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In typical nerd fashion, Amanda and I did a book swap at work the other day. Now I am 137 pages into Douglas Coupland's Generation A. I am a huge Douglas Coupland fan not only because he is from Vancouver but because he is just a gem of an author. Hilarious and frank, he is so very right about so many things.

Oddly, I've have had two honeybees land on me since starting the book. One on my jeans last night walking home from eating too much at dinner with Connor and one on my bathing suit covered bum at the beach this morning. If you are confused by why I am choosing to mention this, read the book.

Here are some words I think you deserve:

Forget religion, I want to mutate. I want so badly to mutate. I was sitting in the sun in the Bois de Vincennes, willing my body to mutate into whatever it is human beings are slated to turn into next. Do we get giant drosophila fly eyes? Wings? Elephantine snouts? I dream of the day we mutate into something better than the hyped-up chimps we are, chimps who eat Knorr Swiss cream of cauliflower soup while pretending not to notice that half the planet's at war, fighting over... what? Over the right to eat packaged soup without having to emotionally accept out species' darkness.

I hoped the bee had put something safe and kind and healing into my system, something better than me, something that would grow and make the world a place where idiots like Hemesh are not shot to death in parking lots and where outlet malls are always beautiful and are kept at a temperature just cool enough to require wearing a sweater.

Ever slept with groupies? They're grrrrrrreat, and if you work it right they'll also do your laundry and cook you omelettes. As a bonus, by allowing them to do this, you're actually helping them raise their self-esteem.

I saw how each of us led lives that were deeply isolated in their own ways. I think the modern world isolates people - that's its job - but there are so many different ways to be lost and there was a unity to the texture of all our lives when the stingers went in. It was a moment when relationships with the planet were in full play.

Photo from Google Images.