Theo must have seen me staring at a flock of seagulls flying overhead before deciding that he should bring me back down to earth. We were just outside of the harbor now and he was finally able to step away from the helm. He walked over to the table on the stern that I had sat down at.

"I'm sorry Red I feel like I've been a poor host, please make yourself at home." He said as he cleared off the table.

"Thank you Theo, I have to say I can't believe how easy you make sailing look. I don't know if it's just my memory playing tricks on me, but I felt like my grandpa always struggled to stay calm while getting the boat out of the harbor." I said with the hopes of keeping the conversation light for awhile.

"Thank you my boy! You know I think I've come in and out of this port so many times I could do it with my eyes closed." He said.

"Have you always been coming to this place to store your boat?" I asked.

"Oh yes. This boat has been passed down throughout my family and I am simply the latest to posses it. Where my Father kept it I am not entirely sure, but since it's been mine it has been stored right where you first saw it." He said.

"So I'm guessing you are from around here?" I asked.

"I like to call this boat my home nowadays, but as a boy yes I lived around here." He said. "My father was a salesman for a company that manufactured plastic parts for automobiles and every time he got a promotion, we seemed to move to a nicer house in a nicer town. The problem was that he and my mother always spent more than they could afford. Very little was ever left for my sister and I. I think they were trying to buy happiness like so many others during that time. My sister and I learned from an early age that if we wanted something, we would have to get it on our own."

"Did your mom work also?" I asked.

"No my boy, at the time of my upbringing women were just starting to enter the workforce. Yet, my mother found it difficult to start working after a life of leisure. As a young child, she was the only mother I knew that was not working." He explained.

"I'm sure it was nice having an adult at home with you. Both of my parents worked and it felt like I had to raise myself a lot of times." I told him.

"I suppose you might think that, but my mother had a drinking problem and even though she was always home, it felt like she wasn't. This is not to say she wasn't a good mother Red, for she tried to be and I suppose that is all you can ask for in a parent. Somehow she kept the house clean and always had dinner waiting for my father when he would get home. It wasn't perfect growing up, but I had a life much better than most." He said.

"How far apart are you and your sister in age?" I asked hoping to get away from the topic of his mother.

"There was about a three year difference between us, her being the eldest. Unfortunately, she passed away when I was a young man. She had been battling brain cancer since she was eighteen. It was a rough way to go my boy, but she fought until her last day. She was always so happy, even when she was sick from chemotherapy. After she passed, I grew more distant from my parents. She must have been the only thing keeping our family together, for I moved away shortly after her death." He said.

"I'm sorry Theo. I don't really know what to say. I have a sister as well and truthfully can't imagine how it must feel to lose one." I said.

"No need for apologies, It's all in the past my boy!" He said and I could see in his eyes that he had come to terms with his loss. It's rare you see someone talk with such objectivity in their voice. He sounded as if he had dealt with the pain and moved on from it. I always seem to dwell on the my failures and regrets.

"Red, my boy, tell me about yourself. Where do you hail from?" He said again in a tone only fit for a man like Theo.

"Well, you and I had a very similar upbringing. I lived in Long Beach until I was ten I think, maybe eleven, and from there we moved around throughout Los Angeles county. My dad was a cop for the LAPD and would transfer to different departments when he felt he had outgrown his post. He hated traffic, so we would move as close as possible to where his new station would be." I said. "My mom worked part-time jobs and would find something wherever we moved, usually at a local grocery or department stores."

"You mentioned a sister?" Theo asked.

"Yes sir, just one. She's a year and a half younger than me. We didn't get along growing up though." I said. "We rarely talk now, mostly during the holidays or if she needs help with money." I said with a laugh.

"Why did you two fail to get along Red?" He asked.

"You know, when we were younger it seemed that we could never see eye to eye on anything. For a long time I thought that it was because we were so different from each other, but the older I get I see that we share a lot in common. I think that I had a lot of resentment towards her as a boy because she was always shown so much more attention." I said.

"Ah yes, daughters hold a special place in a parents heart. It is hard to compete with that. Boys are expected to fend for themselves." He replied.

"Growing up we would argue about anything and everything. In her defense, most of the time I would start fights just to piss her off. It must have been hard having me as an older brother." I said and started to chuckle thinking about how mad my sister used to get.

