THE
CYNIC AND THE SAINT
The cynic is a
pessimist,
with sarcasm in
his tone;
Dragging down
our precious hopes,
with the
hopelessness of his own.
"Most
things are absurd," he thinks,
"not worthy
of my time;
The world is
going downhill,
with war, lust,
greed and crime."
"Peace,"
he says, " impossible,
not in a million
years;
Not with us
hopeless humans,
caught up in our
hopeless fears."
"Hope is a
false security,
and ideals, a
needless hope;
They help us to
leap going,
and let our egos
cope."
`'No!", I
cry,
"This need not be true;
Hope may be so
very valuable,
a healthy
attitude."
"Where
would we be without our hopes,
no holiness at
all;
Merely animals
upon this earth,
with no heavenly
call."
"There is
no thing as heaven!" he yells,
"Just life
and death come past,
There is no kind
of paradise,
or soul-form
that will last."
"Is there
nothing sacred?
Is all so meaningless?
Does nothing
have value?
Are we all just
nothingness?
"You may be
right,
there certainly
might,
Be no life
hereafter;
But, I don't
appreciate your skepticism,
and your cynical
laughter.
"Every man,
is part of the Plan,
for a heaven
right here on earth;
Without the hope
for ideals enlivened,
we're doomed
right from our birth.
"And what
of our children,
and their
children's children,
is there no hope for them?
Peace is an
honest struggle,
so worthy in the end.
"Ideals may
be a fantasy,
of what cannot
come true;
They may also be
the working goal
of a
realistically optimistic view."
"That is a
bunch of B.S.", he tells me,
"your
realism is absurd;
Optimism has no
place,
in this suffering world.
"And
realism is idealistic,
because reality
is unknowable;
I am skeptical
about knowing anything,
with the human mind so fallible."
"You are so
right, the mind is weak,
but, I hope that
we can know;
Because, if not,
there is no chance,
to have our being grow.
"And what
is life without growth,
no more than an
unplanted seed;
Yet even a seed
is full of potential,
and carries a hope, indeed.
"You
see, to me, there is only one choice,
between hope and
the cynical side;
The cynic never
has a chance,
at least the
hopeful try."