Oh, right...That's Why I'm...

...Not a cynic.
At variouse points my life has been fairly dull or fairly crap. But that's not what I'm going to talk aobut, what i am going to talk about is a converse I had with my friend a while ago, and hopefully i won't use up to many words.
I was talking to my friend, and we were sharing stories about our respective lives, he came from a fairly wealthy laid back and healthy household, I... didn't. Yes he was a lucky bas...s bass player. Yeah.
Anyway, he asked me at one point why I wasn't a heavy cynic, like many people who came from a similar household to me, or many of our better of classmates.
And It took me a while to get an answer together, because I've alway thought of myself as fairly cynical, though a bit more on the cheerful side, kinda a optimistic cynic I guess.
At the time (this was about the time Ivan hit Pensacola, Florida, about three or so weeks later) I'd started getting out on my bike mroe, had to reintroduce myself to the local yokels, ...

... and just generally get out around town more. I'd pretty much just finished off my latest Really-deep-personal-insights-that-should-rock-people ideas and related it to him.
I told him, look, the world sucks, it always has, and it always will. It doesn't matter who you are or where you from, your life will, in some way or another, suck.
So you may as well laugh about it. I'd never really had any people to talk to growing up except adults, and for a kid, that doesn't really leave you much to talk about. I was generally a wee bit awkward (like the sun's only a wee bit bright) around folks my age, I'd grown up in a metal shop, they'd grown up having fun. I was a veritable work aholicc in comparison, and i considered myself lazy.
But my saving grace for awhile was I just let it all roll off me. Kept me a little sane, and kept them from getting to me. Then I started telling jokes. They were absolutely horrible, and I still love them. Will i repeat them? No, but i'll never forget them. Unless I go senile.

Or get alzheimers or something.
But I explained to my friend that there are alot of things to bring us down, and there always will be, so I stopped letting it roll off me and turned it around. Started laughing along, or countering the stuff. Started making fun of myself, sure, but started making fun of life in general. Realized how rediculous so much of what we do is, and instead of feeling morose about it, I found it absolutely hilariouse, and amazing all at once. Making ourselves so very important to ourselves. You have to laugh about it.
I told him, "Y'know, life is just so funny, so rediculous, so sad, and so amazing, you just have to take it seriously. And then wear a funny hat and laugh."
ANd make other people laugh with you, 'cause it's a shield. laughing in the face of danger, at all of the things we go through in life, and will go through, because life sucks. But we can generally do a great job of making it bearable, even enjoyable.
But what brought this on was a trip I whent on last weekend.

I went on the Chahu... er... Chahu.... er. It's a tributary of the Chatahootchie river that somehow turns into the Escambia river with the magic of dividing lines on a map. Or something.
But the trip was.... well, it was pretty darn amazing. Can't really describe it. Just... nice. Limestone all over the place, kinda amazing to think we were actually below where a ancient seabed used to be.
Generally on these trips the folks are mainly old fogeys (meaning no offense to anyone on BTS who is either Old or a fogey, I mean this in a good way.) Most of the young people who go on these trips are a bit like me and prefer talking to the old fogeys than ourselves, except for the rare occasions when the chimp... I mean my cousins come along. Great bunch of idiots, lemme tell you.
Anyway, on this particular trip, looking at the fossils on the walls around me, chatting with a retired geologist, one of the ladies on the trip started talking with me, and as we were talking...

She told me the meaning of life is to have the biggest smile you can get, and then share it with as many people as you can. She figures if everyone made a decent or better effort to make the world laugh, we'd be a little bit better off. But it just reminded me off the talk I'd had wiht my friend, who later told me he was considering some things he'd decided against based on my idea, and instead he's trying to draw comics to make people laugh. He's done some pretty good ones I think.