Tag: Family

Warning

The meadow stretches into green lawns before high walls, where children run
Jet engines roaring, fly, the chariots of War, bristling with missiles

Question everything, consider the children, forced to march in columns
War poisons the mind, justifies violence, and ruins the spirit

War robs the people of justice, turning its victims into heroes
Sip from the sour milk, throw stones at your oppressors, force arms on the poor

We stand and we fall, a society of pawns, ignorant and true
Trumpets blare, the faithful gather stones, to hurl them at the enemy

The ageless charade, sustenance from pain, succor from violence, shame
There can be no peace in a heart filled with vengeance, resentments linger

It will never end, all victories are hollow, the wheel keeps turning
The meadow stretches into green lawns before high walls, where children run

In a better world, playgrounds would not need fences, children would compete
In games as friends, they would not throw rocks at soldiers, in a better world

Our wealth should be used to educate, care for the elderly, not war
Missiles in space, to feed our fears, the hungry ghosts of nuclear war

We are one family orbiting this blue world beneath our yellow sun
Lies do not nourish, we must not cling to them, the enemy is us

Peace comes from peace, not war, and goodwill from goodwill, we must aim for these
Set aside our greed, fear and hatred, love one another, you and me

We are one big family

Emergence 3.0 – Section Three, Earth; Part Twenty, Collective; Chapter One, Family

Emergence 3.0
A Novel – In One Page Per Day
Day 141, Monday
May 21st, 2018

Chapter One: Family

The care of a loving family is like the wet, clinging mesh of a spider’s web. Humans are trapped in it, suspended, enwrapped. The majority of people who have ever lived, never lived a day apart from these sticky-bonds.

Familial obligations are invisible. We are bound by them through our emotions; by fear and love, hate, pride, anger, hope, jealousy, the feelings that bind us to our parents and our siblings, to our clans like the ligaments that join bones to muscles.

We are conditioned by rituals; by the stories we tell, the drums we play, by music, and language, by the seasons we live, and the hours of the day. We are raised in the patterns that play themselves out, in small cycles and in great.

Everything we are comes from the family, everything we do redounds to the family name,the name of our clan, our tribe, our village, our state.

Our identities are completely enmeshed with the identity of the group we are raised in. Only the most profound betrayal can break the patterns we are raised to live by, and even then, those who break free from their familial identity, or through no choice of their own are cast out from it, they leave and recreate the same structures in places with new people.

The individual can be raised up, lifted high, made strong by their family and tribe.

They can also be shunted, marginalized, and cast aside.

Families have a tendency to cannibalize their strength, in times of great need they will go so far as to eat their own, or set up the strongest and most beautiful as holy victims for the gods they worship.

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Emergence 3.0 – Section Three, Earth; Part Nineteen, Consciousness; Chapter Six, Family

Emergence 3.0
A Novel – In One Page Per Day
Day 139, Saturday
May 19th, 2018

Chapter Six: Family

It is no small thing to reprogram the animal brain, to take the essentially selfish organism and transform it into something new. The suspicious creatures, becomes altruistic, through experience, through the bonding of the senses, and by neural linguistic programming.

The first stage is complete when the individual person comes to see the family as an extension of the self; their well-being, their fate, tied to the fate and the well-being of others, both in this life and the next.

The brain is an evolving structure. It mutates, both over the course of the life of the individual, and it by procreation, from generation to generation.

Most of the mutations are not visible or even noticeably structural. They are packed into the dense tissues in the neural network of the brain.

With every new experience a new thread is spun, as thin as a sequence of proteins, and the organ of the brain is changed, at the same time the code inside the cells is rewritten, peptides and amino acid redraft the genetic sequence, and the inheritance that is passed on to succeeding generations grows.

The greatest periods of growth and change are infancy and childhood. When every sound and sight, every smell and touch, every taste is actively changing the nascent being, especially at this time when they are learning the language of its family and tribe.

The human being will begin to see the human being will begin to see the well-being of the family and tribe, of the other, as in alignment with their own, identical to it, without regard for the hurts, and minor competitions that ensued while growing together.

