pinakidion.*

Turns out that the church I attend has a new minister. He’ll be here soon - he should finish his PhD by August. His wife is finishing her degree as well, so full-time work should start in August. He says that he doesn’t want to move again. I hope that is right. I’ve had a Big Name(TM) make that promise before and it lasted 11 years. I can deal with about 10 years keeping in mind that no one can really know if they have to move or not. I just hope the circumstances are different.

So, yes, I’m happy about it. I look forward to seeing him next week.

Do I contradict myself?/ Very well then I contradict myself,/ (I am large, I contain multitudes.)

Walt Whitman

I’ve begun to take my writing more seriously and so I am eager to do the business of writing. The business of writing is a nice way of saying generating content. I’m like most amateur writers in that I enjoy thinking of an idea more than actually committing it to paper(or mySQL database as the case may be). I started to spend time exploring my various interests and recently created subdomains in order to make it more accessible. In a sense, it creates different compartments of my interests and that appeals to me. Not only that, instead of a few large databases, I have 100 small databases. If I could, I’d redo all the sites as a PostNuke install with multisite mods. I would invision it to look like Slashdot or something similar. That would allow me to login once and write to many places. Unfortunately, the db problem is hard to overcome.

Just in case, though. Don’t use pinakidion.net for a while. I’m going to play with converting all this into a portal using the *.pinakidion.net addresses. Right now, all the subdomains are on *.pinakidion.org. If it works, that will be great. If not, well, I have to login to six different places.

On a side note, a friend suggested that I go into the naming business. After all, google searches on pinakidion and sycarion point overwhelmingly my sites. Pretty soon, I’ll have a third. If you need to name something, let me know. I won’t charge, I promise.

It’s not that I don’t talk about politics. I frequently do as a matter of course. The thing is, I don’t post about it, usually. The politics I spend my time with involve local affairs - mayor, local representative to Congress, state senator, M.U.D. board, etc. These thing affect me most and are pretty much worthy of my attention. National politics, on the other hand, affect society, but not me as much. My sporadic attempts to talk about national politics betray my ignorance.

What is different this time is that a book is saying something that I have believed in part for a long time. I believe the Religious Right has come to believe that real Christians support the Republican party. I’ve had experience with the implied threat to be like other real Christians. The only difference was party affiliation. The Religious Right wants us all to be Republicans of the most conservative sort. The ICoC wanted us to all be disciples(htdm) of the most radical sort.

No thanks, I’ve starred in that movie with editorial control over the script.

The book, Thy Kingdom Come, is written by one of the editors of Christianity Today. He talks about the origins of both the Religious Right and of Evangelical Christianity. I look forward to reading it at some point.

Today we’re testing the fire alarm system. It’s done about six times a year. For some reason it has to be done during the daytime. This means a 90+ dB alarm going off every few minutes from 8:30 to whenever. Sometimes the bursts come less than a minute apart.

It would be bearable if the alarm was not in my office.

At least I interview for the DBA job today. Yay!

WikiHow is a wonderful website. True, a reader needs to exercise caution as some of information is dubious at best. However, as far as practical guides go, it is pretty well done.

Today’s entry involves helping a friend that’s been arrested. Past entries have ranged from Making a Lava Lamp with Household Items to simple recipes to origami.

Enjoy!

My wife has provided an entire weekend of Father’s Day for me. Have I mentioned lately that I married a wonderful woman? Really? Well, I have married a wonderful woman.

Yesterday was a chance to have a mid-morning date. We also saw the Pixar film Cars. Today, I had a great Stout produced by Upstreams and a great roast beef sandwich. It wasn’t a Guiness Stout, but it was brewed locally. I got to spend time at home playing with our son. To that end, I got a new toy for us - a marionette of a siamese cat. Considering how much our son loves our real siamese cat, he loved the puppet. More than anything, I enjoyed knowing that I was making him laugh for quite some time.

Tonight, my wife made a linguine served with marina sauce made with zucchini and turkey Italian sausage. I thought her lasanga was wonderful. Then again, with all the stuff fresh from the Farmer’s Market…

Life is good. I feel like I have been honored by my wife all weekend. As it says in Proverbs, what man can find anything better?

I was apporached today to write a set of concerns about the Unity Agreement. The initial question was, “How do you feel about the direction of the church?”

