Just random thoughts this Saturday morning after work.

• Trey Givens has a few perspectives on Batman versus Superman. Of their respective home cities he says: I like Superman better than Batman because Gotham is a bad place where good people happen, while Metropolis is a good place where bad people happen.

  Call me a cynic but I tend to take his view too, of the world. The world—the universe—is a dark, dangerous place filled with points of light. It is in those points that we take comfort. To believe that the universe is basically good and that bad things happen to it fills one with little hope and a pressing desire—at least with someone as anal-retentive as myself—to make things right.

  I would rather take comfort in the points of light than having to desperately fight the little clouds that tarnish and otherwise perfect sky. There is little solace in taking the latter perspective.

• Eric the Red has some thoughts on gay marriage from an equality perspective. If we believe that rights are afforded not by men nor governments but as incidents of our humanity, then it is important to realize that the families formed by gays and lesbians are no different in standing nor validity as those of traditional families. They need the same protections these families have. Even if for their children.

  That said, equality by decree tends to take away a society’s opportunity for grace. Rather, choices are made for them, either by their elected representatives or wise men and women in black robes. This of course can stir resentment, no doubt, but how long should an entire group wait, and for what?

  Considering that tolerance demands even greater grace than acceptance, perhaps the last step for willful integration from the side of heterosexuals is for them to tolerate the marriages and families that homosexuals form.

• I’ve dealt with people who are so grossly self-absorbed that I speaking with them is totally draining. A while back I knew someone who got seriously hurt. When our conversation was winding down, I wished him well and a great recovery. His response? Go on, act like you care.

  I was taken aback by his reply, given that it was he who opened up about the details of his recent past, that, rather than countering his gracelessness with my own, I did so with some malice: I take it back. I hope you contract sepsis and die. Have a good life.

  I really don’t know what became of him later on; since I was, in his mind, pretending to care, I might as well make his self-centered fanatsy come true.

• Ever greet someone a Happy Thanksgiving and get the utterly classless reply that they don’t celebrate the holiday?

  Being gracious never really precluded honesty, but just how hard is it to simply say “thanks” and not be a self-centered nitwit?