Did everybody in Williston, Dickinson, Minot--to name just the larger local communities--want all that growth? Well, in the beginning it may have sounded good to just about everybody...until the facts started hitting home. Skyrocketing rents for one thing, and property taxes...? I don't know about property taxes. North Dakota property taxes are high no matter what. Every community wants brand new state of the art schools (they don't want to repair the old ones, no.) They want every kid to have their own I-pod or I-pad, or whatever you call those things that one can do anything on, while forgetting how to read a real book or write and do math on paper--oh yes, and not even begin to learn geography and history. And Science? Well, we don't look too good next to some other countries. But hey, we don't need to learn anymore. We've got a brand new school and a really big gymnasium--heck, we can even play soccer inside, and play golf, and shoot a bow and arrow.
Possibly I'm stretching a mite here, but I did one time hear a kid complaining about his school not offering golfing lessons, to me, a job better suited to dad, or an uncle...which, by the way, this kid has: A dad and several uncles. Oh, yeah, the dad and uncles don't have time, they're too busy earning a living so that they can pay the property taxes to support those extravagant new schools and to heat and cool their mansion-sized houses with cathedral ceilings and three-car garages.
Now about the skyrocketing rent. I don't live in western North Dakota, but I did hear about long-time residents getting kicked out of places where they had lived a long time because they could not pay the new 'skyrocketed' rent, and other people experiencing a huge rise in property values, and you know what a rise in property values does. But hey, we're growing, aren't we? Yes, we have economic growth!
It's not just North Dakota. Every community, every small town, medium town, big town, large city, is refusing to tighten their belt if they can grow instead. Unfortunately, growth means a need for more services which means a need for more taxes to pay for those services, and then more growth, more services, more taxes, and on and on and on.
Recently on television national news there was a story about growth down in Texas. The guy being interviewed had wide eyes (like some little kid describing his new bicycle) and was almost slobbering telling the interviewer about it--OMG! Growth!
Now folks, there are also some good things about 'growth.' Back in the fifties and sixties there was growth too, but it was slower...I dunno, maybe just more laid back. We saw an improvement here and another there and we accepted it as progress. We didn't know then what 'progress' would mean in the near future.
Hey, I'm all for advances in science and technology, but not at the cost of plowing under and paving over nature and agriculture, and that's what we're doing with out-of-control 'growth.' As a local for instance, Fargo, in eastern North Dakota has flooding problems, but hey, as so many other communities they built their city next to a river. The whole country has probably heard about Fargo wanting to divert the Red River to alleviate that flooding, but Fargo also wants to build a dam (unnecessary for the diversion) several miles south of the city, so that Fargo can continue building in the flood plain. In other words, they want nothing to stop them from growing. In a flood year that dam will cause flooding in those communities even farther south: A small town and two housing developments.
Meanwhile, Grand Forks, north of Fargo, is rapidly growing south. We are paving over the Red River Valley, some of the richest soil in the world. If we would back up a bit, and spend a moment or two actually 'thinking,' is this really what we want to do?
Fargo and North Dakota itself, wants to grow and grow and grow, and catch up to the big boys, the rest of the nation. Many people in North Dakota think the rest of the country is laughing at us hicks out here in the Midwestern outback. Some people laugh at the people living in New York and Georgia and Arizona and Tennessee, too, and don't even get me started on California.
Yes, I am anti-growth. I see growth continuing until nothing is left. I even wrote a 2000-word story about unlimited 'growth,' and where it could lead. Yes, it's probably an exaggeration but, well, here it is: The title is "Viands."
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| This photo has nothing to do with this post. I just like photographing sunrises, when I can get up early enough., and don't expect to ever see a vista like this in the world of "Viands." |
(2000 words) Futuristic: People massed, wear and look the same, stand in line for deposits of wastes, withdrawals of food. He believes there is more to life, meets She; together they try to escape through a wall of flame, the only thing different in their world.
He tensed himself
and leaped, up, high, turned his head both ways, landed again, and leaped
again. But, all he could see in any
direction were others like himself.