Talking about my her brought back memories of when I would come home from work and find my Dad drunk in our living room. He would usually be yelling at my Mom about how much he despised her, or how our house was a mess. He never seemed to run out of things to complain about when he was drunk. After a while, I gave up trying to mediate the disputes and began avoiding them. Soon I started to come home late enough so that the fight would be over and my dad would be passed out. I felt sorry that my sister would hear everything. Having dealt with this at such a young age, I promised myself that if I had kids of my own one day I would never fight in front of them. I wonder if it's inevitable for parents to fight. Does getting married cause a part of your brain to become filled with rage and always ready to fight? Or perhaps the "fight or flight" mechanism fades once you're married since you no longer have the ability of 'flight' and so the only option you're left with 'fight'. There must be some exceptions to this because Lily and I never fight. I mean we argue about where to go for dinner, or about what color our new dresser should be, but we never fight. Looking back, I could count the fights we've had on one hand and I'm pretty sure they all involved discussions about having kids or something related to the matter.

My sister, Shannon, and I grew apart even more once I moved away from home. I tried to persuade her that she should move out with me, but she felt that she needed to be there to support my mom. She never forgave me for moving away and blamed her lack of success on me. In some way, I understand her point of view. She has always been the type of person that feels responsible for others, where as I feel responsible for myself. I'm not sure if it's better to be selfless or selfish in life. I'm sure a case could be made for why each is better, but I think it comes down to what you feel is the best for you, I guess. Shannon still takes care of my Mom and they live together in our old house. The worst part is that my sister was the one who should have gone on to do great things. She was ahead of me in almost every subject, even though she was a grade below me. Everyone knew that she was the smartest kid in school. My teachers would tell me how great Shannon was and that if I tried as hard as she did I would be just as smart. The only subject I was better than her at was math. It wasn't that I was actually bad at anything, I just never put any effort into it.

"How long have you and your wife been together Red?" Theo asked.

"About six years now." I said. "We met working part time at a restaurant actually. She was just about to start medical school to be a Pediatric Surgeon when I got the job. I was lucky to get hired when I did now that I think about it."

"Wonderful my boy!" He said. "I worked as a busboy for a restaurant when I was about sixteen. I hated it!"

"Yeah it was a pretty shitty job. But, it paid the bills for awhile and it brought me Lily, so I guess it was worth it." I said.

"Did you go to college my boy?" Theo asked.

"Yeah, I studied accounting." I said.

"Did you enjoy the classwork?" He asked.

"Looking back no, but at the time they made it seem like it was such important information to learn. I always wanted to study music or art, so business classes just felt so pointless to me, but I felt like it was the only way to have a decent life." I began to explain. "I dreamed of being an artist, but my parents saw it fit for me to go into a stable job so that I would be able to settle down and have a family. I guess that dream is thrown away now that the Assistants came into the picture. I still regret the fact I was too scared to take out a loan and pay for college myself. Then I would have been able to study what I wanted. My mom offered to pay for my tuition as long as I would study accounting, what a scam." I said smiling as I shook my head.

"Oh yes my boy, I hated business classes too! They acted like they were teaching pertinent information, but really just taught greedy kids how to make the most money that they could. Then they would throw in those 'business ethics' classes to try and make us forget how they were just teaching about outsourcing labor if it saves the company money." Theo said laughing.

"Exactly!" I yelled. "It seemed like everyone was in on the con of starting a company that appeared morally righteous on the outside, but then in board meetings they would discuss ways to save money, even if it involved firing half their staff in exchange for robots." I said. "I always enjoyed reading about early 20th century tycoons though. It seemed like they were just as greedy as modern day CEO's, but were at least upfront about it."

"My boy, I've seen how corrupt companies can be. A few friends and I started a business right out of college and I ended up having to leave because of differences in ideals. Money can make any man do things that he never thought possible. One of the scariest things in life is to be faced with the opportunity to disregard your morality in exchange for the inescapable pleasure of near infinite money." He said.

"What was the business you started?" I asked.

"It's not important anymore my boy! I've learned to forgive and move on from that point of my life. It taught me many life lessons that I've been able to meditate on while I'm sailing." He answered, evading my question.

