No safe bets

To give something of one’s self can be both ironically selfish and simultaneously courageous. Why is that? Life among other people is a constant exchange, and our transactions can be absurdly unequal. We give anger for sympathy, empty encouragement for vulnerability. Perhaps the worst exchange is unrequited love. To be hated is one thing, especially when we know that we are undeserving of such feelings. But to give love and receive anything less is truly despairing. For that there is rarely consolation, and a person may seek desperately for an explanation, all in vain. That we may never understand. In our ignorance we anticipate a fair economic system, yet experience will teach us that reality is anything but ideal. There are no safe bets.