The greatest irony of them all is that we have to wait for the worst of us to decide to do the right thing, by some stroke of unexpected genius or luck, in order for life to go on and for progress to be made. It is the worst of us who dictate the pace of our progress. And in order to coax the worst into doing right and joining, if only momentarily, the ranks of the rest, we have to do everything at once: love them, hate them, fight them, cajole them, whatever is necessary, each of us in accordance with his/her inner temperament. There is no right or wrong approach beyond that. To each his/her temperament, to each his/her fate, and to all a haphazard becoming where the worst are kings, and the best fodder. (November 5, 2009)