Monday 17 May 1999

Summer has returned with a VENGEANCE! I initially put on my new black jeans/trousers, a deep blue shirt with a small pattern, and a black jacket outside that again. But going outside, I returned and hung my jacket back up. Even in trousers and a shirt, it was hot. I also walked in my new black shoes. That was a mistake! I'd only used them for short trips, and now they dug into my heels. My previous heel sore took like three months to heal and still left a scar, so I have a slightly higher awareness of such things now. On my way back, I took the shoes off in the peaceful wood not a stone's throw from the road, and let my feet rest. I then walked the rest of the way home without tying my laces...

I'm still slugging it out with the guys on rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan. It seems nobody is willing to accept the superiority of holding many different views in your mind at any one time, even if you have to act on only one of them. I've mentioned this before, but I am disgusted and slightly scared of the human tendency to entrench: Conservatives will read conservative papers, liberals will read liberal papers, etc. And members of the various religious denominations will take care not to get any input from outside their own sect, be it large or small. I think this is all just plain wrong. I think we should try to learn how others think. We may never be able to experience what it is like to be a whole different person, but we should still try.

If people were more like me in this single little aspect, the number of wars on earth would fall drastically. It is hard to hate someone you understand. It is hard to kill someone when you think: "It could have been me."

Of course, if people were completely like me, we wouldn't need any wars - the human race would die out anyway. :)