You
can meet the oddest people in cyberspace. But today I had the strangest encounter
ever. My head's still spinning, and I'm not sure where to start, but I've just
got to share this with you.
Okay, so, I'm
hanging out in the Kindness Kids! chat room. It's a cool place. I've
met a lot of neat people there -- it's really restored my faith in
humanity, if you know what I mean. You know, discovering that there
are other 12 year olds that care about the mess the world's in. And
you know, I think our web pages and chat group is really making a
difference -- encouraging each other, sharing ideas about how we can
help out in our communities, with the homeless, and the environment...and
stuff like that...
Anyway, today
a bunch of the regulars were there, and we were enjoying ourselves,
catching up on each others' lives, shooting the breeze, you know
-- we don't spend all our time trying to save the world!
And so TotallyRad
is writing out a message about some new totally radical game he just
got and to be honest I was getting a little bored and I typed in a
few "uh huh's..." and some {{{ }}}} and !!!!'s and whatever,
and I flip through the chat list to see who else's in the room. Then
I did a double take when I saw DayDreamer up near the top. DayDreamer
is my screen name, and I'd already scrolled past it five names ago.
I scrolled down again, then up. Hmm... Strange.
Then
I get an "instant message." It's from DayDreamer.
"Hi,
Bob. It's me, Bob."
A wave of panic
swept over me. Somebody had access to my screen name and who knows
who else this person was contacting saying it was me!
"Who
are you, and why are you using my screen name?"
"It's
my screen name, too ;-)"
Now
I really started to panic. I looked down and saw that everybody was just chatting
away, oblivious to this weird predicament I seemed to be in. I decided to key
over to BILLING and report that someone had stolen my screen name. But just as
I started tapping, DayDreamer flashed another message.
"Wait,
Bob. Let me explain."
I
waited. "Well..." I tapped when nothing came.
"Well...I'm
you. Only I'm you in an alternate dimension."
"Oh
brother," I moaned out loud and I checked to make sure that I had my CHAT
SAVE on so that I could turn it over to Billing or TOS or wherever it is you're
supposed to go to report this kind of problem.
"LOL!"
my fingers pounded sarcastically.
"It's true.
It's the exact same universe as yours, but with one difference. In
this one Kindness Kids teams literally save the world."
"Uh,
huh."
"It's
true. It's a peacetopian world! There's no more pain and suffering. There's peace
on earth, and everyone is happy. No one goes hungry, there aren't any more wars,
and the earth has never been healthier..."
"Sounds
like a wonderful life!" my fingers snickered.
"IT
IS! Each day is full of awe and wonder -- another day to discover new things
and grow and share..."
I
sighed. I didn't know what to answer.
"I'm
writing you so that you can help make our universes parallel again. My world's
heading towards an even more wondrous future, but every moment our worlds are
growing further and further apart."
Of
course I didn't believe a word of this. But this guy, whoever he was, had definitely
piqued my interest. I love a good happily ever after fairy tale.
"And
just how do we 'save the world'?"
"Actually
it was really simple. We posted a story on our Kindness Kids Network web page..."
"A
story changed the world."
"Actually
it did."
"And
just what was this story."
"Well,
we made up this story about a health care conspiracy."
"You
don't need to make up a story about that -- it's in the papers all the time!"
"Well
this is different. Ever hear of pergoria?"
"Nope."
"Well,
it's this disease where a kid ages much faster than he's supposed to, so that
a 12 year old kid's body ages to look like a 60 year old's..."
"Sounds
like a Robin Williams movie. I saw the trailers, but didn't see the movie."
"Well,
it's a real disease. And it's genetic. Anyway, we got to thinking, why is that
if a genetic disease causes these kids to age faster than normal, no one's done
any research into figuring out how to reverse the process, not just in kids with
this disease, but in everyone..."
"Hmm...And
why is it?"
"We
didn't know. Then we thought about a documentary we'd seen about the common cold
where these scientists said we could have cured it long ago, but the pharmaceutical
companies stop all the research projects that get anywhere near a cure -- they
just want to come up with drugs that treat the symptoms. If they CURED it they'd
be out of a lot of money..."
"So
you think maybe there's a conspiracy out there?"
"Why
not. Think about all the researchers working all around the world in universities,
hospitals, drug companies, government agencies -- do you know that with millions
of scientists working day and night year after year only one disease has actually
been cured in the past century!"
"Wow."
"So
you wrote about this scandal and it changed the world?"
"That's
all we did. At the end of the story we said we were setting up an organization,
LIFE - Living Immortality For Everyone - that would be a central clearinghouse
for all scientific achievements. We invited the world to join together to try
to end human suffering by sharing their information and funding the research efforts."