I was honest - my only real concern at this point is that we signed the UP. However, I believe the leadership is doing the best they can to take care of folks, find a new minister, and provide direction for the church. It’s why I keep attending and giving contribution when I can - I want to be with these people. I enjoy the community and I want my son to be like the good qualities in the folks I know here. This church also provides spiritual stability for my wife and I’m glad she is beginning to experience community. I’ve been called an adopted son-in-law today, in addition to other nice things like ‘first-time father’. (My wife is the adopted daughter).

We discussed it for awhile. I wish people were not hurt by the decision I made about my membership, but I understand why they would feel that way. I don’t fault them for that. I feel terrible about it myself. I keep praying that I am not doing the right thing so that I can just say, “I’m being pig-headed” and go back to the way things used to be.

There was no condemnation, but a very reasonable and heartfelt exchange. I didn’t get angry, though I did get sad. I do not like seeing a friend hurt. I do not like feeling like I am the cause of it, especially over a piece of paper.

To this end, I was asked to write a list of greivances. That part was pretty easy and we even agreed on a couple of issues. I’ll provide the list sometime soon. Because this is something more or less official, it won’t be of the diary-quality stuff I write here. I record my thoughts at one given point in time here. This will be the serious version and not the I-can’t-believe-we’re-returning-to-our-own-vomit version.

I’ve since learned that one church that recently was recorded as a signing church was nearly split in half over this issue. There appeared to be no neutral ground. The resolution involved at least one Big Name(TM) that isn’t a part of the Gang of Nine. The solution was to sign the UP, but produce a list of caveats and issues. That is, in essence, what I have been asked to write.

I don’t know how that was neutral ground, but if it worked for them, I hope it will work for me. Then again, no one said for me to write this and then reconsider my membership. I hope for the best.

My wife and I are walking along late this afternoon in a shopping complex when a security person in an SUV stops his vehicle and motions for us to walk towards him. I quickly checked a few things because this seemed like strange behavior for an officer towards my wife. I don’t have long hair currently. I’m not in a car, so seatbelts are not an issue. I’m not showing my midriff. My son is happy. My wife and I are both walking on the sidewalk. I haven’t stolen anything. I didn’t spit.

In short, I’m wondering why on earth security needs me. In my past, this is 9 times out of 10, a bad thing.

He said, “I just had to tell you that your son is very cute.” He went on to explain that he had a six month old at home and that his child and ours both have really big eyes.

What a great day this has been. I have official confirmation that our son is so cute that he can literally stop a moving vehicle.

Yeah, I also saw Cars, but our son is totally cute. And it’s not just me saying that.

But I’ve decided that the President’s approval is so low, he should just aim for zero. A co-worker and I struggled to figure out how this was even possible. It seemed that doing nothing would make some people think better of him. It also seems that any action that upsets one constiuency(sp) will please another. After much thought, though, we propose the following agenda to acheive single-digit popularity ratings:

1. Build a wall between Siberia and Alaska for security.
As part of a Homeland Security Initiative, this wall will serve to keep out terrorists that attempt to walk across the Bering Straight to infiltrate our country. Once in Alaska, a prospective terrorist would only have to make their way through Canada to reach the lower 48.

This would upset Russia, Alaska, and Canada. It could also potentially upset Native Americans.

2. Join the EU.
Tell the world that we are abondoning the dollar for the Euro in two years.

This will alienate the Religious Right, any economist worth his/her salt, Europe, China, Japan… Basically almost everyone.

As a coup de grace, we figure that the last resort is simply to immediately kill Medicare and Social Security, but require all current workers aged 18 or older to contribute until they die.

Just goes to show how difficult it is to go lower than 30% approval rating. Picking on a reporter with visual problems can almost get you there.

We do what we must, and call it by the best names.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I know what your book says about him, but that doesn’t mean that it is true. Listen here, Mark, I know that you think everything in books is true, but that just idn’t so. This guy writes about local history, but he weren’t here to live it. He’s from New Jersey. What does he know about us? Nothing. Not a dang thing. Take for instance what he says about Buffalo City, or what he don’t say. They had a train stop that went to Atlanta and Charleston. He don’t even mention that, but he sure goes to a lot of trouble to talk about all the stores they had and the electrical lights and all that modern stuff. Daddy told me all about Buffalo City. Your Grandma lived there. While your Grandpa was courting her, he would drive up there and try to sound all up-to-date by naming all the new stuff they had and bragging about how he knew how to work the new washing machines.