We will protect those closest to us with ferocity equal to our own drive for safety, because they have in reality become a part of who we are, our relationship to them, our memories of them have changed our genetic codes, and the physical structure of the brain.

Blood and family, they bind us.

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Emergence 3.0 – Section Two, The Continuum; Part Thirteen, The Revolutionary; Chapter Three, Family

Emergence 3.0
A Novel – In One Page Per Day
Day 094, Wednesday
April 4th, 2018

Chapter Three: Family

It was standard operating procedure for the Observer to bond with a family, to observe the trials of that group, to watch them thrive or falter. Jim followed the directive as best as he could, and made every effort to make it appear as if he were following it perfectly. He began to practice the art of concealment. Masking his intentions and rationale for the decisions that he was making deep within himself.

He invested as much as he could in a family, and the tribes, without obviously violating the imperative to not interfere in the development of the world, he pushed the limits of what he was supposed to do as an Observer. It did not take long for him to justify all kinds of maneuvers that most Observers would never consider. He operated at a furious pace, moving all over the globe to establish relationships with every last pocket of survivors.

He used the technological resources at his disposal to feed him information on the tribal migrations, as well as on the migrations of animals they would hunt, herd, and use as their foodstuff.

He was allowed to guide, to be a voice of reason in the group, but not to make decisions for it, or assume a mantle of leadership. It was not licit for an observer to be a chief, or a shaman.

Jim did as much as he could within those parameters. Through his strategic suggestions, he led them through the dark time, when the sun was not visible for years, leading them to sources of food and water, and shelter.

He protected them as much as he was able. He tried to steer tribes away from one another in order to avoid conflict between them, and the inevitability of cannibalism, which was always threatening to overtake them.

And then Jim did something that he had planned for decades, he crafted a very specialized virus, that changed them in extremely subtle, and yet profound ways.

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Emergence 3.0 – Section One, Jim and Kathy; Part Five; Chapter Four, Family

Emergence 3.0
A Novel – In One Page Per Day
Day 039, Thursday
February 8th, 2018

Chapter Four: Family

Kathy would not have believed it possible, but Jim was more mysterious in death, than he was in life. She dug into his background only to find nothing, absolutely nothing.

There was no record of a family, and no record of work, he had a social security number, and a passport, and no record of anything else, not at first blush.

There was no record of him ever having attended a school. No driving record, only one bank account, it was in Switzerland, he was worth millions, at the very least. The actual sum was unknown.

He had no legal representation. He had no heirs.

Kathy was fascinated by the developments, and full of sadness. She was fine with the things she was discovering, and her involvement in his final affairs, except that suddenly she was responsible for his body, she had no idea what he might want her to do with it. They had never had any conversations about death, or burial customs.

Kathy knew that Jim was not religious, at least not observant, he tended to believe that all religions were merely variations on a theme, and that every religious institution was at its heart corrupt, self-serving and short sighted, even those groups who did charitable work.

He was a cynic.

She opted to have him cremated. She thought she would make a tree out of him and plant him somewhere nice.

That is what Kathy wanted for herself, “why not do the same for Jim?”.

He liked trees, that much she knew.

And so it was decided, she made the arrangements, and waited for the return call meanwhile she busied herself with some court appointments, and was able to get herself named as guardian of his estate.

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Emergence, In Fifty-five Words – Section Three, Earth; Part Twenty, Collective, Collected Chapters

 

 

Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 141, May 21st, 2017

 

Chapter One: Family

 

The care of a loving family is like the wet, clinging mesh of a spiderweb. Humans are trapped in it, suspended, enwrapped. The majority of people who have ever lived, never lived apart from these bonds.

 

Familial obligations are invisible.

 

Everything we are comes from the family, everything we do redounds to the family name.

 

#Emergence #SuperShortFiction #365SciFi #55Words

 

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Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 142, May 22st, 2017

 

Chapter Two: Kin

 

As families become clans the bonds of loyalty are set in the body, constructed from chemicals and enzymes, by proteins and amino acids, by the songs and rhythms unique to each group. They pass on their memories from one generation to the next.

