Should we commend or condemn the inventor of the office wall partition?

What does the height of your partition wall, like the length of your belt, indicate?

In the knowledge economy, where knowledge factory workers sit in front of flat electronic panels and try to make sense of pixelated information, what characterises a sense of decency?

Is there enough oil in North Dakota to eliminate America’s dependence on Middle East politics?

What does Eurussiasia, Putin’s latest political alliance, mean for the future?

Will Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia ever make peace in this postProust 1984 global conglomerate?

Now that my Arduino is controlling sensors and feeders, monitoring the nutrient/microorganism mix for individual trees and shrubs in my wooded front yard, will I influence the random interaction of plants and animals that give me a sense of decency while I sit in front of a notebook PC next to the front bedroom window?

Back to the ol’ circle of influence and control – do you keep your thoughts on what you want and off the things you don’t?

Do you set your goals as high as possible or completely out of reach?

Yesterday, after the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of a large office complex at the local military base, I toured the facilities, greeting several people I know and meeting new ones in corridors and office cubicles.

Except for specific products in the pictures hung in hallways, I could have been in any office anywhere in the world, where artificial lighting, central heat/air, wall-to-wall carpet, suspended ceilings, cafeteria, barber shop, coffee shop, exercise facility, Internet lounge, conference rooms, windows with a view, water fountain in the courtyard and raised floors are the norm.

A yellow redbud leaf blows past the window like a butterfly on a mission.

One thousand years from now, what will the view from this part of the world look like?

One thousand years ago, we did not anticipate the globally-connected cities and military forces of today.  We were primarily engaged in regional, not international, affairs.

Right now, we’re building the galactic equivalent of pea shooters, flinging little metal objects into various parts of the solar system, or up-and-down in our atmosphere.

The universe does not operate on the level of fair play and a sense of decency – we have created and imposed these imaginary concepts (is any concept not imaginary?) on ourselves.

All I can do is take the resources available to me, construct a viable timeline full of doable milestones in order to reach an impossible goal, and encourage us to achieve some, many or most of the milestones in our lives full of distractions and delays.

Hopefully, including bigger pea shooters that get us (or our reengineered equivalents) off this planet.

In the process, for those who want them, I will give you the opportunity to feel a sense of fair play and decency in your daily lives, using humour, history and future projections to nudge us forward in this storyline of our species.

Sometimes, when I’m bored, I’ll make fun of us insensitively.  I would apologise for my behaviour ahead of time but I know you’re mature and strong enough to handle any unintended insult, respecting the right of personal opinion and free speech.

Well, there’s a call coming in on the MORTIE network – gotta go.

Thanks to Beth and Austin at Publix; Aramark workers, including Timichalla (?), Stephen Austin (regional executive chef), and the guy who said, “Pardon me, coming through”; Bub, Tara, Suzie, Haley, and Rebecca at Brookdale Place Jones Farm; U.S. taxpayers.