Invented Good

Every once in a while there comes a moment when the good you worked so hard to see in someone turns out to be all your own invention. Or maybe that only happens to me because I'm not so good at discerning character? Whatever the case, I seem to have adopted a "see with my own eyes" policy because I can't change my mind about a person until they have, without a shadow of a doubt, proved me wrong. It's actually amazing how good I am at rationalizing behavior (quite elaborately, I might add) and handing out benefit-of-the-doubts like it was my job.