MAXIM 17: The longer everything goes according to plan, the bigger the impending disaster.
But oh, the perils of leadership in a species so anxious to be told what to do. How little they knew of what they created by their demands. Leaders made mistakes. And those mistakes, amplified by the numbers who followed without questioning, moved inevitably toward great disasters.
Oh, yeah. This is why men follow this man–
Leaders in all realms and activities of life knew that the power they had come to hold existed because they were responsible to serve the many, thus power was position of service.
“To Serve Man”
“Please, My Lady. We do have our own intelligence services, you know. What sort of wicked militarists would we be if we didn’t keep track of people crossing our space? I’m afraid some of your people were somewhat loose-lipped about your squadron and its purpose. You might want to bring that to Admiral Givens’ attention.”
“So the I.F. is spying on Earth."
“Just as a mother spies on her children at play in the yard.”
“You have no proper concept. I’m not from anywhere in the yard.”
“What yard?”
“In the universe, I mean. I’m from outside the universe.”
I don’t know who you are or where you came from, but I do know…you’re in the wrong place, Mister.
Oh, I don’t know if I know the answer to that. I think it’s across the Bay, in Alameda.
Things are tough all over, cupcake, an’ it rains on the just an’ the unjust alike…except in California.
The rain continued. It was a hard rain, a perpetual rain, a sweating and steaming rain; it was a mizzle, a downpour, a fountain, a whipping at the eyes, an undertow at the ankles; it was a rain to drown all rains and the memory of rains.
“Dang! Look at that RAINBOW!" Piper shouted, accidentally spewing bits of apple pie from her overstuffed mouth. All quickly turned and saw…exactly what Piper claimed, a rainbow.
In our world, I rank music somewhere between hair ribbons and rainbows in terms of usefulness.
Picture fifty feet of baby-blue Christmas ribbon one inch wide. String it in a circle, on edge on the floor, and put a candle in the middle. Now expand the scale: The Ringworld was a ribbon of unreasonably strong material, a million miles wide and six hundred million miles long, strung in a circle ninety-five million miles in radius with a sun at the center.
I am Grey. I stand between the candle and the star. We are Grey. We stand between the darkness and the light.
Stripped bare, he made the quick, meaningful gesture he had not really expected ever to be able to make. Gray seal. No entity has ever donned or ever will don the Gray unmoved, nor without dedicating himself anew to that for which it stands.
He made that curious gesture known as Grey Seal. No entity has ever donned or will ever don that Grey uniform without making that gesture. It is the only way you can get the zipper closed.
No response-Just had to congratulate AndyL on his play–perfect.
Press on.
Actually, I thought the entire response series in posts 4413-4417 was particularly good.