On Things I'd Rather Not Leave Out Pt.IV: Condemnation

Still during the varsity holidays - before things became busy but while I was still working on certain things - I bought Choke, the only Chuck Palahniuk missing from my collection (excluding the two not yet available in South Africa). With the exception of Survivor, it turned out like the rest of his books, entertaining and thought-provoking. I was struck by a passage that seemed to describe a similar point in my own life:

"I've defined myself, all my life, by what I was against. I fought against everything, but more and more I worry that I was never for anything. I can criticise and complain and judge everything, but what does that get me? Griping isn't the same as creating something. Rebelling isn't rebuilding. Ridiculing isn't replacing. We've taken the world apart but we have no idea what to do with the pieces. My generation , all of our making fun of things isn't making the world any better. We've spent so much time judging what other people have created that we've created very little of our own. We use criticism as a fake participation. It only looks as though we've accompished something. I've never contributed anything worthwhile to the world."

I have received the money from my work at varsity but I have yet to make a donation to the "Asian Tsunami©®" disaster. I am saving up for an iPod. This passage has pushed me to be a little more like Jess - empathetic to others (more than usual). I don't know how much it will help since the media's global "disaster of the week" slot has been taken up by the Pope's sad departure, but I will make a donation soon.