Kittens and Puppies

My alter-ego, Dorien, observed the other day that so many of these blogs are rants and raves and dwell on idiocies and frustrations and other not-nice things. Why don’t I, he wondered, devote more time to pleasant things, like kittens and puppies (and his personal all-time favorite, bunnies). He has a very valid point, as always . Dorien has the objectivity, sound judgement, and good sense that Roger too often lacks.

I pondered the question and reached the conclusion that kittens and puppies and bunnies and all other good, gentle, kind things represent the world as it should be, and as I so desperately want things to be. While I am amply aware that the world is not what I want it to be—I’ve spent far too much time trying to walk into the spray of a full-force fire hose—, I still refuse to concede that it cannot be. And as a result I spend admittedly too much blog time on railing against the world as it is, hoping somehow that there might come a “DUH” moment when everyone will stop dead in their tracks and say “You know, he’s right! Let’s try harder to be who and what we should be.”

As you probably have noticed, under all my self-deprecation there lies an enormous granite-like chunk of ego and the soul-deep belief that I am right in my convictions that we all—myself included—have far more power to change ourselves and by extension the world, than we give ourselves credit for.

That there is hope for humanity is evident everywhere in the kindness of our friends and family, and in the incredible courage and nobility so often seen in disasters, in people sacrificing their own lives (the soldier who throws himself on a grenade to save his comrades, the firefighters who risk their lives saving those trapped in burning buildings, and so many others). Even the fact that, as so many people complain, there is so little good news on television and in the media. That is, I believe, simply that we all expect that good is the norm …and there is little news value in reporting the norm. It’s like running a headline saying “Sun Rises in East!”

It’s just that, with 6 billion people now on earth, and billions more expected within a decade or so, there are proportionately more rotten eggs in the barrel…more psychopaths and general scum it truly seems as though we are doomed. And all because God told people a couple thousand years ago when the life expectancy was about 30 years, that they had to go forth and multiply to prevent the race from dying out. And we cling to that edict even in face of the danger of running out of space to live or food to eat. God forbid we should encourage people NOT to have children, or give gay and lesbian couples the rights of heterosexuals. One of the major cannons in the arsenal of nonsense about homosexuality still to this day is “Well they can’t have children.” Well, thank God we can’t. There are far too many kids out there in desperate need of people to love them, and so many gays and lesbians who would, if it were made easier, be willing to take them.

Well, I’m definitely getting off course here, but am quite sure I’ll return to this particular subject soon.

Meanwhile, let’s all go out and pet a kitten and think of a world without bigotry and intolerance.

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