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Too Cynical by Half
I used to think public outreach by private companies was just hot air, but my view is changing.
I am a cynic from way back. When I was 10, my parents assembled the kids in the living room and explained to us that my dad was moving to an apartment across the river to be “nearer to his work.” Within a few short years, I learned that my mom kicked him out because he had been having multiple affairs and she was fed up with it. I started distrust young.
The protection of cynicism was a good survival mechanism and a comfort until it wasn’t. At least half the things that haven’t gone right for me over a lifetime were the result of excess suspicion. I assumed the other party wasn’t acting in good faith. One in 10 times, they weren’t, and I probably saved myself something. But nine times out of 10, they were just being helpful, and there I was gnawing on the hand that was trying to feed me.
That’s something to admit after a lifetime of pursuing a strategy born out of turmoil. All the good things that might have been.
Ah, well.
Sigh.
Cynicism and its cousin, contempt, say a lot about how someone feels about themselves. My contempt for others — slower, less adept, more hesitant — was really a statement about how I myself was…
