I Don't Understand the Question, and I Won't Respond to It

It takes a certain kind of person to slap you in the face, and then tell you that you walked into it. We've all been in that position, of course. How does someone attack you, and then act like it was the other way around? Well, pretty easily it seems.

We're well trained in the art of acting the victim. Its the way that Christians can act like they are persecuted when they are in the majority everywhere in the U.S. Its the way Republicans can act like the underdogs when they control all three branches or federal government. Its also similar to the way in which advocates for "little people" (one of those rare cases where the politically correct language seems more insulting) can celebrate the fact that a child rapist recently received 10 years probation instead of prison because he was, to paraphrase the judge, too short to survive in prison. On a side note, is he acknowledging that our prisons are so screwed up that people are likely to be killed in there and there's nothing we can do to stop it? And, does that also mean that criminals should walk free because we may not necessarily want them to die?

I ponder the victim state as Voyager II approaches the termination shock which it will cross within the year and countless victims of hurricanes and earthquakes pick up the pieces of their lives. There are bigger things to contend with, a vast chasm of things yet to do and to learn, yet we constantly focus on the little things and allow them to overwhelm us with self-doubt, self-hatred, selfish egotism and all the trappings of a people who have long since overcome the challenges of daily survival and now have too much time on their hands.

Honestly, I find it harder and harder to have sympathy for a lot of people, especially when no one takes responsibility for their own actions and expects special treatment from the universe. I'd say its a relief to be apathetic, but since I'm not, the idea of falling into it is distressing. So, sometimes, just sometimes, I have to take a breath, count to ten, turn the other cheek and let the frustration subside, because there's just no convincing some people. Unfortunately, nothing is solved if we don't keep trying.

On a lighter note, ice cream is delicious and is right up there with the printing press and penicillin when it comes to the greatest works of humankind. In fact, find a way to make books out of ice cream with antibiotic properties and I'd say we've got ourselves a nobel prize. A million dollars sure could buy a lot of ice cream.