It’s easier to destroy than to create. That’s fairly obvious, I would like to think. But here’s the thing, and this ties into a whole bunch of shit so this might be rambling as all hell, it must not be obvious. Or people just don’t give enough of a fuck to work for it.

Because all around I see people dipping into the negative attack approach. As a default, as a way to get response, as a way to entertain and prove how smart and witty they are. It’s kinda pathetic, really.

Sure, you can decide you don’t like something. But when you start insulting it up and down the chain because you didn’t like it and refuse to be open to the concept that anyone could ever like it just because you don’t? You’re a dick.

Hope is a good thing. Being positive is a good thing. Seriously.

Where’s the harm in being honest? If something isn’t for you, then it isn’t. Maybe you feel it is the worst thing ever written/filmed/recorded but obviously other people don’t. Is it that impossible to honestly approach it and see what they see in it, even if it isn’t for you? And to then be honest about it and instead of cutting everything down back off for a second and look for the decent side?

Naw, that’s too much like work, I guess. I expect too much of people, I know.

But in my writing I focus on hope, on love and on the concept that the human spirit is one bad-ass cool fucking weapon. Bad things still happen to good people. People lose, get hurt, get fucked over and everything else in the spectrum of human experience. But it never eliminates hope and love and willpower, even when they are twisted, they still exist and exert a pull over everything.

I write, like all writers, my ideal world. It doesn’t mean a land of rainbows and unicorn farts, it just means that when I write I create universes where these are the cardinal ruling forces.

But I would feel like a hypocrite if I spent a ton of my time and career pushing a world view I didn’t push in my personal life as well. I want it all, you see. And so I say to you now: Hope is cool. Feeling good is cool. Being happy is also cool.

Life is made of the good and the bad and it is easier to remember the bad - it has a bigger footprint in our lives, most times. But when you have five bad things and two really good ones happen shouldn’t you focus on the two instead of the five? What do you gain by dwelling on the bad shit and letting it eat you alive and color your focus? What’s the upside? And that isn’t to say no one should ever be negative, either. People have to process things and sometimes negative helps you refocus. In short bursts. To resort the stuff going on. Sure. Negative can even be healthy. Just not as a long term, every day solution.

And yeah it is harder to focus on the upside and no one gets it right all the time. That’s human. But I just don’t get why people don’t try more. Why they’re content to make themselves suffer, to spread bullshit and hate and negativity around like it somehow made them nice to be around. It doesn’t. It’s weak and easy and sad.

Which isn’t to say that nothing is ever bad. Oh no, there are many things that are just bad. Others may still like them, but they’re bad - badly done in ways that are less opinion and more craft related. Even they tend to have an upside. Is it terrible to take the time to point it out and not spew venom over everything?

I dunno. I am a cynic a lot of the time, and a bastard and sometimes just plain mean. I am also hopeful and try every day to do a little better by the universe and myself. To work a bit harder, have more fun (that is my major life goal, for the record: have more fun every year than I did the previous year) and get to where I’m going.

That dichotomy isn’t bad, it isn’t a deal-breaker, it just means you have to learn that being hopeful and letting yourself explain things doesn’t mean you can’t also go and laugh at a baby falling on its face. Trust me, you can. I have.

I guess I just don’t understand it. I hear friends tell me that things are going bad, but when you tally it they seem to skip the good things as never that good and the bad is always that bad. The same with reviews of movies and books (and I intend to do a post about how I review books soon) and so on.

My life is far from perfect. Very far in fact. But I love it, enjoy it and have fun. And I keep at it, and keep pushing myself. If I don’t what are my options? Sitting where I am, never moving, only bitching that other people are? That doesn’t feel like it’s worth spending a life on.

I work all the time, day job and writing all night. I am always busy, I get frustrated with it and want to snap and start screaming at least once a month. I never have enough time to do everything I want to do and can barely keep up sometimes. I still make time to relax, at least once a week, and I pay for that. How much would it suck if this weren’t my life? I would be bored. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. So I work to fine the enjoyment in everything I do, and make the most out of it.

It’s harder to create than it is to destroy. But creating is fuckloads more fun.