Yesterday C.W. walked up in the shape of a well-dressed
twenty-something and wanted to go downtown and have a drink at a bar.
“I understand that is where your young people go to seek adventure,”
he said.
That made me think. “I guess some do,” I said.
“Where else would they go?”
“Some go to Mount Everest for excitement.”
“Are there girls there?”
“Not many.”
“Why then?”
“Gosh,” I said, “I really don’t know. To try and climb it I
suppose.”
I could sense his internal computer going off. “They could
encounter difficulty doing that. The elevations would pose problems.”
“Oh yes.”
“Are they sent there as punishment?”
“No. They go there willingly.”
“Where else do they go?”
I thought. “There is a place in Spain where young people let
wild bulls chase them down narrow streets.”
He frowned. “A human could get killed doing that.”
“Some do,” I said.
“That sounds like allahkahgdomcince,”
he said.
“A what?”
“It’s Falloonian for seeking danger when there is no danger.”
“Oh. Perhaps so.”
He paused again as his internal database kicked in. “It is
similar to what your American author James A. Michener disclosed in his
published book Tales of the South Pacific
years ago.
“You’ve jumped the track on me.”
“He recounted how medical officers stationed in the South
Pacific during one of your great wars noticed a case, among the natives of the
islands, of something that deviates from what is standard, normal, or expected.”
“An anomaly?”
“Are you going to repeat everything I say today?”
“No. Explain the anomaly. I seem to remember something about
it. I haven’t read that book since my high school days.”
“Did they call it that because you all stayed high most of
the time.”
,
“Just on learning. Now back to the ‘paradise syndrome’ you
were talking about.”
He recycled. “Seems people lived on these South Sea islands
in what you should call, a place or condition of great happiness where
everything is exactly as you would like it.”
“Bliss?”
“Paradise.”
“Okay. Now what is your point?”
“No disease. Food hanging from trees. Abundant water.
Comfortable climate. No need to work. No problems at all. That’s why it didn’t make sense.”
“What didn’t make sense?”
“That they created cruel, inhumane, and destructive
religions that kept their people in a constant state of tension.”
“I seem to remember that,” I said. “It doesn’t make sense,
does it?”
“It’s almost like you live in luxury but want someone
uncaring, cruel, and mean to rule over your daily activities. Falloonians would
call that, kughtckoughuruhnhos.”
“Well I’m glad we’re civilized today and passed all that
nonsense.”
He looked at me for a time and started to say something but
stopped. He nodded to himself, thought, and said, “I’m ready to go get that
drink now.”
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