Regeneration
"Gem, can you move it already, that beam is getting uncomfortably close to my head." "Sure thing boss." She shifted a meter upslope with grace of a dancer. I knew exactly how heavy that backpack was, and the 18 megawatt handheld laser it powered. We settled down again to wait. And I asked for the hundredth time, "How old are you really Gem?" "I will be 96, next rotation, she sang back into the radio. Fucking amazing ain't it boss." And for the hundredth time I cursed that regeneration only worked on women.
Why do men get all the "boss", or middle manager jobs?
Because the woman can live for a very long time, and don't wish to do such scut work. Regeneration is cheap, effective, and by law free. You might think women would run things, or be rulers. But they had other plans. And couldn't be bothered. So in this part of the story I will try to explain why that is. I mean I'm not doing anything else but freezing my butt off out here. Probably we will never have to use the big laser to communicate with the satellite, it's just a backup to a backup.
I ain't going to tell this story like the herstory books. Everybody knows that story. I'm going to tell my story, how it feels to grow up male in this the late half of the 21 century. For about 60 years now the science wizards have been trying to make regeneration work on men, to no effect. It seems that having mixed sex chromosomes just shuts down the process. But like I said it has been SOP for women long before I was born. No I don't understand it. Even though it has been explained to me in detail.
It's just the way it is. So my mom, and every other grown man's biological mom looks and for all practical purposes is younger than they are. Not that I was raised by my biological mom, I was raised in a cohort like everyone. Family has not been biologically defined for a very long time. My early life was boringly typical, six kids spread over 10 years of age, growing up with 4 or 5 adults, volunteering and specifically trained for that job.
Listen, when you know that at age 45, or 55, or anytime, you can take a do over and get back to 18, it changes the way you think and act in life. No it is not immortality, women do die by injury, and illness. There are women that are over 160 years old. But that is rare, as most decide to start aging naturally at about 120. And that age is going up. The age to start "living out" as it is called, is hotly debated at least among women.
Gem is now interrupting my explanation by trying to engage me in trivial conversation. "Do you think Farhina is cooking stew tonight? I really love her stews." "How about you call in and ask, it would be better coming form you." This right here is the difference in sex roles. She already knows that asking herself might be seen as a waste of radio traffic. But if I do it, it is just one bored guy talking to another bored guy. Women are expected to be self reliant, doers, and risk takers, Men are expected to be risk adverse, boring, and reliable. We are taught at an early age to "manage."
Yes generally women have much more experience than men, because they get to do stuff over and over. But this leads to a mild recklessness, rather than "wisdom", which comes only as they start to live out and age naturally. Men have been taught to be more cautious and reserved. Because "ya only got once" so don't adventure yourself into an early grave.
~~~~~~~
"Gem, can you move it already, that beam is getting uncomfortably close to my head." "Sure thing boss." She shifted a meter upslope with grace of a dancer. I knew exactly how heavy that backpack was, and the 18 megawatt handheld laser it powered. We settled down again to wait. And I asked for the hundredth time, "How old are you really Gem?" "I will be 96, next rotation, she sang back into the radio. Fucking amazing ain't it boss." And for the hundredth time I cursed that regeneration only worked on women.
Why do men get all the "boss", or middle manager jobs?
Because the woman can live for a very long time, and don't wish to do such scut work. Regeneration is cheap, effective, and by law free. You might think women would run things, or be rulers. But they had other plans. And couldn't be bothered. So in this part of the story I will try to explain why that is. I mean I'm not doing anything else but freezing my butt off out here. Probably we will never have to use the big laser to communicate with the satellite, it's just a backup to a backup.
I ain't going to tell this story like the herstory books. Everybody knows that story. I'm going to tell my story, how it feels to grow up male in this the late half of the 21 century. For about 60 years now the science wizards have been trying to make regeneration work on men, to no effect. It seems that having mixed sex chromosomes just shuts down the process. But like I said it has been SOP for women long before I was born. No I don't understand it. Even though it has been explained to me in detail.
It's just the way it is. So my mom, and every other grown man's biological mom looks and for all practical purposes is younger than they are. Not that I was raised by my biological mom, I was raised in a cohort like everyone. Family has not been biologically defined for a very long time. My early life was boringly typical, six kids spread over 10 years of age, growing up with 4 or 5 adults, volunteering and specifically trained for that job.
Listen, when you know that at age 45, or 55, or anytime, you can take a do over and get back to 18, it changes the way you think and act in life. No it is not immortality, women do die by injury, and illness. There are women that are over 160 years old. But that is rare, as most decide to start aging naturally at about 120. And that age is going up. The age to start "living out" as it is called, is hotly debated at least among women.
Gem is now interrupting my explanation by trying to engage me in trivial conversation. "Do you think Farhina is cooking stew tonight? I really love her stews." "How about you call in and ask, it would be better coming form you." This right here is the difference in sex roles. She already knows that asking herself might be seen as a waste of radio traffic. But if I do it, it is just one bored guy talking to another bored guy. Women are expected to be self reliant, doers, and risk takers, Men are expected to be risk adverse, boring, and reliable. We are taught at an early age to "manage."
Yes generally women have much more experience than men, because they get to do stuff over and over. But this leads to a mild recklessness, rather than "wisdom", which comes only as they start to live out and age naturally. Men have been taught to be more cautious and reserved. Because "ya only got once" so don't adventure yourself into an early grave.
~~~~~~~