Crucial Minutiae

NOTE: There’s a specific request for comments below, and I’d love more than anything to hear from new commenters, so please read below the cut so you can fulfill my desire!

Last week’s post was written from my desk in our Brooklyn apartment, which was still full of our earthly belongings. Today’s post is written from my friend’s Manhattan apartment, where my workspace essentials are packed into a clear plastic tote and I’m using some random wifi signal. It’s been a wild week.

And it’s gotten me thinking, once again, about the way beauty and wickedness intersect in human behavior. I’m not a mathematician, so I can’t work up an official calculation or formula for this theory. (Perhaps Ethan might be able to?)

But I believe that for every wicked action in the world, there are at least two beautiful actions. The beautiful actions might not follow immediately, though many do, nor might they even be directly related to the wicked action, though many are.

–An Example, Taken From Recent Personal Events–
WICKED: A greedy, manipulative landlord prices a young couple out of their apartment with an illegal 15 days’ notice, then avoids their phone calls for nine days as they try to negotiate for a proper 30 days’ notice. When the couple finally reaches him on his cell phone, he yells at them for calling on said phone. The landlord’s erratic behavior and previous threats of violence upon them make the couple decide to bite the bullet and move out quickly.

BEAUTIFUL: No less than eight of the couples’ dear friends offer to pitch in and help them pack their home into storage in six days. This includes a friend who takes the bus down from Boston to stay with the couple for four days to keep their spirits up and lift countless boxes of books. Two good friends offer their homes to the couple for two weeks while they get their feet back under them and figure out what’s next. (Thank you, beautiful and generous people. You know who you are. You are the reason I’m sitting in this window-seat, alive and relatively well.)

Maybe it’s a testament to human persistence and tenacity, that we will all make the best of every situation we encounter. I think of major tragedies, like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Wicked action: the government fails to fully support the devastated residents of New Orleans. Beautiful action: many U.S. citizens flock to New Orleans to offer their two hands to help with rescue and disaster-abatement efforts. Some people might give the wicked action more weight, and in some cases, that might be appropriate. But we must be fair to the story’s full complexity — both actions must be considered.

Okay, here’s the interactive part. Tell me a story from your life where a wicked action was followed by a beautiful action, no matter how large or small.

I especially want to hear from new people I haven’t yet met, you readers who might feel shy to respond sometimes. I know that you’ve got some beautiful stories to tell.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 9:53 am and is filed under Career/Life, Relationships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.