But that’s another story, and you idn’t at all interested in stuff like that.

Read more…

Mark was sitting on the front porch of Matherson’s store watching the
town’s most prominent men play cards. Mark wasn’t playing today. In fact, it is
said that the two surest ways to throw away money are to buy a boat and play
cards with Mark Pritchett. Anyway, today he was not in the business of making
money for his boat. Instead, he was trying to teach his grandson the art of
playing cards. Mark had always considered the art of cards as the one good thing
he could give to his children and to their children. (His son Matt made his own
way through college.)

“Now Caleb, the first thing you do is play cards where there’s a cat. Cats
are instinctive. They know who’s going to win the money and how long a
person’s going to play before he leaves.”

Caleb listened on with temporary devotion.

“Now you see Ol’ Numbers, there? He’s been here about as long as I have.
Now, he weren’t raised no dummy, he knows what he’s doing. ” Mark paused to
catch his breath. “Now see,” he said pointing to the cat, “he’s sitting under Zach
over there and a-wagging his tail. That means Zach’s gonna win, but he ain’t
gonna play for more than twenty minutes or so. You got that?” Mark pointed at
Officer Zachary Taylor and Judge Tillett. “Now listen very carefully to what they
say.” Read more…

My wife and I watched Arabian Nights on Sci-Fi this past weekend. It reminded us of our desire to search out our story in the Bible and tell stories to each other. When we speak of biblical things, it is often in a story. However, we have not recently told stories to each other.

Last night, she told the story of a dancer emerging. We hummed the Nutcracker Suite and danced in the living room. We talked about how we could grow closer to God and enjoyed a nice stir-fry dinner.

There’s more to the story, of course, but it was a beautiful time. I’ve told old pirate stories and shared from a collection of short stories about my home. She has retold Patrick McManus stories and tales of braving the boundary waters in northern Minnesota. Recently, though, we have enjoyed telling stories once again.

Part of it is growing up with stories. Both of us did. My wife’s family did not watch TV, our family did, but our relatives told all kinds of tales. We look forward to passing on this part of both our heritages with our family.

I look forward to sharing more stories, especially those of our son. He is my parent’s revenge: he is stubborn like his old man.

For the near future, I’ll post the stories I wrote almost 15 years ago about my hometown (in an alternate universe.) 

I’ve spent a lot of time lately writing variations of simple games. It’s not that there’s a budding gaming company in the works, I don’t think its there. It’s just an outlet really. I haven’t had much of an outlet for a long time and it feels good to expend energy on creating/tweaking something.

I say tweaking because there’s more modifying involved as opposed to creation.

It helps me appreciate the wonder of God that he did and does create. Look at the variation of the species - eight new scorpions found recently, huge squid in the South Pacific, bacteria that live in superhot places, it’s amazing the diversity. There’s also the details involved - every gorilla has a unique nose print, salmon swim back to the place they were born, miles of various tubing in the human body, and much more. God created all of it. God planned it and spoke it into existence. That’s cool to me.

Maybe that’s why I was attracted to aspects of LDS(Mormons) Mysticism some time ago. The idea that God created other world and allowed us as ascended being to create other worlds has strong attraction for me. I’ll be the first to ask God for a holodeck in Heaven. In retrospect, I think I preferred the holodeck in Heaven rather than my own pocket universe because I knew the creation inside the holodeck wouldn’t be real. Saying "End Program" wouldn’t kill anyone or harm anyone. It is essentially smoke and mirrors. Having my own pocket universe, though, that’s serious stuff. Can you create a universe and produce Universe 2.0 some years later? Could you really tell your first creation that they are now obsolete? In essence, I enjoy examining and playing with ideas, something best done on paper rather than flesh and blood (whatever forms that may take). 

Anyway, I’ve said all this before, so it’s nothing new. Just rambling along on a Monday. 

an apology.

Compare the terms of repentance with the ones stated below by the group of 84:

We challenge you to make your life match your teaching and your doctrine. Because we have had so many conversations with you about these things over many, many years, and so that you clearly know there is a way for you to repent, we challenge you to repent in these specific ways:

Print, publicly apologize for and stop:

1) Your continued pride, arrogance and anger.

