The following “Observations” are excerpted from Chapter 2, We Humans,
Torture wears many faces.
We all see the same things differently.
We err.
What is repressed will emerge.
Wrath returns to its origin.
Quality time together requires
quality time apart.
Sympathy imagines;
empathy knows.
The mind is full of
mischief and glory.
There is no sure thing.
Great accomplishments are more likely
to be heralded by the perceivers than the achievers.
We are all guilty;
we are all innocent.
We especially like what we like
when it’s convenient.
What some find pleasant
others reject.
Youth cannot comprehend its foolishness.
Quick responses are often insecure ones.
The anonymous seek fame;
the famous seek anonymity.
The most mysterious trip
is into another person’s life.
There is not always an alternative.
Trust, the prelude to friendship,
is a first cousin of love.
We are all inextricably human.
We exist in cages
of our own making.
What some make best are excuses.
The morally superior
suffer the morally inferior.
Rare are those both swift of foot
and agile of mind.
The arrogant will taste humility.
The tyranny of the powerful
results in the anarchy of the powerless.
There is often no relationship between
what should be and what is.
Truth humbles.
We are all insecure.
What you do not tell me
I do not know.
Whatever sells
will be sold.
Rare is the one who is not corrupt,
corrupting, and/or corruptible.
The boldest statement can be delivered
in the gentlest question.
The waters of life teem with sharks.
Truth is riveting.
We are all perfectly fallible.
We fluctuate between
rage and love.
When we are needed,
everyone is our friend.
Redundancy numbs.
The clever exploit
the not-so-clever.
We fear rejection.
We are all trying to survive.
We are frightfully self-destructive.
When our credibility vanishes,
so does our audience.
We are always trying
to figure us out.
We justify, rather than resolve,
adversarial relationships.
Where two or more gather,
there will be disagreement.
We are deceived easily.
The higher we climb,
the more elite is the competition.
An ideal society is something we are capable
of defining but not achieving.