"Do you love me?" ....."you used a very generalized word, so meaningless that it's become almost obsolete." --Lois Lowry

Has everyone else in this world read "The Giver" by Lois Lowry and I'm the only one just now discovering the story? How can this be? The book was copyrighted in 1993. My God! It's been around for 17 years and I've just now discovered it?! This is an atrocity on so many levels.

I started and finished the book in 2.5 hours. But the story, I believe, will have long term effects. Already there are implications. Like my lack of being able to think of anything else. Like my lack of vegging in front of the t.v. without a thought in my head. How the hell am I going to sleep tonight? I physically want to weep, though I seem incapable of it for reasons I think we all know. I'm emotionally incapable. But why do I want to weep? It's a story. It's fiction for pity's sake!

Because I've actually envisioned this world from "The Giver". Remember the movie Demolition Man with Sylvester Stallone & Wesley Snipes? I actually want to live in that world....minus crazy Wesley Snipes and Sylvester Stallone's poor speaking ability. Do you know Pleasantville? I want to live in that world, even in black & white! Lois Lowry's "Community"? I wanted to live there.

Until I read further. Then it horrified me.

After reading further still, I continue to want to live there.

But do I really? There are so many complexities to this story....Of course I want rules. Of course I want order. But do I believe in natural selection (or chosen selection)? Do I believe in "sameness"? Do I believe in assignments?

My God, forgive me, but I just might.

What if we were all raised in this world and knew nothing else? What would it matter after generations and generations of living like this? Nobody would know any better! It would be oblivious bliss! "Ignorance is bliss" is more often true for me than not. What would it mean for someone to observe you for years and choose a job for you...one that you would have for the rest of your "adult" life? Gotta tell ya, in this freaking economy, it would seem pretty damn nice. Then, when you get old, "retire", you move into the "House of the Old" where you're pampered and taken care of and fed and cleansed?

Ahh, but the implications are fierce. Who makes the decisions about job assignments? Who makes the rules? What if I don't trust them? And the concept of release *shudder*. Very little choice. Very little free will. No color. No differences.

But also, no war. No hunger. No bullies. No pollution. No overpopulation. Think of all the bad in our world today....gone. As for release, this is where I cry out to God to help me, is it really so bad? When I've become a burden on society, would I want to be released? If I'm an infant and don't thrive normally, should I be released? This is where I get conflicted.

Why do you think we're in the situation we're in now? How do you think future generations are going to survive? We're wasting the world. We're wasting our natural resources. We're wasting the land. We're wasting each other. How much more do you think earth can take? How much more do you think humanity can take? Where do people go when it gets too crowded? My first thought is, Montana. Because, let's face it. It's a large state in our union with few people. But what happens when Montana gets full? Move to Canada? Then what? Disease. War. Annihilation.

I'm so riled about this story, I can't even precisely blog about anything. I'm conflicted about the story. I'm torn. On one hand, I want the community. On the other, I'd rebel against it. On one hand, I think it's perfection. On the other, it scares the living shit out of me (though that seems pretty easy to do, thank you very much Stephen King). On the one hand, I think this could honestly happen. On the one hand, I want it to happen. On the one hand.....

Jerry Seinfeld's "Sweet fancy Moses" doesn't hold the same hilarity for me after reading this story. For that, I'm pissed off I even read it. Ignorance is bliss.