Cynicism

     Bitterness is a highly concentrated acid that resides in a region around the heart. If this gland's container is punctured, scared, or shaken, that acid may begin to leak. Since the gland will continue to produce acid as before but exposure will spread to the rest of the body, the container is rendered useless but can almost certainly be repaired. If th container is not patched, the concentrated acid will destroy the heart, erode the stomach, damage the liver, and puncture the lungs. If left untreated the acid may also infect the brain and poison its perceptions into a illogical insanity of hate.

     The cynical mind has been poisoned by its own views. Understandably, some event or person has ruptured the regular bodily processes and created a perverse, embittered mind. While the bitterness supplies a sort of adrenaline affect that enables the user to bear considerable burdens beyond normal bounds, the price is mental sanity and a shortened life.
     But if cynicism provides a limited "superpower" of life, isn't it worth the price? Cynicism sucks the joy from life; no circumstance can provide happiness to the cynic. Optimism is worthless because beneficial events only serve to increase the bitterness as the user recognizes the vanity of false joy. Pessimistic to the core, apathy and depression stalk the cynic in all aspects of life. Without doubt benefits can be found, especially within the determination to hate and striving toward destruction of the hated ideal or being.
     Theodore Roosevelt's launched an entire crusading speech against the blasé of life and cynism.

"The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer . . . There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes to second achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticize work which the critic never tries to perform – these are not marks of superiority but of weakness." 

     While you may defeat the opposition of life, you do it at the cost of yourself. Again, another famous, oft-quoted man of the American past, Ralph Waldo Emerson, cautioned against the burning hatred of dissatisfaction and enmity in life.

“Don't hang a dismal picture on the wall, and do not daub with sables and glooms in your conversation. Don't be a cynic and disconsolate preacher. Don't bewail and bemoan. Omit the negative propositions. Nerve us with incessant affirmatives. Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good. When that is spoken which has a right to be spoken, the chatter and the criticism will stop. Set down nothing that will not help somebody.”

     Embrace the life you have. Accept your faults, the faults of others, and the rainy-day circumstances that force the barometer to weight heavily on your life. Cherish the moment and embrace challenges to prove yourself to those that contest your merits.

 __    
Agatha Tyche