Are You Awake Yet?

Nathan, Authur, and Andrew

So, this is our last day together for a while, I have a family here you know and a lot of things to take care of. But I'll still be here, happy in Canada, right where you left me. There is so much to cram into one day. We're going to my son Andrew's school for "show and tell" and then we're going to meet Nathan. You'll love him, handsome, clever and kind hearted - actually, everyone loves him, including Father. Then we're going to hop forwards a couple of years to take a look at Arthur's farm, or rather to be a fly on the wall the day we took the money out of agriculture. Anyway, we're almost late, good job you already have your shoes on. It's only one block anyway, c'mon.

Here we are, it's a portable cabin but quite nice inside. They won't see you of course, only I can, so I won't introduce you if that's alright. I had enough of the "funny farm," not funny at all. Oh! They just started, Liam has his superhero figure collection. There is a story for every one of them, how fascinating! The teacher loves it, I guess she is reliving her youth just listening. I think that one had the power to call the lightning, fabulous. I love cartoons, don't you? Now it's Jackie with her collection of Happy Meal toys. Oh my! That's a lot of hamburgers worth of toys. The teacher is patient, not so interested but still nodding her approval. Now here comes Andrew, doesn't he look like his Daddy, so handsome. Anyhow, he has his leaf collection. Every spring for the last few years he has taken a small number of new spring leaves and pressed them gently, drying them. He has maple leaves too, how Canadian! I'm not sure what is happening here but the teacher isn't looking very amused. Her face is puckered up worse than mine last time I tried strong mustard (I hate it). She is saying that the collection is against the rules, that Andrew has taken things from nature he isn't allowed to. He could pick leaves in the autumn from the ground, but not the new leaves of the season. I go to argue his point for him only to find out that I'm not really there either. I guess we both went as spirits today. So the plastic collection of violent characters was allowed, the plastic collection of toys used to bribe kids into eating even more fat, salt and sugar was allowed, but a few leaves were a violation? We can drill for oil and pollute but we can't pick a small amount of leaves? I'm pretty steamed right now, forgive me if I end up in rant mode. He is my son after all.

Perhaps we should move on to visiting Nathan while I've still got half a brain functioning, I must have lost fifty percent of my neurones to anger. Anyhow, let me tell you about Nathan. He grew up in a middle classed home in America, went to the local school and almost dropped out at the highschool level - not because he isn't smart, rather because he was smarter than his teachers and found the whole thing duller than the dishes currently dirtying my kitchen (no joke, alas). He's a genius and nicer than sunshine after winter. Anyway, he dazzled a university with a computer programme he wrote and aced his math so they took him anyway. If a challenge ignites his passion he'll work on it so much he doesn't sleep. He's got the most amazing black skin and brown eyes, he's like another son to me really. Here are three stories about what could happen to Nathan next, you can pick the one you think should happen and I'll tell you how you can tweak the odds in his favour.

Future number one: Nathan aces his doctoral thesis in record time and is their youngest PhD graduate ever. At barely twenty two he is sort after and canvassed by many corporations including the military. He refuses the contracts, but takes one where he is assured that the work is only for computer games and imaging software. The work is instead part of a system for smart bombs and the genius he brings to the project makes the "murder by remote control" possible. He discovers later on that his was a crucial contribution to the bombs. Disillusioned, he leaves and instead of academia he drinks beers with his friends and watches TV, never turning even a tablet on. One night Nathan wakes from a vivid dream, he has conceptualized a new form of energy, one that would lead to free energy available for all everywhere in the world. It's totally clean and easy to mass produce. It cannot be monetized and Big Oil will be the worthless chemical-laden gloop it is. With Nathan's new energy there won't be any pollution or environmental destruction.  He takes his idea to his old university which notifies other people in his field and in the energy industry. To the surprise of his professors, Nathan and his ideas disappear. Soon there is a rumour of him being "unstable"  put about and more than a light suggestion that insanity ran in his family.

Future number two - Hmmm. There isn't one. Nathan is destined to invent free energy. All of his possible life paths lead right to it.  If he lives beyond that point in his life he will invent a great number of other things that also cannot be monetized and would destroy entire industries. Every one of his inventions  would make life better and give us all a healthier planet, but no-one would get rich. So no matter what idea he comes up with first his ending is the same - a modest pine box under six feet of soil. I can think of an alternative future that is simple to create, but conventional wisdom would label as a "fairy tale." Here goes anyway...

Future number three - Nathan is asked to work for the good of the world and humanity after his PhD in a society that has abandoned money and the structures of power. He loves his work. No-one talks about how much things cost, only "can we do it?," "do we have the resources?" and "does it create a virtuous cycle?" His invention of free power for the world is eagerly put into production and used to power everything from homes to cars, from water sanitation to agriculture. He is hailed as a hero of science but he's still a modest man at heart. He thanks the Lord for inspiration. He marries a fellow researcher and they raise their children together.

There, I said you wouldn't think it possible. Sounds like a fairy tale, right? Well it isn't. We can do it easily, it's just a matter of all of us wanting it. We start by not buying stuff we don't need, no-one signs up for the military, we shop local - cutting out the corporations where possible, we don't buy junk food, we show each other the Power of Love in our words and deeds. We need to start seeing the spark of Love in every sentient being, including the neighbour who irritates you, you know who I mean, yes, even them...sorry.

Now let's meet Arthur, this one is a little in the future. These time transitions upset my stomach a bit but it's totally worth it. Oh good, the world is smudging again, we're on our way. I'll tell you about Arthur before everything comes back into focus. He has an arable farm, all wheat. His family has has the land for generations but he's almost crippled by all his expenses and that puts up the price of the flour, otherwise he'd have to take on more debt. He is under great pressure to buy the GMO terminator seeds. They do get a higher yield and he could do with the money, but he likes to save his best seed for next year's crop just like they've done for generations. In fact, he's so deeply in debt he's thought about having a "little accident" so that the life insurance would help his wife and kids. That's just between you and me though, it would break gentle Isabella's heart to know he'd even thought it. She's loved him so long she barely recalls a life without him. Anyhow, let's keep to introducing Arthur. As a boy he would make mud-pies and contraptions from sticks and string. He's clever, very, but he didn't want to work in a city. He was raised in the very same house he lives in now and concrete streets makes him feel like he's suffocating. Long ago his baby smooth teenage skin gave way to a salt 'n' pepper beard and he keeps a Bible under his pillow to read if he awakens early. Ah, the world is coming back into focus, we must be there already. Yes! Here come the men in their silly suits, shiny shoes sinking into the farmyard mud, how silly they look!