Aldetheiss sat on the park bench, dark hair cascading down her shoulders and around her arms which hugged her legs, pulled up to her chest. She was obvliously to the paint which was beginning to chip and peel beneath her. She was not oblivious, however, to the people frolicking around her, the bigs singing in the trees, and the sounds of city life outside of the park. Before she might have thought of it all as air wave pollution, noise, but not now. Aldetheiss had a new view on the world, she thought, as she watched a group of boys playing football a ways away. A darkhair boy tackled another one with lighter hair, who was much smaller built; she held her breath expecting the smaller boy to say or do something to initiate a scuffle, or at least appear angry but after a few friend slaps on the back, the boys were back to playing their game. While people might be a little preoccupied with themselves, it wasn’t because of their egos or ignorance, rather it was simply existance, survival, however different it might be from Darwin’s definition. Man could no longer build his own house from the trees outside and fish or hunt to support his family, while his wife tended to her garden and watched the children. Life was much more complicated and as such, so was surival. Survival meant education to obtain a career in order to earn money and in that way provide for one’s family. survival sometimes depended upon social status and celebrity. An outsider might mistake this for greed or something more sinful than that, but all it really is, is survival. From the distance, one might mark this as disregard for mankind or selfishness, but in her short time among humans, Aldetheiss had come to realize that most were kindhearted and would help out another soul if it was in their power to do so. Besides, when one dedicated one’s life to helping others but in return sacrificed one’s own life, it all too often wound up in lessening the value of everyone’s life. Only by being the best one could be, could one help others and this was certainly not greedy nor selfish. Sure, some humans were greedy, selfish, vile, corrupt and all around evil, but you can’t judge the whole by the actions of a minority. Aldetheiss knew that prisons and other institutions were full of criminals “serving their time” but she speculated that many of those peple fell into those lifestyles for lack of anything else to do or anywhere else to turn. Were everyone given a better chance, had they stumbled upon better luck or had they someone to teach them right from wrong in the first place, these places wouldn’t be quite so populated. Unfortunately, after many of those poor souls would be released, a majority of them would wind right back up in the “slammer”; once behaviour like that becomes second nature, it would be difficult to try to change, Aldetheiss surmised. Still, the majority would good and kind souled, willing to help out others, even if it wasn’t just for the sake of being good. Aldetheiss had seen just as many return wallets and she had seen purse thieves. There were those who lived by the cliche “fingers keepers” but there were also men and women who were eager to return others’ possessions and, in times of need, families and communities pulled together to help eachother cope and survive. As Aldetheiss gazed out at the park, she saw a young couple walking hand in hand, pushing a stroller. He smiled at her as she looked lovingly down at the babe who, Aldetheiss imagined, grinned and cooed at the attention. No, it was not noise pollution or corruption which Aldetheiss saw now, it was life and life was well worth living she thought.
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