Cost-Benefit Analysis

I don't understand why pavements have to be made of marble or shiny tiles that get wet within the first five seconds of tropical rain and turn into deathtraps of slippery evil for pedestrians.

My mind was wandering as I listened to music (it tends to). The world would be a somewhat kinder place if we all submitted to that naive impulse to give the benefit of the doubt to our fellow human beings. For example - who knows if that irritating frog-like lady on the subway who kept treading on your toes is actually a war widow who spends her Saturday afternoons helping young children at church? No matter - it's incredibly difficult to find the goodness in everyone - tedious and pretentious, some might say - but worth a try nonetheless, as a goal in itself.

I sometimes wonder how much of our destiny is truly ours to shape - so many different faculties could have been developed in different ways if only a mentor, teacher or friend had influenced us in alternative ways. You can look back and wonder whether or why, but hindsight isn't much of a clue to the future.
Teachers are really, really powerful people - but then perhaps I'm just giving them the benefit of the doubt.