All right, let’s just start with a megadose of honesty: X is going to be a stretch. Words that truly start with X are not ones that flow easily into conversation. Like xylophone. Or xenophobia. Or Xanadu. Hmm. Xanadu. Let’s go with that one.
Xanadu was not always a place with a roller-skating Olivia Newton John. It is a place of beauty, a place of perfection, like Shangri-La, Arcadia, or my favorite slightly problem-prone utopia, Eureka.
It seems ingrained in us, as sentient beings, to imagine a place where everything is beautiful, where all are needs are met without problem, where pettiness and cruelty don’t exist. Yes, I realize I kind of nudge Eureka out with that last part, but still, to each his or her own utopia.
But utopias are one of those things you can’t think too much about, because the moment you introduce the real human element, they seem to fall apart. There are wide swaths of science-fiction based on this quirk of human nature. We can have utopian environments. It’s the utopian people who seem to be the sticky part.
But still, it’s nice to dream of a place, gorgeous and untroubled. And we can keep them there, in that realm of things not quite real, our own private Xanadus.
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