2) Your selfish ambition, seeking to be first and continually drawing attention to yourself in your sermons, your publications and your conversations.

3) Judging and condemning other churches. As pointed out in the Seattle letter to you, the slander towards the New York City Church was never repented of. Numerous other examples litter your writings and speeches.

4) Blaming other people for many of the problems you helped author that are making many of our churches weak.

5) Causing division among faithful Christians by “calling out the remnant” and starting churches where there are existing churches of disciples.

6) Recruiting people to move to Portland and dividing people from their church families in order to start new congregations in the same city.

7) Blaming other people for the problems in your own family.

The immoral ethics of sinning deliberately now and asking for forgiveness later.

Take these steps to turn around and guard your heart for the future:

1) Identify a group of five of your lifelong peers who have confronted you on your sin and whom you are willing to submit to for discipling your life, your heart and your ministry.

2) Use your website to promote all people, churches and messages that are biblical and that are advancing the gospel in any way.

3) Build your ministry through planting and watering in your own city. Renounce recruiting and playing politics with the ministry.

4) Regularly invite into your ministry mature brothers who know you well, will speak the truth in love and who are committed to brotherhood unity, biblical doctrine and to evangelism.

5) Publish a statement with the approval of the five brothers in your peer discipling group (see #1) affirming:
a. Your repentance and godly sorrow
b. Your commitment to cooperate with other churches who have the same convictions without your claiming a leadership role and without your having to dominate others.
c. Your commitment to each of the above on this repentance list.

6) Reconcile with the churches you have offended.

So why will he listen to DA instead of the other 84? (Doug Arthur was not one of the original 84 or even the 64 from the first letter). How long will he submit himself to the Baltimore Doug’s?

In a way, I feel sorry for them - they were trying to bridge the Kip churches and the rest of the ICoC. In about two or three months, when Baltimore doesn’t grow faster than Portland or when some other criteria is not met: he’ll turn on them as well. I regret that in my own life, I usually learn things the hard way. What’s going to happen to the Baltimore Doug’s is really hard - the real faith-shattering type of hard. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

President Bush is in town today. Our local newspaper, of course, told everyone where he is staying creating the need for insane security anywhere near downtown. Thanks, guys.

What strikes me as odd as I make my rare foray into politics, is that I received a survey from the Democratic Party National Committee yesterday while I was out of town. The survey was full of false dilemmas, so I answered “Don’t Know” for most of the questions. However, they did provide a space to write my thoughts. They assured me that they would listen regardless of whether or not I sent a $35 check.

Ahem.

So this is what I said to the DNC without sending a check.

To the DNC:

I appreciate your concern over my views as a registered Democrat in the state of Nebraska. This is considered a predominantly Republican state as evidenced by George W. Bush’s several visits here. Given the space provided, I wish to share three basic thoughts with you.

• The country is starving for someone with integrity.
• Substance is more important than presentation.
• The Northeast corner of the US does not represent the Democratic party.

Integrity
Many people I know bought into the image of President Clinton as “Slick Willie”. Despite the irrelevance of the Monica Lewinsky ordeal, seeing him attempt to parse a two-letter word damaged what little integrity he was perceived to have. Real people know what is “is”. Al Gore was too connected with President Clinton to be perceived as having integrity, though his term as senator demonstrated he had some. Senator Kennedy is shown to get a lot of work done, but he has never successfully run for office because of Chappaquidick. (Turns out he ran in 1980. Oops!) I can think of only a few Democrats senator that can be perceived as having integrity - and no, one is not Senator Leiberman. I’ll talk about them later.

Fact is, Senator McCain is one of the few politicians perceived as having at least some integrity. For awhile, he was perceived as wanting to do the right thing instead of the party thing. Fortunately for you, he is now trying to make the Religious Right happy. Doing things like speaking at Liberty Unviersity’s graduation is an attempt to make everyone in the GOP like him and repair riffs with Rev. Falwell, Pat Robertson, and the like. As I said, you’re lucky he is doing that as Democrats have fewer candidates that represent integrity at all. Sen Obama comes close - his appearance on the Daily Show was frank and to the point, as well as appropriately funny.

