And the world spins madly on.

I was talking to a younger girl (by "younger" I simply mean pre-teen) today... one of those sweet girls from a sweet family who I've known since she was practically a baby. Lately I've realized that girls that age (especially whose families I've known for a while) tend to really like me and hang around me; which, of course, means that I've got to be a bit more careful than usual about what I say and such. But anyhow - this girl was talking to me about what's been going on with her lately, and then she lowered her voice and told me something that that has been worrying her lately: "I think I'm a cynical person sometimes," she said. "You and the older girls are so cool - you know what you're doing... but people my age... I just don't like them much."

At first I just wanted to be like, "Kid, get used to it." Then the second thing I thought of was, ha, I know what I'm doing? (I'm a better actor than I thought.) Followed closely by: if this girl - this adorable, perky, wonderful little Christian girl - is cynical, then what does that make me?

For some reason it really bothered me. I've never really thought of cynicism as a bad thing... at least, not something worth worrying about and trying to fix. Most of the time I'd rather be cynical than disappointed. But this girl was so concerned about becoming a cynical person. Granted, she was horribly wrong about me and the "older girls" - we don't know what we're doing. (Well, maybe they do, but I certainly don't, anyway.) But I think in the particular area of views on cynicism, she's right: it isn't something to be comfortable with; certainly not something to be proud of. It's odd; I feel almost guilty about what she said... and maybe a little disappointed that I don't really have it all "worked out" like I apparently seem to. Maybe that's how it's always been with the people we look up to... I wonder if anybody ever did have things figured out by the time people took to noticing them.