"And
everyone accepted your invitation and the world was changed overnight!?"
"Well,
basically...It wasn't overnight, but it was much faster than anyone could have
imagined! There really was a 'conspiracy' of sorts. No one person was behind
it, but it was sort of a general way of thinking that was keeping any advances
from being made.
“People
had grown to distrust science, and drug companies WERE stopping projects that
would have led places, and well, basically, it was just because no one had set
up any plan or made this an agenda that people could work together on...anyway...
what happened was that someone saw our web page and linked it to this underground
scientific network..."
"And
they had the answers to cure all the diseases in the world?"
"No,
but it turns out there were hundreds of scientific networks out there, and LIFE
really did become a central clearinghouse. Someone set up a database for us.
Different groups volunteered to sort out the research and scientists started collaborating
and it sort of snowballed... "
"But
I thought the drug companies were cutting off important projects..."
"They
were, but LIFE was able to change the way projects were funded. The National Enquirer
wrote up a story about LIFE and it turned into a regular column, and soon the
media was talking about LIFE non-stop. We incorporated LIFE and once we were
a non-profit organization we started getting these huge checks to fund all the
research projects..."
"WOW."
"Yeah,
it was amazing. I mean once the first disease was cured, people really started
listening. It's all the media was talking about. The possibility and ramifications
of living forever was debated on TV and in stories and books and movies. Everywhere.
And every argument that someone would bring up saying why it wouldn't be good
if people didn't die from diseases and aging, well other people wrote about solutions...It's
amazing how creative people are, and how much we all have to share, once we're
given a chance...
"I
mean for all of humanity's existence people have been forced to work at jobs they
couldn't stand, just to make a living. All the talents that were wasted because
people had to push papers around or create things that destroyed the environment
or simply caused people's lives to be more hectic and more miserable. Given the
chance to focus on ways to make life better for the planet and everyone on it,
well, it sort of united the whole world...you know, like how the world joined
together in INDEPENDENCE DAY to fight the aliens -- well human suffering was now
the enemy -- and because for the first time there was a possibility that it COULD
happen, people joined together and worked to make it happen!
"It
was a wonderful time. There was so much hope and people were so happy to be 'fighting
a good fight' -- it's really what everyone had been missing in their lives --
something to really give their all for, knowing that if they worked hard together
they COULD do it! And we did."
"So
people don't die anymore?"
"Well, it's
not real immortality - we call it 'emortality'. There are accidents
where the person is just too far gone to be saved, but we're working
on that. And oddly enough, a large population has chosen to age naturally,
without any illnesses or diseases of course. That's their choice...
But the thing is, life is valued -- for the first time really, and
that makes all the difference. Everyone has a chance to do the thing
in life that makes him or her happy. Everyone has hope, which we
never had before. It's really so wonderful to be alive here."
"But
isn't the world overcrowded with no one dying?"
"Millions
of people live in biospheres floating in space -- little man-made mini-planets.
And so far people have journeyed to hundreds of different planets. We've met
intelligent creatures on several so far, and it's only helped broaden our understanding
of life and the universe... and..."
"Well,
now that the battle's been won, what does everyone live for?"
"What
do we live for? Each day is a new experience to be treasured and shared. There's
so much to know, so many different things to experience. So much love in each
of us to share. Each of us lives to enjoy life and to share the joy life brings
us with everyone around us. It's a wonderful enriching circle of love that binds
us all and it just grows and grows."
"Wow,
and all that came from just writing a story."
"It
did, Bob. It might not happen as quickly in your world. We've already diverged
so much that you might have missed some of the chances for all the 'coincidences'
that worked together to make it happen the way it happened here. But I know that
you have to start the ball rolling and that another set of coincidences will lead
you back to parallel our universe...
"So
write the story in your world, and see what happens. I can't wait until your
universe experiences the peacetopian joy that we've found. Good luck..."
And
then there was only one DayDreamer in the list of chat names.
"YO
BOB, Iz you there or ain't you!" Rad was flashing me.
"Huh!"
I gasped and my fingers were sitting quietly on the keyboard.
"HELLO!
HELLO!" he chimed on my screen.
"Yeah,
I'm here," I tapped, and I wrote the group about what happened.
"COOL
STORY!" CranBear wrote. Everyone agreed that I should post it, though obviously
no one believed it had happened.
"{{{{You
never know :-)}}}}" NerveAnna flashed.
And
so, here it is. Will posting this story usher in a new peacetopian age of wonder
and adventure? You never know :-)
