Everyone Sucks

When life doesn’t roll out the way you thought it would due to someone else’s decisions, lines are drawn, decisions are made, and when the dust settles, so does the persistent taste of bitterness.

When accommodated, bitterness toxifies the digestive system, adding a destructive element to any good thing we encounter - the way we perceive, the way we believe, and the way we receive, tainted by the thing we never got.

I’ve watched us all promise things we cannot afford. We give what we do not own, say forever when we cannot guarantee it, mean the best and do barely enough. I’ve built dreams on these words, but words remain empty unless filled with action and action is often left undone, so my dreams are too.

Like putting toothpaste back in its tube, messy and likely impossible to do without residue, dreams are difficult to retract. Instead of accepting the inevitable building, breaking and re-building of dreams, I’ve preferred “this wouldn’t of happened if you...” giving bitterness all the more time to seep in and ruin what’s left of me and the chance at rebuilding something better.

So I began with the phrase “everyone sucks,” shrugging my shoulders, and moving past the disappointment. Some might cringe at such pessimism, but to me it allowed for a common, if not reasonable and human explanation for whatever disappointment was at hand.

“Everyone sucks” eventually evolved into “everyone’s their own form of stupid,” granting me the additional acceptance of no one knowing everything they should.

Now, enough time has passed for grace to grow and change these words into ones I think could bring the world enormous healing if we would believe them.

“Everyone’s doing the best they can.”

The day still ends differently than foretold, only now, not only is it okay that someone else messed up, but it turns out they were actually trying. The anger lifts when you realize the person at fault was putting forth their best effort and maybe isn’t so insensitively stupid as you thought. This doesn’t negate the pain of ruined dreams. People’s best will still fall atrociously short of reasonable. But it sure does ease the process of getting back up again.

I think that’s what’s so important to me - getting back up again. Not just me, but everyone else who screwed up and/or got screwed over. We can rebel against our ruins by pointing fingers or wallowing in self-pity and shame, or we can accept the innate flaws of humanity, get back up, and build something better.