The Mediterranean is where I have been planning to sail and spend the balance of my life. To this end, I’ve been reading a 600-page history called, “The Great Sea.” It is the story of the people who first settled the Mediterranean – and all those since, who have lived there, and do so today. Mostly, it’s about competing. Warring.

The Med’s history is almost a carbon copy of all histories of people everywhere since we humans learned how to write histories. It is about us fighting, trying to force others to change “their” religion to “our” religion. It’s about “us” taking their land from “them” and they doing the same to someone else. Bluntly, it is about the self-centeredness and weak mindedness of humans: our reluctance to grow, to change.

History is rarely about people realizing that life and its natural disasters are adequately threatening, without people militarily and economically bludgeoning each other to bits. History is about us fighting with each other because we are not alike. Rarely is it about us understanding we are diversely unique, and have every right to be so.

If you’ve read my Blogs, you know, for example, how utterly stupid I think the political Left/Right battle is. Liberal and Conservative are mindlessly simplistic concepts. Rational definitions for Liberal and Conservative might be: “Open minded to new ideas” and “Cautious about dumb ideas.” That would make a little sense at least. And it would give all of us a meeting ground upon which to hold sensible conversations, instead of repeatedly acting-out, like children.

I hope I make it safely to the Mediterranean. I’m particularly hopeful I may find myself where Western Civilization got started and it will provide me some new insights. If so, I’ll write an update on the History of Humanity: a short version; about 25 words long. About how, instead of competing, we could learn how to cooperate and collaborate, and let one another be different. And, thereby, thrive. All of us.

It’ll have to be a best seller. I’m taking orders right now. A $10 deposit will reserve you a copy.