The two teenage boys sat pondering the state of the world.
Well, at least one of them was doing that, the other just listened. The older boy had always kept up with world affairs, the other didn’t. Generally speaking, the older boy was not happy with life. He felt that the whole world was going to pot. He felt that all the pointers were there; he saw the indicators. Today, he was particularly morose.
“Just think about it,” he was saying, “there’s climate change, terrorism, earthquakes, drunk driving, poverty, abuse of animals, and racism, just to mention a few”.
“A few?” said the other.
“Of course, there’s the refugee crisis, the increase in global warming, illegal immigration’s on the rise, the rates of depression are climbing, there’s pornography wherever you look, there are growing unemployment figures, worsening obesity, rampant drug abuse, Kaitlyn’s leaving, there’s the problem of world population growth, there are religious radicals, and, of course, there’s the global issue of income disparity.”
“Wow! Hang on, who’s Kaitlyn?”
“The girl next door.”
“She’s leaving?”
“Yep. She tried asking her parents to stay here. It didn’t work.”
“OK. You’re right. Everything sucks.”