Pursuing your dreams

Once more a prompt that I have totally forgotten about. I had a wild dream last night which was supposedly about the book I was writing. However the dream was set 2000 years in the future and dealt with an alien race of people who were working with what was left of the human race.

I would say the dream was wild but it was logical. Remembering the key details is incredibly fuzzy now. I don't think I could think up the adaptation the alien race had. We are all familiar with the ways humans alter the human body with piercings, injections, tattoos and cosmetic surgery.

These aliens took a medication during gestation to get the desired result. Before I started dreaming details, there was a young couple who had a baby without the medication. Turns out there were many hold outs on their home planet.Then when I dreamed the Chinese was the linqua franca of the Roman Catholic Church, I had to work out the details of how the Earth would change in 2000 years. I woke up a few facts later.

One thing that would never change is human nature. The two aliens were clearly proud of their child. The love and kindness of people to each other is remarkable at times.

Like most people, I have encountered more of the political side of people than I like. I remember my first teaching job. The honeymoon of youth was over the day my foot stepped into the school. I wanted to quit the first month but I thought that was how real life was. Knowing what I know now, I should have quit and found another job.

I gained about 75 pounds in the two years I worked at that school. I never have gotten that weight off. My lifelong curse is that I have gained weight whenever I was under a lot of stress. Some people lose weight. I would say they are lucky but there are no winners.

In the United States, our politics have always been crazy. But even by our standards, they are incredibly nuts.

It's the day to day politics that affect us. Politics is making you do what someone else wants for a perceived benefit to yourself. I say perceived because it usually benefits someone else.

Today, my mind has been on piracy. Someone steals an artist's work and makes a profit selling it to a consumer at a discount. The consumer gets a discount and essentially the thief makes money off a product they stole much like the shady men selling electronics from the trunk of their car.

When you think of piracy, you usually think of super rich rock stars. In my hometown there are former rockers who became international in the eighties and they work to make ends meet today. One had a massive heart attack and had to create a U-fund me account until he qualified for social security.  Some musicians sustain themselves on the stage and elsewhere long enough to make enough money to invest and recreate themselves as musicians or live well. Most do not do as well.

One thing I believe in an artist has a right to be paid. I searched about writer's whose work is pirated. Aspiring to write, I do understand the unrewarded work. I do feel how many feel about their work not being recognized by the proverbial wheel of fortune. In the same vein, I feel a little aggravated with writers who do not recognize that you buy their book to read and not proselytize it to others.

Piracy of ebooks is a terrible shame. I read someone's blog and their books which are considerable have all been pirated. I assume he is an indie writer and I have read two of his books. This bothers me in that most writers make so little off of their work in the first place and then have to contend with pirates. There should be much better prosecution of these people.

What bothers me more are people who knowingly buy pirated books. Do you really want a thief to make money over the actual author? I read comments on one tech site discussing how easy it was to steal a text file off of kindle and convert it to another file for ease in selling.

Two asinine comments were that people buy used books and how little money some people live on in parts of the world. At least with a used book, a royalty was paid at one time. Secondly, a book written in the United States and bought by an American has nothing to do with poverty in a third world country. Again, why should you help a thief profit.

An author has to fight to protect their work. Like most thief, it surprises you in how it happens. No one deserves it.

I have played with politics my entire life. Won some, lost some, was played a fool by many, but, I am still here. I've tried to be honest. I have a close relative tell me I was a fool for being so nice. I do know a con thinks kindness is weakness. I have met that person and stood my ground. Sometimes I won, sometimes I lost.

You don't have a choice at times. But I do have a choice in how I treat other people. I also have a choice in supporting the actual owner of goods versus a pirate. And hey, I fill two or three paper bags with books when they are on sale at a used book fundraiser. But I don't buy from a thief.

Now what in the hell does my mention of politics have to do with this. We have a lot of virulent speech today which will be snowballing as the year progresses. You will be spitting in the wind to try to counter most of it. But on occasion, speak up your descent. Politicians are just a reflection of the general population. I don't hate Donald Trump but I do hate his crude view of the world. Statesmanship will never describe his style. However, he is just parroting whatsome people want to hear.