 

These are bonds that we do not see, that we never question.

 

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Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 143, May 23rd, 2017

 

Chapter Three: Village

 

Hierarchies emerge in village life, just as they do everywhere in the animal world, social hierarchies forming around the well, at the markets, the places of worship and religious life, and in the seat judgment.

 

The center is everything, with rank flowing out from it in concentric rings.

 

A person was either in or out.

 

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Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 144, May 24th, 2017

 

Chapter Four: Tribe

 

There was safety in the tribe, and the ability to test one’s self through competition with peers.

 

There were shared customs, and stories, and rituals in the tribe, those things both shaped the structure of the tribe and taught all of its members the means by which they could advance.

 

There was otherness as well.

 

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Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 145, May 25th, 2017

 

Chapter Five: City

 

Encampments became villages, and villages became towns.

Towns grew into cities as people migrated into the urban centers for trade, and work. They clung together in ever greater numbers, for protection, and opportunity.

 

Families dispersed, becoming ever less important.

 

What became paramount were the relationship the individual had to neighbors and teachers, patronage and clientage.

 

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Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 146, May 26th, 2017

 

Chapter Six: State

 

Large cities gathered smaller towns and villages to themselves, just as families did kin, to form greater clans and tribes.

 

The bonds that formed were like the spokes of wheel, both radiating from the center and supporting the outer frame.

 

There were the ancient bonds of vassalage, bonds of the imagination, bonds of determination.

 

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Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 147, May 27th, 2017

 

Chapter Seven: Nation

 

Common language, common custom, rituals and religion; these tie people together, as ligaments connect bone and muscles in the joints of the body.

 

They formed nations from states, building on the foundations of security and prosperity.

 

The old allegiances of family, tribe, and clan were shifting ever-outward, away from people, into the world of ideas.

 

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Emergence 2.0

Section Three, Earth

 

Part Twenty, Collective

 

Collected Chapters

 

01 Family

02 Kin

03 Village

04 Tribe

05 City

06 State

07 Nation

 

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Emergence, In Fifty-five Words – Section Three, Earth; Part Nineteen, Consciousness, Collected Chapters

 

 

Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 143, May 14th, 2017

 

Chapter One: Self

 

Birth is concrescence, the coalescence of matter organizing into form. It is the quest of consciousness, the cognizant being emerging independent, and alone.

 

Each instance of birth is the beginning of a series of reflections given by the universe, on itself. The relative length of those reflections is not germane.

 

The bare witness is enough.

 

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Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 135, May 15th, 2017

 

Chapter Two: Other

 

The human, homo sapient sapient, like every other organic being, is beset with the inherent biases of the animal brain.

 

The glands of the brain pump chemicals into the liquid consciousness of the neural net.

 

It is fearful, concerned with only the most basic things; pleasure, pain, fear.

 

It regards every other creature as threat.

 

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Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 136, May 16th, 2017

 

Chapter Three: Mother

 

There is a brief period of time for every mammal, when they are safe in the warmth and dark of the womb, a short time when they are one with another, their mother.

 

Two hearts beating in the same body, sharing the same flow of blood, air, they are in a state of complete co-dependence.

 

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Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 137, May 17th, 2017

 

Chapter Four: Father

 

Stranger, protector, arbiter of conflict, a father is the first person the child seeks to bond with after separating from the mother.

 

The child seeks to connect with, to understand, to contend with, and to please the father. The ways in which their relationship develops determines virtually everything about who the child will ultimately become.

 

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Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 138, May 18th, 2017

 

Chapter Five: Siblings

 

Sisters and brothers, for most human beings these are the first people with whom they will share a common bond, and also compete with.

 

You identify with them, discover betrayal, experience them as a threat, and learn from them both how to love, and to forgive.

 

The human capacity for empathy is refined through them.

 

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Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 139, May 19th, 2017

 

Chapter Six: Family

 

The family becomes an extension of self.

 

The human being will begin to see its well-being as synonymous with their own. Without regard for the hurts, and the minor competitions that ensued while growing together, we protect those closest to us with ferocity equal to our own drive for safety.

