A sense of desperation reeks badly; it has a distinct smell all its own and, rest assured, that smell isn’t a pleasant one! One can identify its sickening odor from five miles away, little different than a dead deer that has been lying in a roadside ditch for three straight days in blistering heat and now affords a luxe dinner for competing flocks of squawking crows and leering turkey vultures. So don’t ever allow yourself to reach this precarious juncture; don’t ever allow any plight you might be experiencing to become so transparent that others can readily notice it. Because if you do—If you broadcast through your words, demeanor, and body language that you’re experiencing especially tough times—expect every degree of abuse, retribution, and exploitation to cascade down upon you from outside parties, both known enemies along with seemingly perfect strangers. Why? Well, because quite simply natural selection never stops working—not at the lowest levels of protozoans, not at intermediate levels of predatory mammals, and not at the highest, most sophisticated levels of hominid interaction either. Unfortunate that this is the case, I guess, but pay absolute homage to the following truism in light of the fact it remains relevant for all time: Vulnerability begets dominion—once, now, and forever.