He landed,
brushed one of the others. Barely enough
room for elbows, let alone leaping and hoping for the same spot to be open when
he came down. The other shot a dirty
look at him, then turned away and moved farther into the sea of others, all
alike except for some facial differences, eye color, height, weight, all anyone
could see of the others.
All wore the same
clothing. Gray suits with hoods, hand
openings, trapdoor crotches opening only in back. They didn't do much of anything, mainly stood
around chewing on the gray doughy masses called viands, conversations mostly
limited to one word descriptions of the viands varied tastiness.
Tart, spicy,
salty, or bland and lumpy.
Two groups stood
in line by the gray Houses of Excretion.
One group waited to make their deposit, the other to receive their
portion of fresh while you wait viands, and all could hear the sound of
machinery grinding and whirring away in the processing of viands.
In gray, out
gray, the sky gray, the ground.
Everything was gray. He, nearly
six feet, taller than most, often wondered if anything existed except gray. He wanted to believe something did, but, from
birth, all he had known were changing one gray suit for another as he grew.
He decided to
jump once more, would give this leap all he had. So he gathered his legs, waited for the
others to move away slightly—which sometimes happened—then squatted low,
stretched his arms behind, took a deep breath, and leaped, up. Up.
UP!
And for just one
second he thought he saw something, far away.
Something brighter, and another color, something like that bright ball
that occasionally appeared in the sky among gray clouds. He decided to try leaping once more, even
though he had about used all his energy.
So up he
went. But not far. He had weakened.
When he came down
he struck another body, so close were they jammed. Both fell down.
"Why do you
not watch what you are doing?" the other shouted at him as they scrambled
up. But the voice was different, higher,
reminding him of his mother not seen since weaning. Remembering his mother, and that other place
with other mothers and the smaller others like himself, he thought of the one
time he had seen a fence, the only structure in their world except for the
Houses of Excretion.
"I am
sorry," He said.
The other brushed
itself off and faced him. Some light
colored hairs had escaped the hood, which were quickly tucked back in, but yes,
this other was different. The face was
smoother, and the body appeared to be more slender except for two bumps just
below the neck, and other unusual features, features he remembered, barely, his
mother having.
"Why do you
stare at me?" the other asked.
He did not know why, "I do not
know," but he did know he enjoyed what he saw. He had felt so little joy in life that he had
only dubious understanding of what joy was, "You look funny…I mean
different, you look different."
"Of course I
am different." The facial features
changed. The eyes softened, the mouth
widened, the cheeks took on a rosy glow, "Have you never seen a she?"
"She is
mine!" A voice, loud, what He was
more accustomed to hearing, interrupted them as a third other, elbowing, pushing,
arrived, carrying two of the viands masses.
She? He had heard of the shes, that they were very
much different, but he had never seen one. Only hearsay, for the sexes were kept
separate, allowed together only for breeding purposes, strictly decided and
controlled by the sachems, also dressed in gray except in robes with black
belts rather than body suits, and generally taller, taller than He even, and
all carried a staff.
The third other
grabbed the she by the arm, then jerked her into the masses. But, remembering his good feelings of joy, He
decided he could not let that happen. He
wanted to keep staring at the she, so followed, doing his own elbowing and
pushing, and soon caught the two, and grabbed the she by the other arm.
"Stop!"
He said.
Both stopped, and
gawked at him. Many of the others
stopped their eating and standing, and also gawked.
Facial features
of the she changed again, changed to warm, and radiant. And again He felt joy, greater joy and
happiness than he had ever known, "If you will come with me," He
said, "I will take you away from here, and protect you forever, and keep
you warm." He had no idea how to do
what he had just said, but it had sounded like all the right things to
say. Long ago he had decided there had
to be something different, somewhere.
Had he not just seen that faraway, unexplained brightness? Suddenly he clung strongly to believing it
truly existed, and was better.
The she shook off
the other's apparently illegal grasp, "Then I will go with you." The she's facial features changed still more,
became still more wonderful. He felt his
own features changing. They felt
wonderful too, very wonderful.
"I am called
He," he said when they were alone as possible.
"I am
She."
