Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Sunshine & cynicism

I've had people tell me I'm a cynic, although I don't think that is altogether true. I do find some value in the advice of A.E. Housman:

Therefore, since the world has still
Much good, but much less good than ill,
And while the sun and moon endure
Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure,
I'd face it as a wise man would,
And train for ill and not for good.

Still, when I was out walking the dog this morning I was feeling quite uncynical. It was another beautiful morning. I was getting ready to go to the fall bazaar at my parents' church. Last night I had a nice evening with my sister, watching my brother-in-law's band. I was thinking, I'm actually really lucky, not only to live near to my family, but to get along with them well enough to want to see them all the time.

I was having quite a happy day.

I saw some folks up at the church I haven't seen in many years, including the mother of a girl I babysat regularly. The girl's up in Cambridge going to grad school (I'm assuming Harvard. When I was in tenth grade and she was in third, she was helping me with my trig homework.) and she's married. Married! That can't be legal. She's a little girl. I was relieved to see an old high school classmate looking pretty much like he did in high school...until my mom told me that under his baseball cap, the hair he has left is grey. Thanks, Ma.

So then I was feeling old and happy.

When we got home I checked in on the rat board we frequent. There was a new post there, from a new member, with a video clip. Victor took a look and said "Don't do that."

"Why not?" I asked, clicking along. It was supposed to be a rat swimming.

"It's a troll," he warned me. "You are not going to want to see it."

Yep, the video was a swimming rodent. There were fish in the tank. "I wouldn't think letting him swim in a fish tank is a good idea..." I said, still not getting it. Then the (you guessed it) piranhas attacked.

"I told you not to look." Victor said.

I sat there sputtering, confused. Why would somebody post a video of a piranha killing a rat on a message board for people who keep rats as pets? I sounded like my five-year-old niece...why? Because people are cruel. Why? Because people are jerks. Why? Because people get off on hurting others.

And I know there are worse videos floating around out there. I had to get my cynical guard back up, to let the "you know why" soak back through my brain, before I had that unpleasant thought.

Sigh.

Well, I can't speak for the world. My day still had much good, and much more good than ill. But it is clouding up outside, so I'm going to make the dog happy with one more walk before it starts to rain.

Posted by Nic at September 27, 2003 05:15 PM | TrackBack