001 [anonymous text] Day 405

[boogerman]

[This is a test. This is only a test.]

[A way to see how honest and stupid Asgard's travelers are as he hides away all day in his room, soon figuring out how to be anonymous on the network. He may even learn something useful.]

What do you fear most of all? Why?

Comments

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[boogerman]

I'm more into crossword puzzles and sketching.

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[palebee]

Of anything in particular?

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[boogerman]

Wildlife, such as this.

[A few moments later there's an anonymous voice message consisting of fox sounds.]

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[palebee]

Very well-done! We'd a nest of them one year beneath the house, when I was a boy. Bit disconcerting in the night, isn't it?

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[boogerman]

There aren't many night animals you couldn't say that about.

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[palebee]

Oh, I suppose, but only with the addition of human wonder. The owl certainly doesn't startle to see its own face.

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[boogerman]

No, but it will in the face of other predators. Basic survival instincts, the one thing all animals have in common.

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[palebee]

The mouse that quails before the owl's talons is soon devoured, true. It does not live to further its shrinking kind. But the mouse that fights, or the mouse that runs -- these survive. They make more mice, squirming and pink. Action, by repetition, surmounts fear.

For the mouse, this is perhaps not a conscious choice. They are born simple creatures, and servants to their own nature.

But man is not. The will to overcome instinct is the common definition of humanity; trepidation is a natural thing, and as with all nature -- temporary, subject to mortal whim.

We make our own fears, and I, my own socks. Would you care for a pair?

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[boogerman]

And bravery can only exist with fear. It's not so much to be proud of at all if you were never afraid to begin with.

My feet are fine.

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[palebee]

Certainly, but that wasn't the question that I asked! Your feet may be fit as fiddles, but would you like a pair? I've seen them worn about the ears before -- though granted, primarily in the aftermath of very rowdy parties.

Therein lies (I believe) the difference between bravery and courage. Acting in spite of fear is courageous. Acting without any eye to fear, merely brave.

Of course, there lies still fiercer sport in determining the distance of fear, and of an accurate assessment of risk. Fear itself serves no real purpose save to cloud the mind from such; I would not laud it properly beside such traits.

[boogerman]

I'll pass on any extra socks. Or scarves. Or cute little mittens.

What you call bravery, I call stupidity, in most cases. I'm all in favor of courage, though. Rarer than diamonds.

[palebee]

Fortuitous, then, mittens are a devil to pattern without proper measurements.

[ They're easy as sin, really, but all for the sake of a phrase. ]

All things have their place, whether diamonds or coaldust.

[boogerman]

Are they really? Is it the thumb?

Diamonds are much nicer to look at, says popular opinion. Charcoal's nice for sketching, though.

[palebee]

The palm, actually. It makes all the difference between a sleeved glove, and wearing woolen bags on your hands.

Not as though those aren't fashionable in their own right.

Diamonds won't warm a hearth. Pretty and useful don't always walk in hand.

[boogerman]

They must be good for something, they're harder than any other rock.

[palebee]

Oh, they are. That knowledge, in concert, lends them utility.

But the barrier -- perhaps the better analogy is boiling point -- to entry is higher in many instances than it is coal or charcoal. Which brings us to the pertinent question:

If all knowledge has value, does the broad knowledge of the many exceed, match, or undermeet the specialized knowledge of the few? And might those two categories be considered one and the same, but only applied to different ends?

Rhetorical, if referential to the original topic of discussion. I think that I will leave you with it.

[boogerman]

Bored already, are you? Shame, this is actually decent conversation.