A cup of Joe.

I am sitting here staring at this blank computer screen with no inspiration except a cup of the world's worst coffee. I'm serious, too. This java is rank. I've traveled a good bit and I rate this percolated monstrosity right up there with the stuff I drank in Port Au Prince last summer. Hey... wait a sec...

Maybe I could write about what it was like in Haiti last year and how I had never seen a country so utterly devastated yet still found many people so full of hope. Hope. Let's talk about that, instead. That's a neat little topic.

A long time ago there was a man from the Near Ancient East who called hope one of the three greatest attributes to humanity. Hope is an idea that looks into an abyss and sees a ray of light. It quells rationality and replaces it with the thought that things might get better. Okay, now perhaps I'm onto something: better.

For a thing to be 'better' there has to be a comparison to something that is not as good. It implies two (at a minimum) objects can be looked at objectively.... Oh! Objectivity. There's something to muse about. Now we're getting somewhere, aren't we?

If I am objective then I can divorce myself from any emotions that would try to creep into my life. Objectivity affords me the opportunity to go about my day and function rather than feel. This is so much better than having to face the issues that would require me to make the subtle changes... empathy over sympathy. Concern instead of condescension. Algerian author Albert Camus once said, "There is no possible salvation for the man who feels true compassion."

I, however, could just really use another cup of coffee. It's easier that way.