>[Warning: Long, Rambling, Self-Important Babbling About Home Life About to
>Commence...]
Great post! I wanna come too!
>my understanding of the word "mate" has morphed as well.
>It turns out, much to my surprise, that *most* of the elements of
>relationships normally reserved for mates can be had platonically.
Of course, here in Australia, that's the *standard* use of `mate' - which
might, if we can wake the sun-drenched buggers up, might make Aussies the
perfect launchpad for transhumanism... [`buggers' is another standard use,
with very little connection to the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras even now
winding flamboyantly though the streets of Sydney - but then again...]
>hugs, back rubs, massages, and my personal
>favorite, head rubs.
*sigh*
>I think Damien and possibly some others here said they wanted to know more
>about the Nexuses (Nexi?). Was there something specific?
When I was 15 and 16, I lived in a monastery (I was planning to become a
Catholic priest). I was glad to return to the outside world, but there
really was a genuine win-win, meditative quality in that life which I think
the busy-busy world could learn from. Pretty quickly I moved into one of
the earliest of the urban campus communes in Australia (in the mid-60s),
and for years after that lived, on and off, in such households. They fell
apart when couples had kids, went professional, got jealous over sexual and
affection issues. For years now I've lived alone, despite periodic
entanglements. It has very many merits - but ah, those head rubs...!
(Damien sobs quietly for a moment.)
Thanks for the terrific post, Derek.
Damien Broderick