"I saw you had quite a few books down in the living area, I'm guessing that's your collection?" I asked deciding to change the topic.

"Yes my boy! When I dock I cycle out all of my books for new ones, so as to keep me company out at sea. Without reading I would probably go mad and start talking to the birds on the sail." He said looking at a seagull perched on his main sail.

"You mean you're going to read all of those books on your next sail?" I asked.

"Yes my boy! Don't think too much of it though, you see it's simply a habit formed out of necessity. I'm sure you would do the same if you were me." He said.

"I seriously don't think so Theo." I said with amazement.

"Nonsense my boy! You doubt yourself too much. I can already tell we are of the same mind." He said.

"What do you mean Theo?" I asked.

"Well my boy, you see I have this idea that humans are separated into a few categories. None are worse than the other, but all are different. One problem throughout history is that people want to believe that intelligence doesn't follow a normal distribution. Since the industrial revolution, our society has increasingly tried to equalize the way we look at each other. Those in power like to believe that everyone is born with similar minds. This has been one of the largest downfalls in our culture. By failing to recognize the differences in each individual, our culture was doomed from the beginning. Some of us are born with special gifts, savant mathematicians, world renown violin players, the list goes on. People with these highly specialized talents are the outliers of our species and there is no person alive that could ever work to be better than them, well maybe an Assistant." He said laughing. "It's almost as if these people were born one purpose. Then there's people like you and me, we're particularly gifted in any category, but can become highly proficient in any we choose if we have the right dedication. Following are those who are proficient, those who are average and those who are below average. I know that this sounds like those that I call average and below average are worse than those above them, but I say 'average' only relatively. The word average is in relation to the word intelligence and intelligence is relative to what is valuable to our society. The problem is that the idea of what's valuable to society is determined on its worth to the economic structure of our culture. So, those on the low end of what we consider 'intelligence' are those that tend to have the lowest value to our relative economic structure and are therefore deemed the least intelligent." Theo said.

I remained silent for several minutes after this discussion. I was not expecting such a detailed explanation on what is flawed in our society from this old man. Just a few minutes ago I thought he was a homeless man who had come up to me on the bench to ask for money.

"You know, I was thinking about something earlier," I finally began after the long silence, "how long can we as a species go without having jobs to keep us preoccupied? Thanks to the assistants no one can get a job even if they wanted to. Almost everyone in the world has met the same fate as me, but what next? Are we supposed to just go on existing in a world run by machines that make products that we then buy using the money given to us by our governments? I mean, how long can anyone expect that to go on?"

"I'm not exactly sure what comes next Red." Theo said. "That's what I've been trying to figure out in all of these books. Once intelligence is no longer valuable to society, who knows what will happen. The wealth gap has begun to disappear, but at what cost? Hell, I don't even know if we will be around long enough to see it completely disappear. Suicide rates keep rising and I doubt any pill is going to fix that, so our species may be gone before we know it. There is no longer a disparity between the classes and yet we still don't have solace. No kids are starving anymore, but people still aren't happy. I'm not sure how it's going to play out. Maybe those who were once the upper class will demand higher universal income payments in order to create a distinction once again, but how would anyone determine their value to society anymore since there is nothing to base it off of? Intelligence has lost its value to society, so there would no longer be a reason to give those on the upper end of intelligence more money. From the viewpoint of our economy, we are of all equal value." He said. "Maybe the possibility of moving up in class status was what kept people happy. I'm not sure Red."

We had been sailing for about an hour at this point and I could no longer see the coastline. I began to panic and thought about how far we must have been off of the coast, but remembered reading that the horizon from the beach was about ten miles. This fact calmed my nerves for the time being. It only took us an hour to get this far, so I knew I was only an hour from safety. We might have been sailing for longer, but I was scared to look at my watch. Theo was right, I felt significantly better being out on the boat and didn't want this feeling to go away anytime soon. It was as if all of my worries were left ten miles away on the coastline. I didn't have to worry about talking to Lily, or calling my Mom to let her know the bad news. It was as though all I had to worry about was looking out into the empty void of the endless blue landscape. In such a short time I had talked to Theo more than anyone else in recent memory. He already felt like a dear friend to me. He somehow was able to get the deep thoughts that are typically stuck in the depths of my subconscious out to the surface. So far, this sail had been a cleansing experience for my mind.

