Step Into Another Life

Last night I dreamed I was putting a new website together. It was called Step Into Another Life. People would click on a link and be transported to a place where things made sense, where they were encouraged to be useful and good, where beauty surrounded them.

Not like modern life as we know it. When I opened the paper in the morning I was struck by the way everything was fifteen degrees out of true. They say Congress is now carrying on its own foreign policy in disregard of the executive branch and the State Department professionals, messing about in very sensitive places, all at the instigation of the head of a foreign power. Has this ever happened before? Nobody knows, because American history is no longer taught in the schools. Snookie from The Jersey Shore is on her fifth book tour, proclaiming to the press that she means to keep out of the public eye. They just passed a law in Florida forbidding the utterance of the words, "climate change." One crazy thing after another.

So, Step Into Another Life. I haven't worked out the details yet. How much would be fantasy, how much real? Ideally, I would be able to make money out of it. In my dream my sister and I were collaborating on how it would work, she being the beauty person, the artist, and I the technical one. We would all wear maroon-and-olive-green striped sweaters. How that would pull the world together into some semblance of sense I don't know, but in my dream the two of us thought that would be a start. You could order the sweaters. Then you could contact a company to install solar panels on your roof, thereby reducing dependence on foreign (and domestic) oil and gas. No more pipelines. No more kissing the feet of the Saudis. Then you could order a Tesla. Let the Koch brothers tremble. Oil would be dead.

After that—or maybe before that—the site would put you in touch with the church, synagogue, or ashram of your choice, where you could study peace and get right with God. I personally recommend the teachings of Christ, His real teachings, that is, not the fake ones made up by some hate-filled demagogue. Step into another life.

Oh, yes. And you could hire a reliable maid. Maybe also a gardener, if you had a garden.

My website would be a little bit like HomeTowne, the online game featured in Monkeystorm, except that Hometowne is entirely fantasy, with no links to the extensional world. If you haven't read Monkeystorm, you should. It's all about madness, greed, computer applications, family relationships, vampires, and the salvation of bad dogs. Also it takes place in Lambertville, whimsey capital of the Mid-Atlantic States. A very cool book, if I do say so myself.

© 2015 Kate Gallison