"Do not tempt me! For I do not wish to become like the Dark Lord himself. Yet the way of the Ring to my heart is by pity, pity for weakness and the desire of strength to do good. Do not tempt me! I dare not take it, not even to keep it safe, unused. The wish to wield it would be too great for my strength. I shall have such need of it. Great perils lie before me.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Now there's a warning about power. Even Gandalf knew that the power of the ring would corrupt him. Perhaps we need--or probably already have--an axiom about power. I don't mean the absolute power one. I'm thinking something like this: "Those who wish to wield great power to do good are those who must not be trusted with it." Every tyrant claims "pity for weakness and the desire of strength to do good." Tyranny comes with a smile and a basket of promises. The basket, uncovered, reveals purges, poverty, starvation, and corpses. The disciples of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin continue to peddle those promises in spite of a record of disastrous misery for the masses.

On the lighter side, I had an ordeal last week but I replaced it with a fabulous adventure riding the motorcycle to a fishing hole this week without the benefit of a non-spirit guide to mislead me. It was a complete success. I only caught four fish but there were four more that freed themselves before they landed. It's not about how many fish you catch (unless you're fishing with friends); it's about the journey and the game of man versus fish. I was a winner. We won't discuss the lure I lost in a tree--it's a long story--or the replacement lure I lost on a snag two casts later because quality of the questionable quality of the knot.

Short stories are happening. I'll send in the Space Cowboy story soon; it's been finished for a while; and I'm currently hammering out a victorianesque adventure on a far planet where troops of Empress Hortense's light infantry encounter unexpected hostility and an interpreter gets caught in the middle. My latest novel idea--if I can ever get to it--is a fun one featuring motorcycles and--that's where it gets complicated.

Bugs in the System is coming soon.

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