Was he also, in his heart, cynical? So many people nowadays were. No one seemed satisfied, and Wilhelm was especially horrified by the cynicism of successful people. Cynicism was bread and meat to everyone. And irony, too. Maybe it couldn’t be helped. It was probably even necessary. Wilhelm, however, feared it intensely. Whenever at the end of the day he was unusually fatigued he attributed it to cynicism. Too much of the world’s business done. Too much falsity. He had various words to express the effect this had on him. Chicken! Unclean! Congestion! He exclaimed in his heart. Rat race! Phony! Murder! Play the Game! Buggers!

From “Seize the Day” by Saul Bellow

I enjoy Saul Bellow’s way of presenting his stories—full of insights and philosophical views. I would have enjoyed meeting the man. He could dissect his contemporary society and look at the ugly side like a surgeon the puss gushing out of a pierced abscess: “No one seemed satisfied, and Wilhelm was especially horrified by the cynicism of successful people. Cynicism was bread and meat to everyone. And irony, too. Maybe it couldn’t be helped. It was probably even necessary.”  There is so much cutthroat competition out there.  But I say to you. Do not compete with others, but with yourself. Challenge yourself to excel more and more every day.