In the midst of the very serious shenanigans and political malarkey going on in the world at the moment - not least including the Trumpees, the Feel the Bern-ers, the Clintonites, Brexiters, and Europhiles - most people might have failed to notice another clandestine group that is slowly rising from the dungeons ... and the dragons.
And they are everywhere.
They are the Klingon-clad and blue Avatar painted faces you sometimes come upon while taking a DLR journey from Canary Wharf to Excel London, and they can also be found in Ontario, and in New York, in Derry, Cork, Glasgow, Cardiff, Sydney, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Liverpool, and yes, maybe even in the fine town of Penge.
In truth, they are everywhere, organising in all the corners of this world, with no other urge but to clip their cloth and colour their skin so they might mimic the superheroes they worship, as if they were real and living personages - those gallant few who stare up from the pages of graphic novels and down from the cinema screens, encouraging us to better things in this world of complexity and stark realities.
I am talking about 'The Geeks'; the Marvel worshipping, DC and Anime following devotees of books, games, and films. They are the players of D&D, and the aficionados of Ed Greenwood's ONDER LIBRUM gorging on HELLMAW, STORMTALONS, and the STAR twins - both TREK and WARS. They are the people who feel like they have lost a lung because someone has told them a spoiler to GAME OF THRONES. They lust for THE WALKING DEAD, and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. They lose thumb and finger skin shooting demons in DOOM, vaulting castles in UNCHARTED, and hunting down all of the new poko-thingies in POKEMON GO.
Amassing at comic, movie, and game conventions all over this ball of rock we call home, this meek multitude looks not for differences, but celebrates the more noble values of humankind: the commonness of virtue, of protecting of the weak, and the joy of a good and unselfish life ... with a few well deserved and profoundly evil villains punished along the way, and all done with the flash of a replica sword, or the flick of a plastic light sabre.
Of course it is through their heroes that they espouse these qualities, but the qualities are there nonetheless ... and big-assed laudable ones they are too.
'And where are these geeks?' I hear you ask.
'Not far away at all,' is my reply. 'You have but to look around you.'
They are your physics teacher, your next door neighbour, the guy in the corner shop, and the lady who delivers your mail. They are the maternity nurse who delivered your bouncing baby boy - or girl - or maybe even one of each. They are the surgeon who is about to open up your abdomen and fish out that painfully irritating appendix, and the dentist with her fingers gripped around your gums. They are your accountant, the lecturers and scientists at your university, that woman beside you on the bus, the kids in the park huddled over their phones, and the whole front carriage of a DLR train going to the London Comic Con.
These last ones are easy to spot, because they are colourful (dressed as they are in many hues of superhero ... or villain), and they are excited, living their lives to magnificent limits, and expanding their minds and creativity in the process.
Most of all they are the many who aspire to a world as is played out in their books, stories, comics, games, and movies - wherein wrongs are righted, and penalties meted out for grave injustices.
In the name of Nerdvana they proclaim a better universe ... and I am proud the say that I am one:
I AM A GEEK.
... Join with us. Let fantasy fill and expand your mind.
Anyhoo ... many thanks for stopping by, and have a terrific time doing whatever it is that floats your boat.
My book of the moment is - and it just has to be: DRAGON DREAMS; Chris A Jackson; TEGG - ONDER LIBRUM 2015 ... the second book in the HELLMAW series, and it's brilliant stuff ... do yourself a real favour and read it.
My show of the moment is - need I say it: STRANGER THINGS ... it's just fan-flippin-tastic.
Slán go fóill ... as we say in Ireland.