A STORY: IS EVOKE A NEVERLAND?

Oonce upon a time there was a father and a mother.

They had two children.

They were happy.

Soon they had another cause for happiness.

They were going to have an addition to the family.

The mom had had two Caesareans.

Third time around, still the same thing.

The doc -a lady -asked her the same question as the previous two times.

Do you wanna go for a scan?

You can tell if there's something wrong with the kid and go for an abortion.

In India we can't ask for sex of kid.

It's banned.

Because of female foeticide.

But they can tell you if they think there's any abnormality and you can abort.

The brave mother - the heroine of my story- said, as she had done twice before, no I don't want to find out. I want to have the child anyway.

The child was born.

A boy child.

There was great rejoicing in the little family and also among their loved ones.

As much as there was when the two elder children, both girls, were born.

Not more or less.

The dad and mom went for having no more kids, now they had two girls and a boy, one more than the planetary quota at present supports and also the doc said it's risky if you have more than one or next kid or both mother and child can be in danger next time around.

They were not rich but happy.

They were middle middle class or lower middle class, but not lower lower but lower upper.

Time went by.

Fast forward.

One and a half.

The kid began to speak.

A few weeks later he stopped.

He coudn't be potty trained.

It was awful.

He'd smear s*** all over himself and everywhere.

Ugh.

And piss

And... all kinds of things.

Why?

The mom told the dad something he didn't hear.

A word he didn't understand.

Finally he said wait six more months.

We'll do something about it.

He knew a hell of a lot but knew so little really.

Well, they tested him first - the prince - for deafness becasue he didn't respond to very loud sounds.

You could bang a gong behind his ear and he'd just pretend nothing had occurred.

At the deafness testing centre.

A lady used that word again.

Then many others used the same word.

The dad resigned his job.

He took his heroine and two kids and son to another place.

Searching for help.

More help.

Better help.

He got some help.

His kid was potty trained.

A few good things fell into place.

He thought of the West

The rainbow at the end of which lay a pot of ... help.

His journey on the rainbow took him to Saudi Arabia.

No help there except some cash.

Took him to Libya.

Even less help.

More cash.

Took him to urgent evoke.

I forgot to tell you that the dad was brilliant.

The kind of guy who if he had wanted could have won a Nobel Prize for literature, maybe, if he'd spent all his time trying to do only that.

He chose not to.

He was on a different mission.

Well finally he came on urgent evoke.

He was still chasing the proverbial pot of... help.

But now his vision had expanded.

It was not only for his prince.

But also for princes and princesses like his prince.

He met a lot of people on evoke.

They said they wanted to save the world, change the world.

He had a different name for it, eventually.

Neverland.

Where people don't grow up.

All he'd played in his life was Tarzan Disney version on home comp.

Age of empires a little bit.

Pacman.

Games like that, of no account.

Farmtown, on facebook.

World of Warcraft, the intro.

He heard of somone called Jane Mcgonigal after joining evoke.

Watched a video

She looked like a queen all right

Unapproachable and beautiful, like all the other queens

He loved her from a distance

He played his life out, spend more money than he could afford.

Wrote and blogged like mad.

All for one thing.

To make his vision a reality one day, if not by him then by someone else...

Remember .. .. pot of help at end of rainbow?

Ok.

He knew he was good.

He came to the top of the points table.

On the way he met many people.

He trusted everyone.

He thought they all wanted to save and change the world.

Here are some of the people he met.

Jane Mcgonigal.

Alchemy.

Game runners like Mita and Chelsea and Nat and Nathan and Calida and Simon.

Evoke 4evers like Radhika, MoE, Elastika.

MAK.

Michele Baron

Delta folk like Panamericana and Sarah(?)

Iron Helix

Meira Datiya

Karamveer Lalh

Jeremy Laird Hogg

Evo

Simon Spencer

Samiran Roy

Wintermute

Thys van der Veer

Julio

Patricio

Margie Alsbrook

Turil Cronberg

Mark Mulkerin

Chris Sihai

Ezra Ho

Alberto Cottica

Iyamuremye

Lennart Baardman.

Shakwei

PJE

Gilbert Martin

Peggie Scott

The Garden Earth project

Chris Delamer

Ursula Kochanowsky

Nick Heyming

NomadHAR

Shannon

Then another woman I can't name here because she said don't use my name

Aseel Honein

Ternura Rojas

Lennart Baardman

etc, etc...

What did he find out?

Well, for one thing we are all gonna die one day...

Another thing:

We all can't get along together.

He will keep in touch with all these people if possible, of course.

He still hopes to get to Washington DC and get the money and sleepless nights spent on evoke and time and energy's worth back.

But he's going back home where he comes from.

There's no pot at end of rainbow.

There's no rainbow.

There's no gold or leprechaun.

There's just people muddling along in their innocence or ignorance, selfish and selfless by turns, who all think no end of themselves, just like him.

He is going back to spend time with his son.

His son speaks in a langauge only he can understand.

He says:

"Dad, I dont care if you get to Washington DC

or you help only me or all like me

or get seed funding

or if you do good or if you don't do good

I take you as you are just as you take me as I am

what I care about is

I love you

& you love me

one day I'll die, dad.

You will too.

But this remains:

I love you

You love me."

I know that it's simple but nobody ain't gonna get it.

Like I could have this dream, you know;

meeting all of you

and saying

I love you guys

and getting a reply that goes like this:

we love you too and we love each other.

Just a pipe dream.

So let me put it in my pipe and smoke it.

I know somewhere behind your computer screens you're real people.

And you think you want to change the world.

Well, you did.

You've changed it the way we always do.

Dividing into camps, fighting, splits

Splintered groups...

Good job.

You know what I think of World Bank?

I don't care for the World Bank.

I don't care for Ning.

And people?

Well, since I'm one too I'm unable to say I don't care for people.

So well, I love you all.

Thanks for hurting each other real good.

I have no band aid.

I need to go back home somehow and spend time with my son.

And maybe others like him if I still get the chance

And of course I'll be in touch with you all as you continue loving and hating each other selectively.

Yesterday, a plane crashed in Tripoli Airport.

Everyone died except a ten year old kid.

That's life.

"The light gleams an instant and its gone."

What's virtuality?

LOL!

Not even an instant.

Non-existent.

I'd rather be autistic any day.

All the best to all of you while you continue on your journeys.

May your belief you're doing something good and wonderful and great uphold all of you.

Truth is, you ain't really doing nothing, man.

There's a great gig in the sky and it ain't comin' for you.

Me, I'm just gonna go out and have a peace pipe.

Good Night.

It's night here.

Take care.

If you want your hurts soothed find a lot of mumbo jumbo people, They're everywhere.

I prefer reality.

Take care.