I Doubt It.

Doubt is the tool of tools for the professional pessimist. When times are hard, and optimistic fools, in all of their ignorant glory chant 'Everything is going to be fine', we cynics are able to stand back, shake our heads, and say 'I doubt it'.

Better yet, we almost always have the joy of being able to say 'I told you so', and I assure, this gives endless satisfaction.

I like to think of doubt as a protective type of cloak. You see, it has to be a cloak, because doubt is always described as 'dragging', or 'weighing'...heavy, if you will. So it could never be anything summery.

Anyway.

Shrouded in heavy old doubt, I feel safe from the anguish that it so incidental of hope.

Ah, hope. The wicked antonym. It's a showstopper, to be sure.

Hope should be banned for it's sheer masochistic nature. It's the friend with a well-concealed blade, just waiting for you to turn around. Alas, I stray too far from topic.

I think the real reason I prefer to doubt is because it makes me perpetually right about everything - seriously, what miniscule percent of the things we hope for actually happen? And more to the point, on the rare occasion that hope prevails [snort], one is happy to be proven wrong...yes, even me.

Having said all of this, it is virtually impossible, no matter what one says, to irreverently doubt everything. I have hope for things, even if I doubt the probability of such things ever happening. I don't want to. I just do.

I just had a thought. Maybe it's the other way around?