So I've been thinking over the last few days about cynicism and how infectious it has become. It is perhaps the leading cause of feeling down and doubtful and it is caused by the unavoidable toxin known as the bad experience. What happened to the belief that everything will work out for the best and that each of us will get a Walt Disney company patented happily ever after? That romance isn't dead? That we will find the one person we are supposed to spend our lives with in some mystical 'meeting under a yellow umbrella' so to speak? You only have to look at the number of people signing up to dating websites and taking up speed dating to see, the belief that 'the one' will find you is about as dead as the proverbial dodo. So what is it that's driving this cynicism? Is it that now more than ever we are seeing love fall apart in the way of our own parents as divorce rates hit an all time high? Is it that we are now becoming more afraid than ever of becoming the crazy lady down the street who owns 40 cats and can't leave the house in case she misses the latest episode of 'Coronation street'? Or is it just that in a world where we are more and more exposed to death, disease, heartbreak and beautiful people getting plastic surgery they really don't need in the media we simply cannot believe that good things really do happen, or that if they do happen, that they will last? It seems as though even when everything is going perfectly in my life I'm still bracing myself for the next disaster, the next obstacle, the next pimple.
I mean, in a way you can kind of blame the Writers of the Walt Disney company for raising the hopes of little girls everywhere that they will meet a 'prince charming'. We grow up waiting for that guy, and does he ever turn up, blonde locks flowing in the wind on horseback with a tub of Ben and Jerry's cookie dough ice cream? Uh... I think not. It would seem that being cynical serves as defence, so that when you discover the person you have feelings for isn't prince charming, you sigh, feel sorry for yourself for a few days and then accept that everyone has problems and baggage and carry on. It would seem that women nowadays are finding themselves not expecting romance, this is great in some ways because when it does happen, the surprise you feel is fantastic. However, if that special person never does make the effort we simply accept it and keep on going, whereas perhaps less than a hundred years ago, women in that position would have turned on one heel and walked away with sassy swag not settling. But can we really blame men for a lack of either acting like a gentleman or being romantic if we don't expect it? I mean if we heard a man expected us to be in the kitchen making him a sandwich he would get a swift slap around the back of the head right?
Times are changing and yet we still find ourselves longing for that olden day courting which is somehow lost, someone to open doors and pull out chairs. For everyone out there thinking this I say, open your own doors, pull out your own chair and stop expecting prince charming to ride up on a white steed and save you. Get out YOUR broad sword and start hacking! Don't be the damsel in distress and don't settle for less than makes you happy. Maybe it isn't cynicism that's gripping this world, but rather the acceptance that we are all responsible for ourselves and our future and that we can't just sit around waiting for life to happen:WE have to make it happen.
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