Community, Identity, Stability.

Have you ever read the novel "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley? I'm sure you have. At any rate it's one of my favourite books, because it's a unique Science Fiction, it's a very interesting look at society, and caste systems, it has a fantastic group of characters in it with a rather risque look at sexuality and reproduction for the time period the book came out, eschewing monogamy, discussing children's sexuality, fertility, cloning, subconcious and concious human conditioning, physical conditioning, even rascism. It's a very broad spectrum book, it tackles multiple ethical notions and was probably pretty damned controversial when it emerged, first being published in 1932. Every time I pick up the book, I find another nuance in it that I missed before. Whether Huxley was intending it to be there, or if I'm interpreting the novel in my own manner, is something I will never know, and maybe that's the benefit of re-reading a book. Your mindset when you read something will affect how you interpret it at that moment in time.

Anyways, what I'm getting at here, is that there is a scene... I dunno if you remember the scene, but it sticks in my mind, like so many things that stick in my mind with no purpose... At any rate, there is a scene in the book where there is an Epsilon Semi-Moron, the lowest caste of human in this culture, that has been operating the elevator. This is his sole purpose in life, and it's what he does day in and day out. He'll do it until the day he dies. When he's reached the roof, while the people inside are leaving to catch their individual helicopters home, the doors are open, and he exclaims with rapturous joy "Roof! Oh, Roof! " and lets his face turn up into the sunlight until the repetitive mechanism in the elevator tells him to go back down into the building, and his joy fades and he goes back to doing his tasks.

That's me right now. Nothing so dramatic as being attached to something until the day I die that keeps me miserable most of the time, but still...

I'm an Epsilon Semi-Moron that needs to emerge from the dark.

A weird allusion, and highly unflattering, I know. That being said, I figured it was fitting. I dig it. If you haven't actually read the book, I highly recommend it. I find myself picking my copy up every few months and giving it a re-read. If you haven't read it since grade nine, or whenever the hell it was required reading, go pick it up at the library or at a bookstore. It's only ten dollars and it's a great piece of literature.