With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
I enjoy paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.
2003-01-04 - 1:14 a.m.
The Mammals were snowed in upstate so their concert was cancelled today. I had already given up my Knick ticket so I had to find something else to do tonight. I ended up going to the Fort at the Sidewalk Café. I listened to a couple of bands before the smoke drove me away.
Tomorrow I had plans to visit Marc in Allentown and see DVN with his whole family. He called me this morning to tell me his son had an appendectomy. We are going to play it by ear to see what we’ll do.
If I write any more about myself I am going to end up whining. I don’t want to whine. So I’m going to try something different. I was thinking of writing a poem but everything I came up with inane. Wipe that smirk off your face right now and don’t you dare ask, “Aren’t all your poems inane?” Yes I mean you, cut it out. Instead I am going to write a short short story. I came up with the idea on the ride home and I’m going to write it out now. I have no idea how long it will be. I’m just going to write till the story is told. It might be a paragraph, it might be a page. I doubt it will be longer than that.
by Horvendile
Michael Ellis was a very busy lawyer. He kept to a tight schedule and only saw clients by appointment. His 1:30 called at the last minute to cancel he was hated breaks in his routine and was wondering how to best use the time. Just as he hung up the phone a man walked in the office and asked to see him immediately. Since he had the free time he told the receptionist to let him in.“You’re lucky I don’t usually see people without an appointment.”
“That’s me, I’m a lucky guy. My name is Gregory Dee and I’d like to make out my will.”
“That’s simple enough who would you like to be your heirs?”
“Here’s a list of how I want the estate divided, I’m leaving it all to charity and non-profit organizations. The estate is worth about $300 million.”
“That’s quite a fortune you’ve amassed, how old are you 25? 26? How’d you do it?”
“I’m 30 actually. Like I said I’m a lucky guy. When I was 18 I hit the Powerball lottery for forty mil. I invested it well. I got into and out of the dot coms at the right time.”
Mr. Ellis looked at the list he had been handed. It had been made out meticulously. He’d be able to make out the will in no time. Mr. Dee had obviously taken a lot of time making it out and considered things very carefully; not what you’d expect from a young man making out his first will.
“Do you have a will in place now?”
“No.”
“What made you decide to fill it out today?”
“I knew I didn’t need it till today. I’m going to tell you a story. I have to tell someone.”
“I don’t have another appointment for half an hour, go ahead.”
One day when I was sixteen I was thinking about what I had for breakfast. The thing is I hadn’t eaten breakfast. Yet I could remember the bowl of cereal, I could remember spilling some milk as I poured it, I could remember that I finished the orange juice. I went to the kitchen to eat and everything went exactly as I remembered it. I took out the paper towel before I spilled the milk that made things easier.
I started to think about what else I could remember. I remembered most things that were going to happen that day. A lot of what was going to happen the next week. I remembered winning the Powerball. I was remembering the future. I didn’t remember everything, just like I didn’t remember everything from the past. I remembered the big things though.
I’ve been remembering the future ever since. It works just like regular memory, the closer in time I am to an event the better I remember it. I remember pretty much everything that’s going to happen in this office. I remember you saying”
“Are you saying you know what I’m going to say?” said Mr. Ellis
“Are you saying you know what I’m going to say? Said Mr. Dee simultaneously.
“That’s a pretty useful talent you have.”
“The first time I really took advantage of it was when I took the SATs. I studied for them after I took them. When I got my results I saw I got a 1580 and made sure to remember the answer to every question. I forgot one of the answers on the verbal, I knew I would.”
“School was easy from then on and I got into MIT, I went there to study physics. I wanted to learn as much about time as I could. I didn’t have to worry about learning something practical, I knew I was going to win the lottery. “
“When you won the lottery you knew what numbers were going to win before you chose them right?”
“Yes, actually I found it easier to remember picking the numbers than when they actually had the drawing. It gets sort of complicated. The thing is I really don’t have any choice about what I’m going to do. I remember it all and follow my memory exactly.”
“Why don’t you do something different then?”
“Are there things from your past that you wish you’d did differently?”
“Of course, everyone does.”
“So why don’t you do something different?”
“You can’t go back and change the past.”
“I can’t go back and change the future. The distinction is an artificial one. It’s all in our heads. The universe is a four dimensional manifold…”
“Huh?”
“Sorry, I lapsed into tech talk. The universe has three spatial dimensions, we can call them length width, and height, or x, y, and z. Time is the fourth dimension. It appears slightly differently in the equations of General Relativity. It’s only a difference of a sign, a plus becomes a minus for time. Somehow to me that difference isn’t noticeable. I remember the past and present equally. I can’t change the future because to me it has already happened. “
Mr. Ellis expression changed before he asked his next question. “Why did you come here today?”
“I see you understand. I don’t remember anything after 7:23 tonight. I remember the doorbell rings. I glance at the clock and go to open it. That’s it. After that there is nothing. I’ve known that since the first day I started to remember the future. It’s why I never got married. I’ve never had a serious relationship. I knew that it was all going to end today. I didn’t want anyone to have to deal with that. I’m wealthy, I have all my material needs taken care of. I’m always prepared.
A few years ago I was attacked by some crackheads. I wasn’t worried at all. I had studied Karate for two years before this and handled them without breaking a sweat. It’s easy to win a fight when you have training and know exactly what the other guy is going to do.
As I’ve said, I’ve been lucky, I’ve never really been happy though, not since that morning when I remembered what I had for breakfast. Philosophers argue whether or not man has freewill or if it’s an illusion. For me there is no question, there isn’t even the illusion. I answer to no man. I have no monetary limitations on what I can do but I have less freedom than the most abject slave. Today that ends.
I’ll come by at 5, you’ll have the will finished by then and I’ll sign it.”
Mr. Ellis finished the will at 4:55. The next five minutes seemed like an eternity. At 5 O’clock Mr. Dee walked in and signed the will. Mr. Ellis’s receptionist and paralegal witnessed it.
“It was a pleasure doing business with my Mr. Ellis. I won’t say, ‘See you soon,’ I won’t.”
Mr. Dee went home and had dinner. He watched some TV but didn’t really pay much attention to what happened. The bell rang, he glanced at the clock, it was 7:23. The last thing he wanted to do was open the door but he knew he had to. He walked across the room like a man walking to his execution. He opened the door.
“Mr. Dee you are alive! I knew I shouldn’t believe your story” said Mr. Ellis.
Gregory Dee was even more surprised. “I wasn’t lying. I thought this was the end. It is in a sense. It’s the end of my remembering the future. All I can remember is the past now. “
I could say that Mr. Ellis then killed Gregory so he could claim the money he’d earn for being the executor of the will. Or that Gregory was so shocked he had a heart attack. Those endings would have a certain irony to them. They didn’t happen though. I’m not going to lie to make a better story.
What happened is that Gregory went on to live out an ordinary life. Or ordinary for a multi-millionaire at least. He never remembered the future again and he didn’t miss that at all.
.
The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy - October 07, 2008
On the Road to Westchester County - October 06, 2008
Inside the Madison Square Studio - October 05, 2008
I'm a Bosniac and I'm debating like I've never debated before - October 03, 2008
Islands in the Stream of Consciousness - October 02, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile 2003-01-04