 

Blood, family, it binds us.

 

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Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 140, May 20th, 2017

 

Chapter Seven: Other Self

 

As we become self-aware we struggle with fear, fear lodged deep within the limbic system of our “reptilian” brains.

 

We come into the knowledge of self, fearing any, and all others, accept kin.

 

It is through kinship, relating to those who we believe share our deepest interests, that we learn to see strangers as other-selves.

 

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Emergence 2.0

Section Three, Earth

 

Part Nineteen, Consciousness

 

Collected Chapters

 

01 Self

02 Other

03 Mother

04 Father

05 Siblings

06 Family

07 Other Self

 

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Emergence, In Fifty-five Words – Section Two, The Continuum; Part Thirteen, The Revolutionary, Collected Chapters

 

 

Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 092, April 2nd, 2017

 

Chapter One: Ordinary

 

Jim wanted to be as far from the Continuum as possible. He spent ages in the Imperial fleet tracking down the lost colonies, subtly guiding the investigations, most of which led to graveyards.

 

Planet Earth was the end. He settled in, and watched a new culture emerge from the lost children of the Ancient explorers.

 

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A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 093, April 3rd, 2017

 

Chapter Two: Eruption

 

The colonists on Earth had fallen from spacefarer to hunter.

 

The Continuum was fascinated by their devolution, and then the volcano in Indonesia wiped everything out.

 

All the people were left with was a vague memory of their former glory, captured in the snipits of myths, and the maps that were passed on through stargazing.

 

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A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 094, April 4th, 2017

 

Chapter Three: Family

 

It was standard operating procedure for the Observer to bond with a family, Jim followed it.

 

He led them in the dark time, when the sun was not visible for years, leading them to sources of food, and water, and shelter.

 

He protected them.

 

He gave them a virus that changed them in subtle ways.

 

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Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 095, April 5th, 2017

 

Chapter Four: Tribes

 

Strong-new tribes formed after the cataclysm. Jim mingled with different groups in each generation, differentiating them from one another with subtle alterations in their breeding.

 

He guided them across the continents to key places, where they could evolve independently.

 

This kind of intervention was forbidden, but he discovered a way to hide his clandestine activity.

 

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A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 096, April 6th, 2017

 

Chapter Five: Love

 

Love, altruism, on a certain level these are chemical process, the capacity for which depends on a sequence of amino acids, proteins, and enzymes. These building blocks were augmented in humans with a retro-virus, a parasite, blending its genetic code with its host. It fomented a utilitarian blending of compassion, and desire.

 

It was art.

 

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A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 097, April 7th, 2018

 

Chapter Six: Music

 

The collective memory began with rhythm, and became a code fixed in the genes. It united all of the human tribes. It was the drum beat, and that was the back bone of the story through which they all narrated their shared history.

 

The universal archetypes flowed from there.

 

The Collective was obsessed their music.

 

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A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 098, April 8th, 2017

 

Chapter Seven: Purpose

 

Jim knew that it was only a matter of time before the next cataclysmic event.

 

Every planet with a molten core experienced them.

 

No one knew how the Ancients dealt with these, before they reached the stars.

 

For the technologically advanced the science was not a problem. He deeply desired to save humanity from it.

 

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Emergence 2.0

Section Two, The Continuum

 

Part Thirteen, The Revolutionary

 

Collected Chapters

 

01 Ordinary

02 Eruption

03 Family

04 Tribes

05 Love

06 Music

07 Purpose

 

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Emergence, In Fifty-five Words Section One, Jim and Kathy; Part Five, Endings, Collected Chapters

 

 

Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 036, February 5th, 2017

 

Chapter One: Notice

 

Kathy knew she would never see Jim again. Though, she was not certain. She felt his passing like a moment of turbulence. When it was over; it was like she was in a vacuum.

 

She knew he had died before she received the call informing her that his body was found by the flight attendants.

 

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A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 037, February 6th, 2017

 

Chapter Two: Anonymous

 

Jim did not carry ID. He never did. To society at large he barely existed, he left only the smallest of paper trails to define him.