"No, that is what you are. What do the others call you?"
"I am called
She. All of us are."
"But you are
different from the others."
"No, I am
the same. But I am glad you think
I am different. I think you are
different, too."
"Come,"
He said, "We will leave here."
It was then or never. He was
positive of somewhere else existing, and the appearance of She made him want to
find it more than ever.
****
Their first day passed. Then their second. Then a week, and a month. He and She pressed on through the endless
masses of others in gray suits. They
stood in line at the Houses of Excretion, made their deposits, ate their
viands, dodged the sachems, and hoped the others would not tell of their illegal
act of being together. And it occurred
to them that few others even noticed, so impassive were they.
Finally one day
conditions began to change. The others
were no longer just standing, eating, existing.
Many had actual expressions, twisted and ugly and showing anger, and
fear, and anxiety, all expressions causing He and She to feel the opposite of
joy. And none of the others were
talking. Sounds now were of agony,
mourning, and the further He and She walked the worse conditions became, until
the others were fighting and shoving, trying to go in the opposite direction.
The direction He
and She had just come from.
But they pushed
on, holding onto each other, pushing and shoving themselves. "We must be getting close to somewhere
else," He said, "I have always believed it existed."
"So have
I," answered She, "But I have talked to no other who has ever seen
it."
At last they
broke free from the hordes of others and stood alone in an open space for the
first time. But close ahead, what the
others evidently had been trying to escape, roared a wall of that different
color He had seen in the distance so long ago.
The bright wall stretched in both directions as far as they could see.
"Do not go
into it," said an other nearest them, "I have heard some have, and have
never come back."
He waved to the
other, then turned to She, who gave him the warmest change of facial expression
he had ever seen. It made him feel so
very, very, very, wonderful.
"Maybe," said She, "The reason the others never come back
is because it is better there."
"Yes." He agreed and
again faced that bright wall of whatever it was. It was radiating heat like that great ball in
the sky, producing wonderful feelings in both He and She.
"Maybe we
should remove our suits first," said She.
He did not know why
they should, but also did not know why they should not. So they did.
Soon both stood nude, facing each other and experiencing primeval
thoughts as to why they were so different.
But they were at last alone, but still hearing the sounds from the
masses of others. But so good to be
alone together, seeing each other without those ugly suits, and learning about
their new feelings, and wondering what else they would discover about being
alone together.
"You
two! Put on your suits! You are illegal!"
They turned
quickly toward the others. Outside the
masses stood a sachem.
"He, I do
not want to,” said She, “We cannot go back."
"And we will
not." He grabbed She's hand,
"Come, we will run into that heat, and die if we have to."
They turned
toward the wall of bright color, held each other's hand tight, and ran. The sounds of agony and mourning rose behind
them, and the sound of the sachem shouting at them. But they paid none of it heed and ran faster,
faster, getting closer to the heat becoming hotter, until it felt unbearably
hot, but they would not stop.
"Faster!" He shouted, and pulled She along faster.
Together they
leaped toward that bright wall of whatever it was, and into it.
****
Together they landed and rolled on
the other side. Still hand in hand they
leaped up and looked at their new world, and walked partway into it. There were no others. None.
For the first time in their lives they stood completely alone, and saw
their world unbounded and beautiful, with that great ball above shining in a
bright and cloudless sky. They saw many,
many, things they could not give names, and other living beings that walked on
four legs instead of two.
"What is
this place?" She asked.
"I do not
know, but I like it." He gripped
She's hand and turned them around to again face the bright wall, "Come,
let us go back and tell the others they do not have to worry about the heat,
that there is a wonderful world on this side."
The two started
away, and would have returned to that other world of grayness.
But a much
different sachem appeared in their path and held up a hand. This one was dressed in a robe the color of
the sky, "Stop. You cannot go
back."
"Look,
He," She said, "It is a she dressed as a sachem."
"Yes, He and
She, I am different from what you have known, and your selfless act of
returning to that wretched other world is why I stopped you. The he sachems control the masses, and the
she sachems help to guide life on this side of the flames. Only the others with the courage to strive
for something new and better are allowed to leave there, and to stay here. Only those who dare face the flames. And it would be pointless to go back."
