"It's all this stuff that I think really makes the show. The mystery
certainly helps, but the puzzles are no longer my main reason for
watching."

Aaron: exactly. This was something I said a lot around the first part of
the second season, that this really *isn't* a mystery novel, in any
conventional sense, no more so than any novel whose ending is yet to be
revealed.

You picked up on exactly the themes that are present in the show, with
some more to come shortly. Personal sacrifice for a cause -- perhaps a
good cause, perhaps not, depending on how wisely we make our decisions --
is probably the dominant theme at this point in the story.

It's worth mentioning that this story was initially conceived in the midst
of the Me Generation, the decade of "I've got mine, jack, screw you all."
Since then the culture has gotten increasingly factionalized, groups of
Me's pulling and tugging at the fabric not only of the country, bvut of
the planet itself. The idea of personal sacrifice, of personal service to
a cause, seems to have become...passe. Old fashioned. Silly.

We have an obligation to one another, responsibilities and trusts. That
does not mean we must be pigeons, that we must be exploited. But it does
mean that we should look out for one another when and as much as we can;
and that we have a personal responsibility for our behavior; and that our
behavior has consequences of a very real and profound nature. We are not
powerless. We have tremendous potential for good or ill. How we choose
to use that power is up to us; but first we must choose to use it. We're
told every day, "You can't change the world."

But the world is changing every day. Only question is...who's doing it?
You or somebody else? Will you choose to lead, or be led by others?

(Y'know, there are moments I look at the preceding paragraphs, and I
realize that it wa said more succinctly, and better, and more movingly in
"Lost Horizon," with this simple sentence: "Be *kind* to one another.")


jms