“I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code.” ~ Emo Phillips
It’s hard to be a cynic without indulging in paranoia on occasion.
The cynic grows to expect the worst in everything. He justifies his failure to assume responsibility for his best expression with a well-fortified set of jaded expectations. He reasons internally: “Why should I care or try when I am quite sure that those around me won’t?”
When, however, you make a commitment to expressing only your highest and finest, your personal attitudes toward the world change dramatically. As a result, something magical begins to happen. The best in those around you flows toward you as the best in you moves outward toward them.
Sure you will be disappointed by others on occasion, but the rush you get when the best in you meets the best in others will put such let-downs into perspective. The internal shift in personal attitude will liberate you and those around you from the small boxes of your own making, thereby invalidating the prejudice of paranoia.
Gregory Hake 
haha for the quote, and thumbs up for the sage advice in this post
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It is good to recognize we do not live in a hostile universe that we live in a continually exquisitely interacting creative one that is safe and radiant at its core. Obviously there is a need for individuals and masses of people to know this and ultimately be an expression of it. I hear a call through your words to play my part that a call may go out for those teetering on the brink between insanity and sanity to hear and feel the nature of the words “peace be still all is well”.
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Paranoia is a form of concentrated self-concern that often intensifies into full-blown hallucinatory delusion. In the extreme circumstances it can be a terrible challenge for others to handle, but always where there is intensified self-concern there will be a degree of illusion, and there is really no way to deal adequately with something that doesn’t exist!
For most of us the extent of paranoid delusion may be relatively limited, but it is well to remember that intensified self-concern will always produce elements of illusion, generating problems in varying degrees for ourselves and others. Your post points wisely to the under-rated ability of cynicism to distort and destroy.
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A refreshing vision, coupled with a powerful reminder, wrapped up in the spirit of adventure, comes rushing in, as my imagination is captivated by the thought of what happens when best meets best! It certainly equates to memories worth revisiting, a future that has endless possibilities, and a moment ripe with the opportunity to “make it so”.
Thank-you
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Loved your comment!
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It is a truth that you pull towards you that which you put out into the world. Put out cynicism, and you find that it was justified. Put out a life of service an helpfulness, and you will find that was justified as well. Now, they are both not the truth of the world, but when you create filters you see everything through them and not necessarily what is true. Cynicism is a filter that makes the world look cold, bleak, and unforgiving.
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Funny quote. I think paranoia is one of the visitations of cynacism. The old ” if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Both are unbecoming and tend to spoil all the person sets out to do…and so it goes, they perhaps feel …I knew it!
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LOL a the quote! The cynic also thinks that in any interaction, that everyone is scheming to “get” them or seeking to find ways to make them fail.
If cynicism has been your “thing,” I’d recommend reading these posts, quit that strategy and take a chance that “magic” can happen for you!
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I believe in “Magic”…in fact my belief has been restored by a close 3 year old friend who believes that anything is possible, anything can be done, and that the world is our playground to create. Great to have such wise friends around to remind us “adults” of the beauty in living.
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Thanks you two, just had that song pop in my head…..”Do you be-lieve in Ma-gic”
And yes I do! How could ya not, with so much evidence of it everywhere! Inside and out.
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