Theo reminded me in some ways of my father. When he wasn't drunk it felt like it felt like he could connect with anyone in a matter of seconds. Even though we never got along, there were some things about him that I admired. When he was sober, he might have been one of the smartest men on the planet, almost to a fault. It felt like nothing interested him in conversation, only because he could see how the whole thing would play out in his head before it ended. Often times you would see him in the middle of a sentence start to look away and begin to drift into another train of thought. For some reason this always intrigued me. It made you feel like you could only talk to him if you had something truly unique and interesting to say. My mom was smart too, but in a different way. She was able to talk to anyone and find some way to make them feel better by the end of the conversation. I never once saw my mom pick up a book or read a news clipping, but she at least appeared well versed in most topics. When my parents were both at their best it seemed like nobody in the whole world could be a better match. I think that they both deserved better than what got from life. I would love to know how many people grew bitter at the world because they never lived up to their full potential.

Before long, I found myself telling Theo of my plans to buy a farm and spend the rest of my days reading and writing. He excused himself and said he had to tend to the sails and asked if I wanted to help. I told him I would be over in just a minute, but first I wanted to lay down for a minute or two. Theo had a cushion at the front of the boat, underneath the head sail and I went to lay down. I found myself daydreaming about what Lily and I were going to eat for dinner. I was always the one who cooked for us. It was one of the few things that seemed to spark my creative interest anymore and it worked out perfectly because Lily hated to cook. She seemed to have a genuine hatred for the actual act of cooking, but I never inquired about why. I kept picturing Lily sitting in the kitchen waiting for me to come home and cook for her. She had probably ordered take out for lunch.

The weather could not have been more perfect that day. I laid on the cushion underneath the sail for a few minutes and began to feel my skin start to tan. It was embarrassing to realize how quickly I was becoming sunburnt underneath the sun. I couldn't remember the last time I was outside for more than a few minutes. I saw a few seagulls flying overhead and soon remembered that they can convert saltwater into freshwater. I imagined them flying hundreds of miles out into the ocean and getting lost, but remembered that somehow animals can always find their way home. I once read that some salmon swim thousands of miles away from the river they were born in and then, during spawning season, they swim all the way back to the same river, mate and then die. Scientists still are not sure how they are able to do this. It has always interested me that we think of our species as so much more advanced than others, but I don't know anyone that could travel thousands of miles without a map or GPS.

"Red I need your help with the main sail." Theo shouted. It was the first time he had asked for help, so I figured I would oblige him.

Walking over I noticed a concerned look on Theo's face. He was looking out towards the horizon and seemed to be examining something. When I looked out, I saw nothing but clear skies.

"Is everything okay Theo?" I asked him.

"Yes my boy! I'm only afraid that the weather may turn on us in just a few minutes, I can smell rain coming in." He said.

"But I don't see a cloud in the sky Theo, not even on the horizon." I replied.

"My boy, I've been sailing for a long time, if you think that there is no storm coming then it's the perfect time for it to strike." He said, personifying the weather patterns.

"Very well, I trust you." I said.

"There will be plenty of times to sail again my boy, just you wait and see." Theo said while looking out over the horizon.

Within a few seconds, Theo had us turned around and heading back to shore. If I had not trusted that Theo knew his way back to the shore, it would have felt like we were stranded in the middle of the sea, left to go mad and die of starvation. All I could see was the ocean and my sense of direction was in disarray. Theo seemed confident in our direction, so I walked back to the bow to soak in more sun on my skin. As much as I wanted to avoid sailing with the crazy old man who had interrupted my daydream, I now resented the fact that our trip had been cut short. The reality that was waiting for me back on land was something I wish I could have avoided for an eternity. I now see why Theo has become a recluse who finds peace in sailing out into the nothingness that is the sea and reading his books in order from shortest to longest. This boat is his ranch where he is searching for the answers to questions that most of us usually avoid. All that waits back on land is the intoxicated remains of a society I once felt such strong resentment towards. Now all I wish for is solitude.