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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jpmac who wrote (24492)	8/20/1998 11:33:00 AM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

She dreamed of an old prospector, a dusty creekbed, a starlit night. She could hear the rocks under the feet of Ol'Sal, small castanets colliding as they rolled into the shallow waters. "Oh, Drygulch," she whispered as he handed her one of the stones from the sacred place. He looked into her eyes, hers so blue and clear, his -well-she wasn't sure what color his eyes were-they were pretty much obscured by wrinkles and dust--but her heart beat faster nonetheless. He began to sing. He sounded like a castrato. To dream the Impossible Dream, To fight the unbeatable foe- She drew back in alarm. Rambi rolled over and looked at She Who Was Not All There. "What are you doing? She asked irritably, wondering if she reached for the Uzi and shot her alter ego someplace not mortally threatening, she could go back to sleep. Surrounded by small stacks of chips, her creator, smiling beatifically, was humming to herself and counting. "Good morning!" She of the Cheerful Countenance chirped. "I have had the nicest time! And George gave me this huge bag of chips. I think they're gold!" Rambi pushed the tousled mass of curls from her eyes and stared at the chips. Great! Maybe now She of the Tight Pursestrings would get a cave of her own and leave Rambi alone. "So how much is there?" She sighed, stretched luxuriously, and reached for her thong, thinking that it was about time to get out her fall wardrobe. "I don't know. I'm just dividing it up to give to all the people playing the Heroic Quest game. They were really good last night. jp showed up and she denied it, but she's played before. I can tell." "You're going to give away all those gold chips?" Not for the first time Rambi wondered if the doctor had accidentally done a lobotomy at birth on She Who Never Never Seemed to Get It. "Yup! You might want to read their posts. You get mentioned." She handed Rambi the laptop. There was silence for a while, broken only by the sound of chips keeping time to hummed fragments of Dulcinea. "I have no morality? I'm not smart? Who is this jp? And spunky? THis George says I'm 'spunky' What kind of word is that?" Rambi reached for her Uzi and a new clip. "Where are you going?" "I'm going on a Heroic Quest," said Rambi. "There's some unbeatable foes out there I need to take care of." Oh, OK! WOuld you give them these chips while you're at it?" Rambi threw her alter ego a look of disgust. "You are so pitiful." she hissed. "How did I ever get hooked up with you? As grey as they come." "Ok,I'll do it myself." She of No Guts shrugged. "But I prefer to think of myself as opalescent. Have a good time." "Oh, I will," murmured Rambi, and marched off purposefully, humming her favorite battle aria from Wagner.

To: jpmac who wrote (24492)	8/20/1998 11:33:00 PM
From: Dayuhan	Respond to of 108807

It's true that our real-world quests needn't be large. Nobody will ever elevate then to the status of myths, though. What I was wondering at the start of all this was if hearing the tales of the mythic quests in youth makes a person more likely to take on small (and sometimes not so small) quests later in life. I'd be inclined to think it does. All of this ties in with the question of loyalty vs. honor. The heroic dream is an easy thing to manipulate, and every terrorist is a hero in his own mind. I probably shouldn't be hard on Tolkien: he did construct a world in which I lived for about a year, at least in my imagination. But now, while I still appreciate the combination of infinite detail with awesome scope, the prose seems extremely archaic and his obvious discomfort with female characters disappoints me. Still, one for the ages, no doubt about it. I'm not so sure that organized religion is so essential for the transmission of moral principle. I prefer disorganized religion. An organization means a hierarchy, which means power, which means inevitable corruption. The more leaders get involved, the farther the edifice moves from religion, and the closer to politics. And we all know where that leads. Steve