52 WEEKS
Week 1 5— In Defense of People
Every time we hear about some killing or some horrific act, somebody always says, what’s wrong with people?
And I think to myself: NOTHING
People are fine. Better than fine.
Now, what’s wrong with this particular person who committed this horrific act? I don’t know.
Maybe they’re crazy.
What I do know… is there are millions of people out there who did NOT kill anyone today.
What about them? Don’t they count? Are they not “people”?
A person or persons can be bad. But people are good.
That is our natural state. We’re all born innocent and helpless.
The rest of it comes later.
And yes, some of us go bad. Some of us go real bad.
But most of us DON’T.
There’s a reason why 94% employment is considered FULL employment.
I never understood how some people don’t like other people. How can you not like people? That’s like not liking food because you had some bad guacamole.
Then you got people who hate people, but love animals.
They can hear a hundred tales of heartbreaking, human tragedy, and they’re like, eh, bummer.
But ONE story about some bad thing happening to an animal, and they lose their freaking mind.
I mean, I like animals, they’re awesome.
But this idea that animals are great, but people are rotten, is a little messed up.
It’s just, people can be hard sometimes. Also, people aren’t always what they seem to be, whereas animals are almost always what they seem to be.
That being said, people are everything to me.
People SAVE animals, you know? That’s what people do.
They help little old ladies cross the street.
And they risk their lives to save their fellow man.
As far as I’m concerned, we’re ALL heroes, just waiting for the opportunity.
(and some of us secretly hoping that opportunity never shows up)
And I love how, for all of our achievements, we’re still pretty innocent and helpless.
We pontificate… and postulate. And then a big hole in the ground opens up and we fall in.
We’re so hapless.
If I were to be completely honest, people are the only thing in this world that I really love.
Everything else, I just like a whole lot.
AFTERTHOUGHTS
— The bad guys do enough damage as it is without us thinking less of humanity because of a handful of rotten people.
— I’ve loved individual animals. I miss my dog, Cocoa, twenty years later. But as a group, animals aren’t so innocent and pure. You ever see a nature video? It’s one big restaurant out there! Generally, you feed them, and they love you. People take more work.