Injustices

I don't know about the rest of you, but daylight saving time killed me this week. To top it all off, what should have been a very quiet Friday at work turned out be my worst ever. It was such a little thing, but as they say, "it's the little things that kill." I witnessed two people that I respect very much, but equally, treat each other with such utter contempt that it broke my heart.

Perhaps this reminds you of the "mean people suck" bumper sticker. I could make a list here of far more serious social ills like farting in public, fraternity hazing, hate crime, sex slavery and tyranny, but I'm going to stick to the basics in this post. My mom's always referred to this as "man's inhumanity to man."

It's hard when you lose all respect you have for someone that you must continue seeing everyday. I guess my experience is just training for having multiple children someday who will hate each other and fight constantly. I'm no saint mind you, and I'm sure I've done, said, or thought my share of awful things involving others, both intentionally and unintentionally.

I'm not disillusioned with the human race though. I'm not discouraged about getting close to people. OK, maybe a little bit. But I understand the concept of forgiveness. I know it's not my place to judge much else besides the quality of the goods and services I pay for. I can separate. This all takes me back to a journal entry I wrote almost five years ago (as you might already know, I always start with a random quote which sometimes bears significance to the entry itself):

"When you see a man casting pearls without getting even a pork chop in return, it is not against the swine that you feel indignation. It is against the man who valued his pearls so little that he was willing to fling them into the muck and to let them become the occasion for the whole concept of grunting, transcribed by the court stenographer." (Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead)

"A middle aged busboy from the restaurant and some others were pointing and smirking at a guy who seems to be a little slow and has a stutter. Nobody was laughing at the former for having a dyed red mullet or for being as old as he is and only as far along professionally as he is - two things he has complete control over. The latter fellow had food dripping from his chin, something I doubt he can control. He looked SO happy eating, completely oblivious of those mocking him." (23 September 2004)