I’ve been reading The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan. So much of what he details revolves around maintaining empires – Roman, Ottoman, Sassanids… but he forgot to mention mine.
Now, before you scoff and mutter some obscenity-laden little comment under your breath in the “who does he think he is” vein, let me just toss you a couple of wait-a-minutes and then we’ll see who’s what, know whatta mean?
Let’s talk about you for a moment. You have a cell phone, and probably a computer. You probably have a car, a dwelling, some furniture. Maybe a significant other, and perhaps a child or two, wandering about aimlessly. Coupla books, some pots and pans. And clothes. You’ve got a job, a career, a large pile of hopes and dreams. You’re a writer, after all…
Face it, my friend, this is your empire.
You gotta read The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu. Not to give anything away, but his premise is this: the resources of the universe are finite, and all civilizations must grow. Ultimately, there’s only room for one.
Chilling, am I right?
That has NOTHING to do with what I’m actually writing about, but it’s a cool book. I enjoyed Three Body Problem, the first book in the series, more than The Dark Forest, but both are excellent, excellent reads.
Anyway, the stuff you own, the stuff you are, the stuff you dream about – that’s your empire. And you know it’s all important because you spend your days defending it, making it grow, keeping it vital.
And, really, isn’t that the point? Isn’t that why we wake up in the AM? Not just to lay it back down in the PM, but to better our empire, move our lives forward, each and every day?
Sure, the Mongols had armies and swords and stuff.
At the end of the day, though, aren’t we all just doing the same thing – managing the empire?
John D Reinhart 