Good times

If you live in a world of selfish disregard for yourself and others, you don't see it. You don't see the sideways looks, exasperated sighs, or veiled references of general disgust. Simply put...recognition of your selfishness spells its doom. And who wants to give up on living a life just for himself?

It is only when you take a moment to look around and assess what's really going on that you start to notice that all the good times aren't quite as good as you're imagining. Oh, they were at one time, when good times came at a premium and were seperated by the mundane on a routine basis. But sometime between then and now, you're starting to realize that good times all the time really equate to one thing...a bad time.

Still...you don't want to admit it. How in the world, after living good times so long, could good times actually equal bad times? It just doesn't make sense. So, you rationalize. I deserve my selfishness. I earn it. After a while, though, even those rationalizations start to ring a little hollow. And then its time to start figuring things out.

So, you spend a few weeks evaluating the situation. Where, exactly, did things go so wrong? How did it all get out of hand so quickly? And most importantly, is there any way to salvage future good times?

The quick evaluation ends up like this: Things are messed up, they gotta be fixed, and there has to be some way to fix them.

The longer term evaluation and solution takes a little more explanation: Things are messed up, they gotta be fixed, and here's how we're going to fix them. To appreciate the good times, one must accept that good times--the truly good times and not the manufactured good times--do not happen all the time.
continued below