Random Thoughts

Disillusionment.  Some of us never quite recover from our discovery that the world is cruel. We don’t become cruel ourselves; we become cynics.

Bacteria and Office People.  Just as some mutant strains of bacteria thrive on the antibiotics we’ve developed to eradicate them, some people flourish in settings that would be lethal to the rest of us. They can work 14-hour days and actually stride out of the office with more energy than when they checked in. They don’t require vacations or hobbies or quality time with their pets. We call these mutants "winners."

Original Thoughts.  I suppose it is possible to live one’s entire life without entertaining an original thought. I used to dismiss the nonthinkers of the world as second-rate creatures, but now I almost envy them. How many of our proud ideas are truly original? And why strain our brains with pointless abstractions when there’s music and ice cream to be had? You can’t hear a hypothesis; you can’t taste an aphorism.

Life Decisions.  We humans are the only animals that require coaching on how to live. And despite all the coaching, most of us make a sorry mess of our time on this planet. A mouse simply follows the ancient dictates of his tribe; he is genetically incapable of ruining his life. But the human animal is free to shun the customs of the herd, to light out for some enticing unexplored land on the far horizon, to thrive or come to grief through a bewildering array of choices. We ponder; we stall; we lamely hope for the best; we make the wrong decision anyway. The problem with most decisions is that all the available choices tend to be intolerable.

IQ.  The world belongs to people with IQs of 120. Anything much greater or less amounts to a liability.

Getting a Life.  Too many of us waste our lives waiting for our lives to begin. At some point we just have to leap off the diving board in the dark — and trust that the pool is filled with water.

Fashion.  It seems to me that the whole point of fashion, whether in clothes or ideas, is to proclaim loudly that we like the unlikable because the right people like it.