Most of you have probably heard me say before, “Self-delusion is the key to happiness”, but maybe some people take it too far – the key here is SELF. Delude yourself all you want, but when you try to drag others into it, it really screws things up.When denying the facts of a situation starts to have a negative impact on yourself and others, maybe it’s time to consider Reality. No, it probably won’t make you happy. But I think we all know that

For all the happiness mankind can gain
Is not in pleasure, but in rest from pain. (John Dryden)

I love fantasy.  I love to read it, watch it in movies, see the art that comes out of it.  It’s pretty neat stuff.

But it’s not real.  And it’s important to know that.

In Happy Fantasy Land, 84-year-old grandpa’s don’t die.  I’d love to live there!  Then my grandpa, who has less than 10% kidney function, fluid around his heart, low blood pressure, pre-diabetes, numb & swollen feet and knees that are constantly painful, wouldn’t have to die.  He’d get all better, and everyone would have a party and it’d be swell.

But in Real Life, the one we have to live it, it just isn’t going to happen.  You can say it all you want, but this  isn’t one of those “believe it and it’ll come true” type things.  He’s dying.  It’s not a fun truth, but at least I’ll be prepared when it happens.  It won’t be a shock, it won’t be surprising; in fact, because I can see the way things are, it very well may come as a blessing.  The man needs to rest.  To not be in pain.  To not sit there in his nearly useless body and think about all of the things he would be doing if he could, but can’t.  Can’t.

If this were an animal, we would have had him euthanized ages ago, because it would be kinder. But for some reason, when it’s a human, we have to make sure they lose all dignity first.  We have to make sure that their nearest and dearest suffer as much as possible, until they have such guilt over wanting it to be over that they can hardly function.

I just don’t get how, or why, people do this. Why do we want to make people live so long, when they are so obviously in pain and making everyone around them so miserable?  Isn’t there a point where we can say, “No More!” ?

Another school shooting, huh? Can’t wait to see all the comments about how We need to spank our kids, or not be so easy on them, or Teach them Respect and all that. How we need to crack down.

Having been through school, and not having been one of the “normal” kids, and having a kid who has been through school as not a “normal” kid as well, maybe what we should be doing is teaching the REST of the kids out there that the kids who aren’t just like them, are actually OK.

Think about it, for real. Don’t you remember how badly those “other” kids were treated in school? Be honest. You might have been one, and know it. You might have been the asshole who make their lives hell – you certainly know it. You might have been just an innocent bystander who just didn’t know what, if anything, should be done about it. But the point is – we all know how shitty it was for kids who didn’t fit in.

And like all the anti-bullying ads are saying, in too many words, Stop your kids from being assholes! It’s pretty simple.

I’m not saying that this is going to prevent all of the school shootings, all of the mall shootings, all of the problems in the world…but it sure as hell couldn’t hurt. Something about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure?

Oh yeah…and parents of those slightly “off” kids? Love it. Those are the kids that will change the world, if you let them.

*As background for this story, realize that I work at a non-profit resale store.  We accept donations of clothing, item and money.  The clothing and items we resell or recycle, using the profits to do things like feeding the unfed, housing the homeless, helping people find employment and childcare, that kind of thing.  And no, it’s not Goodwill, so our CEO doesn’t drive a Jag and wear a Rolex.*

For every jackass, there’s .5 people who are pretty much ok.

Yesterday, the ratio reversed: there was one jackass, and 2 pretty cool people.

First, the Jackass.  There are times when a homeless person will come in and say, “It’s raining. All I have is these beat up tennies.  Can you help?” And even though our stores aren’t the place you go for direct help usually (we have a main office for that), our managers can say Hell yeah, and get them a pair of boots right off the rack.

Jackass decided that he needed new shoes. And apparently new underwear.  I’m extrapolating from the facts: I found an old pair of scrungy shoes tucked way under a clothing rack.  And in one of the shoes, his used underwear.

Did I mention that our company gives out vouchers by the dozens for people to get clothes and shoes?  And it’s not hard to get them?  yeah.  Awesome.

So anyway, I was a little disgruntled and disappointed with Human Beings  in general. But then came in Awesome Person #1.

Awesome Person #1 came up to the register with 3 umbrellas.  I made a joke about how she’d need all three to get to her car – the rain and wind was crazy.  She said, only one is for me.  I gave mine away to a homeless person today, and thought it was a good idea to have some spares.

Awesome.  She’s buying multiple umbrellas in order to give them away to umbrella-less (and roofless) persons.  Not spending a ton, just doing something really considerate and nice.

Awesome Person #2 came in a couple hours later.  She walked up with a $20 bill and said, “I’d like to donate this to the holiday food drive on behalf of my cat.  She doesn’t like people to go hungry.  She’s not going to share, mind you – she’s a cat, after all, not a saint – but she doesn’t want them hungry.”

So I thanked her profusely and pulled out the square of paper with the turkey printed on it, showing her that we put the name of the person who donated on it to put on the wall.  She has me write her cats name on there, then says, “I have two cats.” and pulls out another $20.  So on behalf of Cloe and Fluffy, she donated a total of $40.  The suggested donation for this food drive is $1.  Awesome.

Because of these two Awesome People, I’m feeling a little better about Human Beings today.  Of course, I’ll find out that they were actually space aliens disguised as elderly ladies, testing us to see if we are worthy of existence ..but  I’ll take it.  And maybe, because I have the cat lady two gold stars on each of her turkey pictures, they’ll let me live.