Thanks, 'fly.

I just get frustrated by the way the world in the here-and-now works sometimes.

*****

I think I feel my natural cheerfulness returning. I don't know if it's because the elm trees are now setting seed (and therefore are making no more pollen for the year, thank goodness), or if it's just that the week's over and I can put this one behind me, or if it was just a matter of time and distance, or what.

I have been on a 'news fast' for several days - I have to do this periodically. The funny thing is, it's not so much the global news (like what's going on in Iraq) that gets to me, it's the stupid little local things. The cases of child abuse or animal abuse. The criminals doing stupid things that endanger people (like stealing stop signs - a couple years ago a teenager was killed because someone stole a stop sign on a side street and a motorist unfamiliar with the area didn't know he was supposed to stop. Well - I guess the motorist's life was harmed, too, because now he has to live with the consequences of someone else's action). The vandalism. (I could go on and on about vandalism - my university deals with it on a regular basis and it's like the students - generally the perpetrators - don't realize that that takes money and resources away from things that could benefit them). The sort of short-sighted, unable-to-see-the-consequences type behavior.

So not hearing the constant scritch, scritch, scritch of human selfishness (I agree with whichever theologian it was that said that the vast majority of human sin can be traced back to basic selfishness) helps.