"Why?"
He and She asked in unison.
"Because few
would believe you. Impossible to find
those who would." The sachem in the
sky-colored robe scrutinized them calmly, then raised her staff, nodding toward
their new home, "Now go. Go out
into the forests and meadows. Clothe yourselves
and give yourselves new names. Find the
others who have gone before you. They
are few but they will help you learn about your new life here."
"But what
will we eat?" She asked, "Where are the Houses of Excretion?"
"The Houses
of Excretion are humankind's ultimate consequence for overpopulating and
fowling its nest," the sachem said, "Long ago, He, your kind was
called man, and your kind, She, was woman.
But men and women became vain, thinking of each self as the ultimate
glory, caring not that their resources were finite, that their wastes were
poisoning their very existence.
"Life here
would have ended had we sachems not taken control, and herded all humankind
into the enclosure of flames, with the fences around women and another for
women with young. One day soon, when
enough others have braved the flames and escaped…," the sachem hesitated
briefly, her face sobered, "Then we will allow the flames to sweep inward.
"So, in this
world you bury your excretions and find different food. Viands are a thing of the past."
He faced
She. The exact meaning of what the
sachem had said escaped him, "Come, She.
Let us discover this new place of beauty and brightness." They turned, and began walking away.
"Now that
you are man and woman again," the sachem called after them, "There
are three rules. Use only what you
need. Treat others with respect and
dignity. And reproduce yourselves with
only one young."
They stopped, and
again faced the sachem, "Reproduce ourselves…?" asked She.
The sachem
smiled, "You will discover what I mean."
--0--
This 2000-word story is taken from my book of short stories "Strange & Weird Stories," available from Amazon.com (13 stories, 1400-8000 words in each)
Not a pretty look at our possible future, is it?
Of course the earth is big enough so that, no matter how much our world population increases we would never be body-on-body, unless a very powerful force, in order to "save" the earth (from 'growth' and pollution) were to herd all humanity into an enclosure. Think that couldn't happen again? Let's try to remember Auschwitz--oh wait, that's history. We are so smart today with our smartphones that nothing that bad could ever happen again. (Some people think Auschwitz never even happened.) In a movie from the seventies, Soylent Green, the world population became so out of control that the only way to feed everyone, was, as each person died that person became food for the living. Very few of the populace knew they were eating Aunt Millie, but at least it was "real" food, not like "Viands," and I hope I don't have to explain to anyone what exactly the populace is eating in "Viands." HINT: It isn't Aunt Millie.
Of course the earth is big enough so that, no matter how much our world population increases we would never be body-on-body, unless a very powerful force, in order to "save" the earth (from 'growth' and pollution) were to herd all humanity into an enclosure. Think that couldn't happen again? Let's try to remember Auschwitz--oh wait, that's history. We are so smart today with our smartphones that nothing that bad could ever happen again. (Some people think Auschwitz never even happened.) In a movie from the seventies, Soylent Green, the world population became so out of control that the only way to feed everyone, was, as each person died that person became food for the living. Very few of the populace knew they were eating Aunt Millie, but at least it was "real" food, not like "Viands," and I hope I don't have to explain to anyone what exactly the populace is eating in "Viands." HINT: It isn't Aunt Millie.
Thanks for reading
Contact
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(The world is full of psychos and wackos)
A reminder for when you go to Amazon to read digital
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Starting at Midnight, Saturday, January 5, 2012, you will find a free digital download of "Strange & Weird Stories," for 24 hours. (All the stories are not like "Viands." Some are worse, and some are fun, too.) Hope you enjoy. Normally "Strange & Weird Stories" is $0.99. A paperback copy is $12.00, plus shipping.
Starting at Midnight, Saturday, January 5, 2012, you will find a free digital download of "Strange & Weird Stories," for 24 hours. (All the stories are not like "Viands." Some are worse, and some are fun, too.) Hope you enjoy. Normally "Strange & Weird Stories" is $0.99. A paperback copy is $12.00, plus shipping.
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