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?