Find someone with integrity. Senator Hillary Clinton is not that person. John Edwards is not that person. Senator Kerry is not that person. Chairman Dean is not that person. It is important that this person with integrity is new to the media and the country at large. The faces you are currently touting to run for President in 2008 will all lose barring the GOP appoints a person viewed as having less integrity or if they nominate Governor Jeb Bush.

Substance
A better word might be gravitas. No politician of superstar status is seen as having much gravitas. It’s no wonder really. The DNC invented an issue labelled ‘electability’. It wasn’t a real word before 2000 and it wasn’t used exhaustively until 2004. Whatever you think it takes for a person to be elected is completely wrong. Chairman Dean said that the reason we lost in 2004 was that the message didn’t get out. People of all parties laughed at that response as is was so far from reality as to be ludicrous.

We lost because we presented no one with much substance. Senator Kerry had some substance to him, but the label of flip-flopper stuck. If he runs again, that label will stick again. The VP candidate was a half-term senator chosen because of his youth and glibness. Youth and glibness do not win elections. If they did, why did Americans vote for George W. Bush in the first place? He is neither young nor glib. In fact, there is a cottage industry centered around his misuse of the English language. No, Dubya was seen as having more substance than Kerry for a variety of reasons. That is not saying much - comparing two anthills when you’re looking for a skyscraper has the same feeling.

Fortunately for us, the GOP has bought into the myth of electability as well. For some reason, they currently believe Senator McCain is not electable. They cannot get General Colin Powell to run, if he ran he would win in the biggest landslide in history. Unless they pull out a wildcard like Hagel (Nebraska) or some successful moderate governor, we are safe. So I beg you to find someone with some gravitas to nominate in 2008.

When I look around the party, I see people like Senator Feingold. He is relatively young. More importantly, he is the only senator that voted against the Patriot Act in 2001. The only one. We should be drumming this fact up with all possible fervor. With the concerns over personal security that have arisen out of the original Patriot Act and its successor, this is crucial. Senator Feingold did something that at the time was extremely unpopular. History has proven him right. No, he’s not a moderate, but he has demonstrated that he can do the right thing under pressure.

Take a look at Senator Byrd. Whenever he is asked a question, he answered plainly and clearly. Listening to him gives people a sense that he knows what is going on in Washington. Again, forget the word electable. I know that he is from West Virginia. I know that he is in his late eighties. I know that he has not been strictly party line in some areas. Great! Sign him up for 2008 now. If you really cannot get past these two irrelevant factors, see if he has a protege and sign him up instead.

Give Senator Obama some time to serve in Congress. Once he has a couple of terms under his belt, he would also be good. He is all the things you think you like about John Edwards plus he can actually speak for himself and he actually has some experience.

Let me tell you about myself so that you may understand why I am concerned about substance. I have a good paying job. I make about 49K a year. However, I pay $670 a month for insurance and this insurance only covers 80% of my bills. My son’s birth was $112K before insurance because of NICU treatment, surgeries, and other things surrounding his Goldenhar’s Syndrome. You know that insurance companies consider a hearing aid “a cosmetic enhancement”? Mine does, and it’s not just here. Why? Blue Cross/Blue Shield is in every state. Their upper management gets bonuses in the millions while their customers are getting insurance that barely allows them to get by. Check it out if you don’t believe me - insurance companies do not consider a hearing aid a medical expense. I am a Democrat because I believe that the insurance industry doesn’t serve me or most other people in this country. It needs to be changed. Are you going to put up a candidate that just parrots the party-line? Are you going to nominate a person that has mock-outrage at all this, but has been rich his entire life? I want something done, but I won’t vote for someone that looks like they are just saying the right things to get elected.

Give up this electability myth. It is killing you and all the rest of us.

Who are Democrats?
Polls lie. The NE corner of the US doesn’t represent the Democratic party. Thinking this way limits the range of input to our detriment. Yes, they should be heard and no, the Midwestern Democrats should not become the new policy police. However, I believe that most independents feel a Democrat has to be in New York or Vermont in order to be a real democrat. This perception has got to go.

Thank you for the opportunity to express my views on the state of our party.

