November 4, 2016 RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

In the last week,  I have run in shorts, capris, pants, sleeveless, short sleeve, long sleeve, light jacket, heavy jacket, hat and gloves. One day I'm in shorts, the next  hat and gloves. It has been crazy. Yesterday, I felt like I was in Oz as the wind whipped up and down the streets and the leaves whirled round and round.  It was WILD--It was CHAOS. I guess it is to be expected this time of year when mother nature can't make up her mind--cold--hot--windy--foggy--It actually snowed at some point last week. All this disorder brings to mind the idea of dystopia--a world turned upside down. I'm a HUGE fan of the dystopian novel--especially, in the political climate we are  currently navigating and what better book to reflect politics and dystopia than Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.

I read Nineteen Eighty-four for the first time when I was a freshman in high school--I loved it then--and I loved it even more when I reread it a few years back. The main character, Winston Smith, lives in Airstrip One, a province of Oceania under a Totalitarian state. This is a world where people who are free thinkers are tortured. Everyone is monitored by telescreens, microphones and secret spies.  Smith works for the Ministry of Truth and is responsible for propaganda and history revision that supports the party-- BIG BROTHER. Smith secretly hates the party because  he knows the REAL past. He dreams of overthrowing the government and records his thought in a journal. Find out what happens to Smith when he is arrested by the "thought police" and tortured to "cure" his insanity. This classic has been named to the Modern Library's 100 best novels of all time and is a must read. It's about 335 pages--or a 6 mile run--that you need to read because-- BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.