july: books & self

well! it's July now... 
This is the month in which I was expelled from the womb some years ago, and for that I must give thanks.
In the last few years whatever higher power you believe in has sent me a truly wonderful series of excellent books that have expanded my view on the world and given me the resources to more seriously ponder some of life's many true questions. I, of course, read many books as a child, too, but they haven't set me up in such a conscious way for exploration of deeper thought (though I'm sure they've been massively subconsciously influential).
This month, I'd like to take the time to give a little thought to those books, both biographical about the author and the scenario in which the books were written, but also the ways they have influenced my thought processes throughout time. 
This will, hopefully, be expressed in a series of posts here, yes right here, on this very webbed site!
Anyway, I will choose to start us off today with a book that has held a lot of influence on my life. 
*Island* by Aldous Huxley is the utiopian companion to *Brave New World*. But it's more than that! It's really more of a manifesto than a novel, and I'm absolutely down for it. Skinner does the same thing with *Walden Two,* an ideological treatise disguised as a story. These books share a lot, actually, between the decentralized utopian communities, the co-operative economics, and the interesting little cultural tidbits. That's what I love the most about these books, the culture and world-building that goes on. I could sit and study the economics of the respective societies and the infrastructure of these fictional towns and villages are constructed, but the really interesting stuff is all cultural.
I'll pick my three main favorite things about Huxley's island nation of Pala and put them in an internet digestible bulleted list.

• Family units are not strictly nuclear, but mostly rely upon the will of the child. MAC (Mutual Adoption Clubs) are groups of 20 or so households that agree to 'adopt' one another, to take responsibility for everyone else in the group. What this really is, hiding behind the layer of science and institutionalization so prevalent in Huxley's work, is a community. A large family, I imagine, essentially functions this way, without the acronyms and obscurity. In this scenario, it's socially acceptable for a toddler to wander away to another one of it's adopted households to eat breakfast, the next to play a game, yet another to eat dinner, and on and on. Beautiful!
• An outdoor coming-of-age ceremony symbolizes your transition into a full-fledged community member. This eliminates the confusing mess from 17-25 as one grapples with being being allowed to shoot and kill for their country but not rent a car. There's a stark difference in the people I know who grew up going outside a lot and those who didn't, with the former being, on average, much more able to work under pressure and improvise. 
• Finally, I love the attention. Pala is a society that places much focus on the ways we direct our attention. The birds are trained to scraw "Attention!" to remind us to bring ourselves back to the now. The first bite of every meal is chewed and chewed and chewed while much focus is placed on the texture and flavor. It's equivalent to our saying grace, a practice I have always pined for a secular equivalent for.

Overall, it's a really nice book and I am reminding myself I should read it again. 

Thank you Aldous Huxley you weird freak!