On these interminable commutes home, truly random thoughts will pop into my head, sometimes riffing off of something my iPod decided to play. I’m not even sure what song it was that prompted these ideas, but now I kind of want to write ti down and see if I can fit it into some story I might write some day:

True, “We’ll survive, or we won’t” does cover all the probable outcomes, but I’m not sure everyone can really imagine all the possible states of survival. It does not necessarily follow that “survival” is always greater than “not survival”. I tend to believe that there are really states of survival that are worse than not surviving at all.

Sure, I’m pessimistic at heart, but I’ve seen some awful things in my short life. Not horrific atrocities that twists your guts to make you wretch, that turn pious men against God, that drive men insane, but fuel enough for a lifetime of typical nightmares, the kind that make you wake up in a cold sweat, glad that it was just a dream, about some minor horror that has long ago passed.

But I know enough that what I’ve seen isn’t the worst that can happen. But there’s no need to imagine worst case scenarios.