P3D Re: Bruce is Born to Run (On)

[Oliver Dean <3d-image@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Continued from previous post)

Our supply and demand driven economy does, by its very nature, tend to
cater to the larger number of us who haven't got the time to master the
learning curve to be creative at something, but who have a necessity or
who want a taste of an experience, nonetheless.  I cannot take the time
to learn how to be a gourmet chef -- I need to eat as quickly as
possible so that I can spend my time being creative in other ways.  For
this reason, I wouldn't trade in my microwave oven for anything!  Let
those persons take the time to become gourmet chefs who choose to do so. 

And there's the magic word -- Choice!  Whatever you may say about what
may appear to be alarming trends, the corresponding salvation lies in
the burgeoning proliferation of available options!  The technological
world has been so overwhelmed by these options, whether valuable or not,
that the job of connecting people with a need to solutions they can use
has become a real challenge. Note the increasing number of meta search
engines on the internet, for example.  Even those of us with highly
specialized needs (e.g., stereographers!), can find kindred souls with
whom we can exchange guidance in making those choices, and we can
communicate with them almost instantaneously, either in writing or by
voice.

Thank you, Bruce, Boris, Dr. T., Bob, Mark, Greg, Lincoln, and all the
others on P3D.  You are my choice, a far cry from the necessary evils of
automated impersonality demanded by a civilization wanting more time
away from the mundane to spend on the things their hearts desire,
whether it be an evening with a six-pack spent sprawled in an armchair
watching "wrassling," or an evening contemplating the wisdom and
artistry of friends. My choice is clear, and so long as such choices are
available to accommodate most of us, the world will have the power, if
individuals in it so choose, to expose the frauds and flummery, and to
keep on making things better for all of us.

As a kind of inadequate summary, I dedicate the following sonnet to
P3D.  The last and only other time I wrote a sonnet was to a lady friend
in 1979,
so please excuse the amateurish doggerel:

		    To Orange Dreams

	Harvests, from the Orange Tree of Dreams,
	Are varied for the plain or skilled who plunder.
	The ripest fruit lies on the ground and beams
	Its mottled promise, prime for plainer hunger.

	Yet those who mounted ladders stretched and reached;
	The use of tools brought home the fruit, most gold,
	That nestled midst the topmost leaves, sun bleached,
	And glowed the Higher Dream to feed the bold.

	But who's to say which fruit has greater Heart?
	While skills did bring the Golden Dreams to store,
	Cannot base hunger rouse a Muse to start
	Her Inspiration from a mottled core?

	There's Truth in CHOICE, which powers us to see
	ALL Orange Dreams we wrested from the Tree.

	---Oliver "Percy Dovetonsils" Dean
	---September 28, 1999  (From 3:00 AM to 7:00 AM!)

(Am I too old for anyone else to remember "Percy Dovetonsils?")

Cordially,
Oliver Dean