Oh lordy me, booze calls my name and I answer with a resounding hollar of "YES!". But seriously, I've been out and about, drinking, making friends and all that jazz. I've also done much pondering, which is something which I can't seem to prevent. So here is what has been passing through my stream of consciousness as of late.

I recently finished a book by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle called "A Mote in God's Eye." I know that I've raved and ranted about it to a few people, and your probably sick and tired of that by now so I'll make it concise as I can. Besides being one of THE best sci-fi novels I have ever read, it dealt with some of the fundamental aspects of humanity. That being, the human condition of always thinking that there is a solution to every problem. It is best summed up in the story as told by the Greek Herotodus (as mentioned in the book). A thief is brought before the king, and the king decrees his execution. The thief says, "See that horse over there? I promise you in one year, I will make that horse sing." The king, being amused, agrees and gives him one year. So back in prison, all the other inmates see this poor fool singing softly to the horse and unaimously say, "What're you? Stupid?" and the thief replies, "Many things may happen in the next year. The king may die, I may die, or...I might just teach this horse to sing." The point being, he's bought himself a year, and the problem may yet be solved.

The next thing I saw was the movie Brokeback Mountain. Luckily enough, I missed the tent scene (whew!), but I saw about 3/4 of the movie. I have to admit that it was a very sad movie, and when I look at the characters, I ask myself, who really lived? Jack may have met an unfortunate end at the hands of ignorant fools, and Innis hid the truth well and lived a long life. But by denying himself, I don't think Innis lived at all. He existed sure, but to deny oneself of love isn't really living at all, in my mind.

So where am I going with this you might ask? Well, as everyone probably knows me pretty well, I like to generalize. I'm a mathematician, what can I say? So I've constantly searched for that one thing that makes everyone human and is common to all. For awhile I thought it was awe at the universe, because everyone looks up into the stars with wonder. But now I realize it's something much more human, and that is it is utterly human to have hope. That is what faith is, that is what problem solving is, and that's really what love is; or so I've concluded so far. If you resign yourself to the fact that this is the way the world is, and you can't do anything about it, you lose your humanity. Having hope that things will work out, that a relative will live through a disease, that there is a solution, or that that long lost love will ultimately come to be again, is to be human I think.

So, that's what's been eating my time recently and I'd like to hear what everyone thinks. Am I right, am I wrong, or am I slowly going crazy? Well, I plan to go party some more here tonight, and I wish everyone the best.