I've gotten more cynical as I've gotten older, but not completely cynical. I try to keep my youthful idealism alive; I think it's important to do so. Which I think makes me different than most guys my age, who do everything they can to kill their inner idealist. And I can understand why they do that; if you believe that people are terrible, then it certainly makes it easier to read the morning paper without barfing up your breakfast. And you don't have that inner struggle like I do as the two sides of my personality battle for my opinion. I'm excited about the possibility of Barack Obama being our next president, but I'm scared too. I know when someone comes along promising change, the haters and the nutjobs come out of the woodwork. At our church they've been studying Eckhart Tolle's book "A New Earth" and a lot of people there seem to believe there's a new world coming and I'd like to believe that too, but I have a hard time genuinely believing that considering how much ignorance and narrow-mindedness and complacency I see every day.
But occasionally something comes along that banishes cynicism. A lot of the time for me it involves baseball. The story about the girl playing for Western Oregon University who hit a home run, injured her knee rounding first and the oppsing players from Central Washington University carrying her around the bases restored my faith in the basic beauty and nobility of the human spirit.
And I love this too. Check out the current standings in the American League East. The Rays of Tampa Bay are in first place and the once-mighty New York Yankees are in dead last. God's in his heaven and all's right with the world.
