10.2.02

Hey all! How’s it goin? I can’t complain too much. I’m staying busy and I guess that’s about all you can ask for in life, huh?

I’m thinking of getting a part-time job. Last weekend when I had that little extra cash to throw around, it felt really good to be able to say, “Screw it! It’s only 20 bucks!” But I also realize I need to start paying off my credit card debt, and that’s going to take more income than I currently have.

While I hate to take more time away from my writing, I think I really need to concentrate on getting some things paid off. Oddly, I think it will actually MAKE me write more because I’ll realize I can’t just sit around after work and watch a movie, only to start writing at about 10:00. I won’t be getting home until 10:00, so the writing time will be more precious to me. Plus I’m applying at Borders, so I figure anytime I’m around books all night, all it can do is make me want to get home and write so I can someday see my own book on those shelves. And who knows, maybe I’ll meet some fellow writers there that I can work with and get pointers, critiques, motivation, story help, etc. Besides, I could really use a discount on books and movies.

Going home this weekend to see some relatives I haven’t seen in years. I hope it goes well. Also this weekend, we’re having our first STL Film Club meeting on Sunday afternoon! We’re going to see Red Dragon, the new Hannibal Lecter film, and then grabbing a bite to eat afterwards (perhaps fava beans and a nice Chianti). Should be cool.

I bought a book Sunday. Started reading it around 10:00PM, didn’t put it down until 1:00AM. Then picked it up again Tuesday night for another hour or so and I’d finished it. What book would I read damn near non-stop like this? Only Chuck Palahniuk, the author of Fight Club’s latest called Lullaby.

Lullaby deals with a guy named Carl Streator who is a reporter and has been for twenty years now. He’s doing a piece on SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and finds through his duties that there seems to be a common thread in many of the cases he’s investigating. That thread is a book of poems from around the world and it always seems to be found at the scene of the death opened to the same page, page 27, which has an African culling song. What is a “culling song”? Let’s turn to the Webster’s Dictionary for a little help.

Cull: To remove rejected members or parts from (a herd, for example)

Culling is what lions do when they stalk a young or wounded member of a herd of wildebeest on the Serengeti Plains. Not to sound like the host of a failed game show, but they look for the weakest link and take it out. So, essentially, this song is used to kill whomever it is sung to. The African tribes used it to euthanize the elderly, the sick, the wounded or in extreme cases when one more mouth to feed is one too many.

With this information, Carl accidentally kills a member of the newspaper’s editorial staff after he reads the words aloud. The next day the editor just doesn’t come into work and soon police find his body in his apartment, dead as a doornail. Carl realizes that these words are powerful; that they can be used to literally end someone’s life. Therefore, he decides to go on a mission to rid the country of all copies of the song that he can get his hands on; meaning he’s going to be hitting a lot of public libraries.

As you might have figured out in that last paragraph, even with the most fantastic plot lines, Chuck Palahniuk is making some kind of social comment for our world. In this case, the power of communication and how it can infect you and sometimes kill you (physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally).

Throughout the entire book there are references to the impact an introduced species of plant or animal has had on an environment. For example, here’s a passage taken from pages 141 - 142:

“Ever since they reengineered the Welland Canal in 1921 to allow more shipping around Niagara Falls, he says, the sea lamprey has infested all the Great Lakes. These parasites suck the blood of the larger fish, the trout and salmon, killing them. Then the smaller fish are left with no predators and their population explodes. They run out of plankton to eat and starve by the millions.”

It seemed like a good idea at the time to make the canal wider and deeper, but look what happened when they allowed the lampreys to come in. Next thing they knew they had millions of dead fish and way too many lamprey. Soon they’ll have millions of dead lampreys, too, and nothing will have survived.

Now picture your mind, your consciousness as the Great Lakes; your personal ideas the salmon and trout that swim freely; and the slick, black, blood-sucking lamprey as a new idea you’ve allowed to enter through wider channels, channels that harbor no cynicism and no doubt.

All ideas have a dual impact. They might be great at first, but if left to their own devices, they can grow into a monster that you can’t contain. Look at the KKK. Look at Al Queda. Look at Democrats and Republicans. Look at political correctness. Look at Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, etc. Ideas can’t just be introduced and allowed to run rampant; you have to shape them, adapt them and, most importantly, know when to kill them.

So how do these ideas enter our minds, our wider canals? We invite them in everyday through television, radio, movies, and, ironically, the printed word.

Think of all the information you’re faced with. While you’re eating your breakfast you watch CNN or read the paper. In the car on your way to work you listen to Howard Stern. At the office you are completely surrounded by people telling you things – customers, bosses, co-workers, even the internet is at your fingertips. The drive home you listen to your favorite classic rock station. While you eat dinner you turn on the TV to watch the news. Maybe that night you’ll go to a movie. And then, before you go to bed, you’ll read a book.

All of these actions are spoon-feeding you ideas. You aren’t developing anything of your own. You are opening up your canals to allow ideas to enter. It’s not a very hard thing to do. I do it everyday just like you. Hell, I’m sure Chuck Palahniuk does it everyday.

The important thing is: knowing which ideas will become the lampreys and killing them before they can make too big of an impact on your mental Great Lakes. This lamprey could be pop culture. This lamprey could be the unrealistically perfect life of sitcom characters. This lamprey could be religion. This lamprey could be education. As long as it is preventing your creativity and individuality to flourish, it’s destroying the delicate ecosystem that is your mind.

How can you prevent this destruction? Stop reading this website. Stop reading the newspaper. Stop watching TV. Stop listening to the radio. However, you can’t completely stop everything.

You have to listen to grow, to be faced with new ideas that you have to consider whether they’re dangerous or not. Just find time to go into a quiet room and think every once in a while. Figure out how to end world poverty. Think about the Big Bang. Think about God. Think about Allah. Think about abortion. Think about the death penalty.

Now when you’re done – don’t share these ideas with anyone. These are your ideas. These are your feelings. It’s fine to share them if asked or if the conversation comes up, but otherwise, let people alone. If they want to hear your opinion, they’ll ask for it. Don’t contribute to the overwhelming wall of communication that already surrounds them. All you need to do is nurture your ideas - your salmon and trout – with self-reflection and they’ll grow strong and solid.

But don’t be afraid to let a few lampreys slip through every once in a while; you’ll soon learn that not all salmon and trout are worth saving.

Space Monkey X