An Open Letter

Dear Guy with the Bumper Sticker that says, “If You’re not Appalled, You’re Not Paying Attention”,

I’ll have you know that I am paying attention and I am not appalled with much. Though your bumper sticker doesn’t direct me to what exactly it is that I am supposed to be appalled with, there is one thing that I find appalling and, if you don’t mind, I would like to tell you now so we can have the open discourse a passing bumper sticker robs us of.

I am appalled at the very idea that I should have to be appalled. Why am I supposed to be gape mouthed appalled simply by matter of paying attention?

Isn’t it okay that I take note of the current condition of things and adjust my personal activity accordingly? Can’t I be informed without the slacked jaw?

If being appalled is a condition one acquires and continues with until things are miraculously improved, I must take a pass. I simply do not have the emotional energy to be appalled.

Call me a pessimist, Mr Guy with the Bumper Sticker that says, “If You’re not Appalled, You’re Not Paying Attention”, but I rather expect that things aren’t going to be going well everywhere all the time. In fact, I am more stunned into a slacked jaw when things go great than I am when things go wrong.

This isn’t Utopia, in case you were misinformed on landing.

Car broke down? Of course it did.

Crazy guy has his finger on the trigger? Exactly.

If I chose to be appalled at this world for being anything less than pretty stinky, I think I might just pass out in a cloud of huff.

Instead, I think I am just going to look at what’s going right, because there is a whole lot of seriously great stuff going on, even in the pits.

Also, please get out of the PASSING LANE if you intend to drive 45 mph. Thank you.

Regards,
Amy