 

He was off the grid.

 

There was nothing on his phone to tell anyone who he was, only the record of the calls he had recently made to Kathy.

 

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Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 038, February

7th, 2017

 

Chapter Three: Autopsy

 

The pathologist informed her of the cause of death, catastrophic stroke. An embolism burst in his brain, killing him instantly. Yet, he was in perfect health.

 

Kathy had no idea why she was the one to receive him.

 

“Why am I here;” she wondered.

 

She was the only person the authorities could connect him too.

 

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Emergence 2.0

A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 039, February 8th, 2017

 

Chapter Four: Family

 

Kathy would not have believed it possible, but Jim was more mysterious in death, than he was in life.

 

She was fascinated by the developments, and full of sadness. All that was fine, except that suddenly she was responsible for his body, she had no idea what he might want her to do with it.

 

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A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 040, February 9th, 2017

 

Chapter Five: Finding

 

It took time, and some detective work.

 

Given her abilities Kathy was typically able to glean any information she wanted from the people around her, but Jim was a phantom, as much of an enigma in death as he was in life.

 

When they located his residence, a judge gave Kathy access to the apartment.

 

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A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 041, February 10th, 2017

 

Chapter Six: De Ja Vu

 

In all of the years that she knew him, Kathy had never been to Jim’s home. He was an intensely private person, and to her knowledge he had never moved. Nevertheless, it was exactly as she had visualized it, scant, and bare.

 

He was a Spartan, an aesthetic. It was extreme. It made her uncomfortable.

 

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A Novel – In 55 Words a Day

Day 042, February 11th, 2017

 

Chapter Seven: Memory

 

There was not a moment of her life that Kathy could not recall; she remembered everything. Her contextualization was holistic, and it was as fast as lightening.

 

She was perfect.

 

Now that she was standing in Jim’s apartment, she knew that he had lied to her about a great many things.

 

She was not surprised.

 

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Emergence 2.0

Section One, Jim and Kathy

 

Part Five, Endings

 

Collected Chapters

 

01 Notice

02 Anonymous

03 Autopsy

04 Family

05 Finding

06 De Ja Vu

07 Memory

 

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Emergence: Section Three, Earth; Part Twenty, Collective, Collected Chapters

 

Collective; Part Twenty,

Chapter One: Family  

 Pt. 20, Ch. 01

The care of a loving family is like the wet, clinging mesh of a spiderweb. Familial obligations are invisible bonds.

#Emergence

 
Collective; Part Twenty,

Chapter Two: Kin

 Pt. 20, Ch. 02

Family becomes a clan. Loyalties are set in the body, by chemicals, enzymes, and proteins; bonds we do not question.

#Emergence

 
Collective; Part Twenty,

Chapter Three: Village

 Pt. 20, Ch. 03

Hierarchies emerge in village life; at the well, the markets, places of worship, judgment. The center is everything.

#Emergence

 
Collective; Part Twenty,

Chapter Four: Tribe  

 Pt. 20, Ch. 04

There was safety and competition, there were shared customs, stories, and rituals in the tribe. There was otherness.

#Emergence

 
Collective; Part Twenty,

Chapter Five: City

 Pt. 20, Ch. 05

People flowed into the urban centers to trade, and work. Families dispersed, becoming less important than neighbors.

#Emergence

 
Collective; Part Twenty,

Chapter Six: State   

 Pt. 20, Pt. 06

Cities gathered villages to themselves, as families did kin, in ancient bonds of vassalage; bond of the imagination.

#Emergence

 
Collective; Part Twenty,

Chapter Seven: Nation

 

 Pt. 20, Ch. 07

Common language, and custom formed nations out of states, for security, prosperity; old allegiances shifting outward.

#Emergence

 
Emergence:

Section Three, Earth

Part Twenty, Collective

Collected Chapters

 Section 03, Earth

Part 20, Collective

Chapters

01 Family

02 Kin

03 Village

04 Tribe

05 City

06 State

07 Nation

#Emergence

#SuperShortFiction

#365SciFi

@jaybotten