"Life's not fair."

My mother used to say that a lot, she still does from time to time; it's typical Western Irish pessimism I guess. I used to dismiss it as a lie of convenient function, just like "Eat your broccoli or the boogeyman will get you" and "If you watch too much television you'll get square eyes"; you know, one of those things parents say when the truth would take too much effort to explain. However, I'm beginning to suspect that in this particular instance my darling mother was genuinely trying to clue me in to a fundamental and inalienable fact of life.

The best of people, it seems, are burdened with the worst of fortunes. What's more, everywhere the wicked and the selfish prosper, carried on the backs of those who don't know any better. The price of goodness is suffering, and any philanthropic endeavour is likely to end in at best, failure or at worst, tragedy. Often such attempts to further the cause of good in the world are thwarted by their intended beneficiaries, who are bound by ignorance and a fear of change.

Perhaps western religion's fixation with the achievement of eternal happiness in the next life is a subtle indication that the grail of lasting contentment is unattainable in this world.

You try to do a good thing for a good person and very often both parties will end up worse off for it. So sometimes I can't help but wonder why we bother at all; what's the point? Why work towards anything when we constantly undermine ourselves? Why try to do good when selfish motives yield better things?

Perhaps the cruellest truth of all is that such notions as 'good' and 'fair' have never been anything more than romantic ideals which we cling to for fear of what our lives would be like were they devoid of the dream of something better.