As I approach the event, posting the last section of “Are You With The Program?,” I ponder the future once again.

The discipline that keeps me believing no one reads this blog holds mostly true.

I have thrown up enough smoke to hide my entrances and exits.

I have feigned weakness in order to attack with ease.

I have pushed my literary characters away only to watch them come flying back like rare earth magnets attracted to precious metal.

The years of mental training – virtual warfare (a/k/a propaganda) and virtual peace (a/k/a more propaganda) – have paid off.

Vanity in the form of license plates (e.g., MOMSLXS) demonstrates easy manipulation of superficiality.

I have reached my happy place – the absence of self – rather than the unhappy place – the vanity of self – that some ethical/moral systems teach.

I have played with syntactical structurising.

The new blog is almost ready to accept more words.

But what of the future?

What of the wasteland that TV programming, blogs, SMS, instant updates and other mass media distractions represent?

If I reach the new blog and disconnect from popular culture, deleting my self as a piece of social networking, no matter how obscure, will I achieve the goal that the presence of nonself indicates?

I divided my duties and handed assignments to the Committee’s subcommittee members.

The message will live with or without me.

The Dead Kennedys’ “Halloween” will keep finding new listeners.

I want a quiet life, where I can pursue my dreams, no matter how small or selfish they may be.

Our species will survive.

That’s what my dreams tell me, anyway.

All our usual problems will live with us in parallel and serial, where 3D subdermal circuitry will serve as an exoskeletal communication system, our eyes trained to read bioluminescent cues from our skin, living tattoos talking like computer screens.

My cyborg self and all its memes are slowly dissolving, melting into the molten social fabric that consumes and feeds us.

Not much longer now.

I will be you will be me will be us.

Singing in imperfect harmony.

You’ll see.

Time to finish the novel.

And then…?

Start a new story, of course.

= = =

Congrats to the following who performed beautifully last night at the Ballroom Showcase Spectacular, jointly presented by Southern Elegance Dance Studio and Kinesthetic Cue Dance Club in a benefit for Hospice Family Care: Larry Mylin, Elizabeth, Sofia Ward, Alessandro Scalora, Federico Scalora, Joel Friedman, Greg Engle, Dana, Linda Killough, Rick, Peggy Page, Mary Ann Shelton, Harold, Carmen Gonzalez, Tabitha Denegal, Marianne Glad, Carole Wagner, Robin Pepper, Paula Morey, Danielle Smiley, Joe, Tamara, Erica Gore, Hal Reid, Olga, Doug, Denis, Sharon Karr, Pamelia and David Wren, Jerry Davenport, Dawn Phillips, Wendy Holliday, Madge Genter, Debra Barden, Jennifer Nye, Rob Griffin, Dave Osmon, and Jerry Gilley.

Thanks to Paula at Another Broken Egg, Donovan at Rave, Mapco, Great Spirits, and CeCe’s Yogurt.