they thought “Gd,Ihtm.Fesp!” THEN I REALLY CARE. So… I suppose what I’m saying is… I wish the world could live in Harmony and Peace… even if that harmony and peace was purchased by people thinking bad things instead of doing/saying bad things.
BTW… Cracked.com recently published an article about a possible US Civil War. One of the things the experts mentioned was how a violent civil war can break out when Extremes on both sides of an issue become violent… even if that violence is to the same group of people. At random… shall we select police officers? Baton Rouge 2016; a black man ambushes and kills 3 police officers claiming he was inspired by a similar shooting of officers in Dallas. The attacks seem to be racially motivated. Fast Forward… Urbandale, Iowa. A white man ambushes and kills 2 police officers. Current evidence suggests that the man was an avid racist; once alleged to have raised a confederate flag and taunted black students at a high school football game. Anti-White: Killing Cops. Anti-Black: Killing Cops. My heart is split in half for my country. So much rage, violence, fear… we so desperately need healing… I just don’t know how we can get there.

Oh… if that Cracked.com article made you fearful.... may I recommend this one about Sexual Assault? It is also pretty good. Hell, the “locker room talk” the author describes could have come from my own experience… in some ways, I am proud that I was considered effeminate and gay for not engaging in “Grab her tits” language!

Onto NoJoMo

You wake up to the absolute opposite of your current self. Describe that person and life in as much depth as possible.

Oh… wow. The absolute opposite of your current self? As a practical matter, I have to reject the premise in its purest form. The absolute opposite, I would presume, would mean I would be DEAD instead of alive; FEMALE instead of male; Multi-Ethnic instead of white; poly-sexual instead of heterosexual… and on and on. While all of that might be a curious writing experiment in theory… the being DEAD thing kind of ends the writing experiment in its tracks.

But if I were to write about someone who is fundamentally different; I’d write about the wonderful village in Kolkata as featured in Happy. It is a village of extreme poverty; but of immense happiness. Some people work, other people don’t, but it rates as one of the happiest places in the world because the village is an intensely connected community. A man can go do his job for 8 hours and know that his kids are taken care of, educated… he comes home happy knowing that when he comes home… he comes home to dozens of people who all care about one another and work together to make their situation not only tolerable but better.

As to a more direct response to the prompt… if I were to wake up and the situation around me were opposite to my current one… that may well still happen. Now, I wake up in an impoverished, dying little town where nobody gets along; but I have some autonomy and a job. Prompt: I’d wake up in a posh, thriving city where neighbors get along; but I’d be beholden to others and jobless. Which may be what happens if I quit Tiny Town and move to Des Moines without a back up job.

You wake up to the absolute opposite of your current self. Describe that person and life in as much depth as possible.