The advantage of taking an instant dislike to somebody is that it saves time....!
I don't remember who said that, but for me it brings to mind folks like Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong, Ben Laden, Bernie Madoff, Glenn Beck and the guy who walks his dog on my front lawn every damn morning. Admittedly, were they to meet me, they might feel the very same way.
And so there we have it -- the human race's congenital problem with living with one another.
Whether it's the tyrant across the ocean or the neighbor across the hallway, all 6 billion of us are obliged to somehow survive together on this planet. That's proven to be a dicey affair ever since Cain and Abel. As Lucy philosophically explained to Charlie Brown, "I love humanity, it's just people I can't stand!"
This probably makes Lucy and me a little paranoid. But then I once heard Susan Sontag say she envied paranoids, because we actually feel people are paying attention to us.
Here's a question whether you're paranoid or not. Who are the people you take an instant like to? While you think about that, here's my list. In order of spontaneous preference: Ambulance drivers, ER staffs, firefighters, cops, power-line repairmen, rescue workers and SWAT teams.
Several of you who read this blog are psychiatrists. For you my list may be a peephole into my psyche. Or it just may be the forgotten fact that most of us all too offten take our world and the people around us for granted. Until.....! Until, that is, something breaks the rhythm, changes the cadence, disturbs the natural flow of things. That's when we suddenly stand in need and in awe of such people. People at their best. Humanity at its finest.
Even we paranoids agree there's a streak of goodness and caring prowling in virtually all of us. Is the explanation our evolutionary genes...? Our better angels....? I recall Woody Allen's classic line when confronted with choices: "Are you going to believe me or your own eyes?"
In the case of man's inherent goodness and caring, I suspect the answer to both these alternatives is: Yes!
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Someon called Lucy wrote to me questioning this argument. I'm trying to google her to see if she's THE Lucy....
ReplyDeleteJack: The last sentence of the third to last paragraph says it all. I can relate to comment in first paragraph. I live on a corner and thus my lawn is subject to all neighbors' animal defications. I have accepted this except for the fellow who also leaves cigarette "butts".
ReplyDeleteJerry, quick tell me my memory is correct...that there really WAS a nicer time when we were young....or was that time nicer just because in our youth We were nicer???
ReplyDeleteJack, your memory is correct and forgive my mis-spelling of "defecations".
ReplyDeleteJerry, believe me my memory is much better than my spelling so I didn't even notice. But I'm so gratified that your memory is as tender as is mine for those days!!
ReplyDelete