#epicaricacy

how are the two little ones I sent you holding up?

oh, and btw, Wraith isn't my domain, they're like Hatred's apparitions, my domain is called Schadenfreude

I said Wraith because they were wandering around one, and they don't have names, unlike Hatred's apparitions apparently.

@buildingabetterfuture has- (what were they called again?) Staph and Strep (did I say that right?) as names for two of the apparitions and the others might also have names

Wraiths don't have names because there is no point in having them

-Epicaricacy

They're doin' great!! Clingy—but that's okay!!

When people wrong us

Or they hurt us,

We can be quick to anger

Or hatred.

It's only natural.

We are human after all.

We like to accuse them of heinous things.

We say they are soulless.

Without empathy

Or compassion.

We say these are the kinds of people

Who take pleasure in others suffering.

I have to ask,

However,

Who is that person?

How are they made?

Who were their parents?

Their kindergarten teacher?

Their first best friend?

What is a human being

Who delights in the pain of others?

Is it even possible?

I find I spend many hours in my own head,

Trying to understand even the most vile acts

A human can commit.

Why did they do it?

How did they do it?

What drove them to this?

For better or for worse,

I can usually find an answer.

Through all different evil,

And all different deeds.

I see many different reasons.

However,

All have just one thing in common.

They believed they were right.

My father always told me growing up,

Everyone belives they are the hero of their own story,

Once you understand that,

It becomes easier to cope with reality.

And he could be more right.

Humans are ripe with protagonist syndrome.

We are all guilty of it.

That hubris.

That egocentricity.

It's difficult for me to believe,

That a person who commits to their actions,

With conviction and with surety,

Can believe they are evil.

Can deliberately hurt another person for the sake of pleasure.

Could they do what they believe they must,

In order to achieve their own personal goals?

Absolutely.

But ultimately,

They believe they are doing right.

Maybe they believe they are doing right for themselves and no one else,

But it seems to me that person would claim

That there is nothing wrong with helping ones own self.

Humans fundamentally want to be right,

If not good.

No one would go around being evil,

And saying they are evil,

And hurting others,

Just for kicks.

It's more than possible that I'm wrong,

Naive to the world,

Nothing but a hopeful child,

Not yet ready to leave my idyllic fantasies,

And embrace the pessimism of adulthood.

But even so,

I'll continue to believe,

That despite all the evil in the world,

Most humans are fundamentally good,

And no one does bad things

A couple argue. He or she looks back as he or she leaves the room and says something sparkling with a four letter dash of venom. That is the last sting of the dead jellyfish. Two men fight. One knocks the other to the ground and puts the boot in. That is the last sting of the dead jellyfish. Edward James, the surrealist collector who commissioned Salvador Dalí to make the lobster telephone, had…

If you like the word Schadenfreude but lament that it doesn’t exist in English, fear not! For there is a word in English that means the exact same thing: epicaricacy.