In the can? Yeah, probably.

And so I began my temporary employment. The actual location is not the most secure in town, and its clients are not the most upstanding. In fact, this is an area of town in which certain of its residents are not so modest they use euphemisms for having been sent to prison, and most lack the modesty to keep the reason to themselves.

I am keenly observing The Great Human Experiment and my part in the grand scheme. My fear is that, by the end of my contract, I will have become jaded toward the indigent and cease to care for their plight. I have seen a cynicism that was, at first, rather shocking to me. Unfortunately, after just a few days, that cynicism is slowly beginning to make sense.

How does one break one's heart day in and day out when one is a constant witness to willing failure yet remain whole?

I am not religious; you all know that. I do not believe that one must trust to some higher power in order to find meaning or truth. We are our strength as well as our weakness. When we lose our ability to empathize, when we cease to be affected by the obscene misuse of public trust and funds at the expense of those who are easily and quickly pushed aside by those who misuse our trust, then we cease to be. To lose our connection with those who are left behind by society is to lose our connection with our inner goodness.

And it's clear to me that humanity could use more goodness.