Philosophical Musing (Optional)

Brief Interlude.
I am publishing these posts at a coffee shop. At this point, I have finished everything at home on this book-in-process except finding material to decorate the cover.

I decided to scrounge in the alley on the way here, in keeping with the spirit of the project.
As I was rummaging around a dumpster, a young woman from one of the apartment buildings came up to me and offered me a can of soup.
I was so moved by her kindness, I almost hated to tell her I was just looking for paper for an art project. Maybe I just should have said thank you and taken it.

I better admit here that I don't truly have a dystopian Mad-Maxian view of the future.
I have a Stone Soup view of humans.
Remember that story? A couple hungry bums trick a community into feeding them (and the community) by setting up a cauldron of water with a few stones in it in the public square and saying they're making soup. Graduallly the skeptical citizens begin to add ingredients, grumbling, "You can't make soup without [carrots/onions/potatoes/fish heads/whatever]. At the end, everyone eats together.

Sure, we're a short-sighted species, perfectly capable of destroying our world; but I think the survivors'd go back to helping each other build barns, make soup, and stuff.
(I wouldn't want to have to put this sweet theory to the test, though.)

Personally, I'm hoping for more of a Captain-Kirk-y sort of future (with the addition of some significant changes of my own choosing).
I'd have used Kirk instead of Mad Max as a bookmaking icon; but he doesn't need a handmade book. He has those futuristic Etch-a-Sketches.
Anyway, he was all wrong: he doesn't have a dog.