We learned about a simple test this weekend that is useful to parents. The Ling 6 test covers the spectrum of English sounds in order to give an accurate representation of a child’s hearing. Instead of testing for volume, it also tests for frequency. The initial sounds are lower frequency and they work their way up to higher frequencies.

A better explanation is here:

For example, if your child suddenly has difficulty with sh and ss sounds, it can help to diagonse a change in your child’s hearing or a malfunction in the hearing equipment. Normally, we test just to see if the battery isn’t dead, however, this test allows anyone to get a snapshot of hearing at any one time.

It is critical to use this test everyday. The provided link also gives instructions for giving the test. It’s important that in a quiet environment, the child signifies that they hear the sound without repeating it back to you. It is also important that they do not see your face when making the sound, otherwise, they could be imitating a visual cue instead of actually responding to what they are hearing.

and 100 mySQL databases.

Hmmmm. this site is up to 5mb in 2.5 years of usage, so the answer seems obvious.

Store all the important stuff in addition to the various creative projects.

As such, I created The Advocate, a place to store information and links about hard of hearing infants and parents of them. We’ve received a lot of help from some truly great people. We have also found ourselves misdirected by a few and left behind in the default answer these days to any hearing loss: cochlear implants.

Our son has a bone-conducting hearing aid because his cochleas are totally fine. He will either have surgery to correct his ear canals, have some other procedure done currently unknown to us or always have hearing aids. He does not need a CI or an FM transmitter system.

In any case, like everything else, I’m compartmentalized it and given it its own subdomain because most things here are my life and religious posts.

This is where information my wife and I discover about hard of hearing children will be found. We also hope to provide information for parents of hard of hearing children, especially infants.

Since our child has perfect cochleas, we are one of the few not really excited about CIs. They are great, but we do not need them and thus we feel a little left out.

It is our hope that we can provide a service for others so that they can more readily find good information than we did.

Stephen Colbert addressed the graduating class of Knox College last Saturday, June 3.

Aside from some of the political satire, he became sincere at the end when he spoke about improv comedy in Second City.

But you seem nice enough, so I’ll try to give you some advice. First of all, when you go to apply for your first job, don’t wear these robes. Medieval garb does not instill confidence in future employers—unless you’re applying to be a scrivener. And if someone does offer you a job, say yes. You can always quit later. Then at least you’ll be one of the unemployed as opposed to one of the never-employed. Nothing looks worse on a resume than nothing.

So, say “yes.” In fact, say “yes” as often as you can. When I was starting out in Chicago, doing improvisational theatre with Second City and other places, there was really only one rule I was taught about improv. That was, “yes-and.” In this case, “yes-and” is a verb. To “yes-and.” I yes-and, you yes-and, he, she or it yes-ands. And yes-anding means that when you go onstage to improvise a scene with no script, you have no idea what’s going to happen, maybe with someone you’ve never met before. To build a scene, you have to accept. To build anything onstage, you have to accept what the other improviser initiates on stage. They say you’re doctors—you’re doctors. And then, you add to that: We’re doctors and we’re trapped in an ice cave. That’s the “-and.” And then hopefully they “yes-and” you back. You have to keep your eyes open when you do this. You have to be aware of what the other performer is offering you, so that you can agree and add to it. And through these agreements, you can improvise a scene or a one-act play. And because, by following each other’s lead, neither of you are really in control. It’s more of a mutual discovery than a solo adventure. What happens in a scene is often as much a surprise to you as it is to the audience.

Well, you are about to start the greatest improvisation of all. With no script. No idea what’s going to happen, often with people and places you have never seen before. And you are not in control. So say “yes.” And if you’re lucky, you’ll find people who will say “yes” back.

Now will saying “yes” get you in trouble at times? Will saying “yes” lead you to doing some foolish things? Yes it will. But don’t be afraid to be a fool. Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying “yes” begins things. Saying “yes” is how things grow. Saying “yes” leads to knowledge. “Yes” is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say “yes.”

And that’s The Word.

Stephen Colbert

I believe that cynics stopped saying yes, much less yes-and because of the chorus of nos. From personal experience, I can tell you that most cynics are sensitive souls that simply wall off reality and people because they are tired of hurting. All of that said, however, it is true that cynicism is a false wisdom. Cynics learn nothing because they already know it all.

Maybe all a cynic needs is a few yes-and’s.