I Was Called a Cynic Tonight!
February 21^st, 2004
1:37 A. M.

It was really last night when I was called a cynic, but I count it as tonight because I haven't gone to bed yet.

The story, though, starts at work about an hour and a half ago. We were caught up, my co-worker and I, so we went into another department to hang out and talk until the final shipment came in for the day (I'm not going to make it any clearer where I work because of what I have to say). The guy in this department said, "Our weekend person is retiring soon, so there will be a position open here."

I just blinked and said, "Retiring, huh? I didn't think that sort of thing went on here. I thought that people got fired before they could get any retirement benefits out of this place." To be fair to my statement, though, there was an older person fired about a year ago who didn't have much longer to retirement. From what the rest of us heard, the reason for the firing didn't seem to be ... reasonable...

But, at this point, the guy said, "Ah. So you're a little cynical, huh?"

I laughed heartily, and thought for a second. Then I asked, "Is this the part where I say, 'No, I'm a realist'?" Then I continued, "I'm not going to say that, though. I'll own up to my cynicism."

I think there are far too few genuine cynics in this world. A lot of people out there seem to confuse bitterness and anger with cynicism. There are some folks out there who seem to think that cynics are pessimistic, too. (Read Effing the Ineffable for an idea of what I'm trying to say. I think these folks who call themselves cynical were just stuck with the label because no other one would fit quite as well.)

Just on a lark, I went to Merriam-Webster online to look up cynic, and got the definition to which I just linked.