"Living in the modern age, death for virtue is the wage. So it seems in darker hours. Evil wins, kindness cowers." - The Book of Counted Sorrows

In Plato's Phaedo, Socrates defines the misanthrope in relation to his fellow man: "Misanthropy develops when without art one puts complete trust in somebody thinking the man absolutely true and sound and reliable and then a little later discovers him to be bad and unreliable ... and when it happens to someone often ... he ends up ... hating everyone."

I spent a lot of years being rather misanthropic.  And yet, still put myself out there, over and over again. I guess because I’ve never believed that most people are bad at their core. Good people make bad decisions. Good people hurt you. Good people let you down, shatter you, make you question yourself. It’s a sad fact, but human nature is so self-absorbed that this commonality is, well, common. That doesn’t make the people bad, just selfish.

In the vein of being selfish, we tend to wrap ourselves up in this idea of getting to our goal, to reaching the next level, to find happiness around the next corner. I live in suburban hell. I’m surrounded by people who make their goal in life to have the perfect yard, the right car, being super involved in the PTA, competing with the neighbors in nearly everything… And all I see is a group of people working really hard to build this façade of a life while forgetting to live.  I work for my weekends. I am not ashamed of it. I like my job, I enjoy being there, and I’m good at it. But, I love that I do it for a few days, then turn it all off and go play. I refuse to waste that precious time trying to perfect my lawn, making polite conversation with neighbors who don’t actually matter to me, or running from one thing to the next. Today is the only one I get, and I’m not going to miss it while preparing for the next one.

Something compelled me to watch a movie recently. Just a random flick in my Netflix queue, but for an unknown reason, I felt the urge to watch. Stuck In Love is a lovely film very much in the same sort of a vein as Crazy Stupid Love, but is so much better written and acted.  This is a beautiful film which had me hooked from the opening line.  Moments in, one of the lead characters spouts this lovely little monologue, and I felt like I should be taking notes.

“I never enjoy anything. I’m always waiting for whatever’s next. I think everyone’s like that. Living life in fast forward. Never stopping to enjoy the moment. Too busy trying to rush through everything so we can get on with what we are really supposed to be doing with our lives. I get these flashes of brilliant clarity where for a second I stop and I think “Wait, this is it, this is my life. I better slow down and enjoy it because one day we’re all going to end up in the ground and that’ll be it, we’ll be gone”
― Samantha Borgens, Stuck In Love

I’ve done just that. I’ve slowed down and learned to enjoy it. I’m learning to let go of my misanthropic ways and try to believe in the good in people. Sure, I get let down. Sure, people hurt me, make foolish decisions and remind me how I started being that way in the first place. It happens all the time. But, I choose to make a conscious effort at not letting that change me. I choose to live my days in the manner which best suits me, and try not to worry about how to get to the next part.

Stuck In Love is a misanthropist's romance film, encapsulating the world of we bibliophiles. It's lovely and poignant. Poetic. This is, for me, the best love story since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This is perfection wrapped up in film.