I have long believed that humanity will one day destroy itself, but now, now I am not so sure.
I mean, the belief is justified, isn't it?
You've thought it too, haven't you? The signs are obvious.
Fundamentalists (two important subsets thereof being
terrorists and your democratically-elected
George W. Bush). A world that gives more airtime to
bad or
stupid people than the
good or the
resistance. A
corporocratic world where the big men pay lip service to the world, then choke it with carbon and sewage and cheap
sweatshop-produced plastic tat.
This isn't something new. Even the
Roman Senate was corrupt.
The first man was corrupted.
Even the Atlanteans had their perjurers and bribes. It just matters more now that we have the ability to destroy the world, with bombs or with CO2.
People are fundamentally bad, it seems. Or perhaps just
stupid. Or maybe both.
Or maybe neither.
I was volunteering today, as I do on occasion, and a couple of people came into
the shop who made me rethink this.
The first was a
primary school teacher. She wanted hats for her class to use for a class exercise, and she was willing to spend something like half an hour picking out perfect ones, ones that her pupils would like.
She really cared about them. We gave her the hats cheap because she bought so many, and I'm glad we did that.
But the more touching person was this guy, maybe
mid twenties, who came in with his parents and brother, to pick up some furniture and buy a
TV unit. The chair he was buying was a bit worn, but he didn't mind,
he just wanted to have something of his own. I helped him carry his stuff out, and we spoke.
"New house?"
"Yeah, just moved in with
my girlfriend...my fianceé."
he still thinks of her as his girlfriend. probably just engaged. although i lack breasts and am therefore not allowed to use the word, i think this is cute
Against the protestations of his mother, he stocked up on extra cushions in case he needed them, we fought to get stuff into his car, and eventually he drove off with a chair strapped to his
roofrack.
Then it hit me. People are good.
People are fundamentally good!
People are fundamentally awesome!
People are fundamentally loving!
Whatever god's up there, sometimes I can see why He created this. Sometimes I can see why He puts up with all the Hitlers and Stalins and murderers and rapists.
Sometimes it's beautiful.
...
I see Izzy again in one month, and perhaps now that I know this it will be different.