Opinion | Canaries and Other Critters
Canaries and Other Critters
©2021 by Vernon Miles Kerr, VernonMilesKerr.com
Originally posted as a rough draft to Twitter, August 8, 2021
Today’s #MorningMeditations were again rather negative. “Why was I placed on this Earth so ill-equipped to do much but just observe?” I spurn joining “groups,” maybe because I suck at group interactions.
I think I love humanity, but I detest some individuals. I yearn to say something that will make Earth a happier place, but rather than work things out with individuals, I simply ignore them, write them off, delete them from my consciousness. Isn’t that a form of murder?
Maybe that unhealthy way to resolve interpersonal problems is partly because I hate conflict, per se. It “triggers” me inordinately. I even avoid — or uncomfortably sit through — movies with conflict, especially violent conflict.
Yes, I know — conflict is the crux of literature, isn’t it? That’s why I suck as a writer of fiction. “Plot” in story-telling is the resolution of one conflict after another until some kind of glorious resolution or epiphany is reached. The thought of putting down on paper the part of life I detest is anathema to me — sort of.
My Twitter profile touts “Canary in a coal mine.” What good is a canary when his tweets are at a frequency too low or too high to be detected by human hearing?