QUOTE : Cynicism is evidence of having given up and given in. Cynicism is calcified anger. Cynicism is your once-tender heart now calloused and hardened. Cynicism looks like strata of sedimentary rock, each layer of protective distance compressing and solidifying the layer beneath-distance from your pain, distance from others' suffering, distance from the possibility that things might be more complicated than they seem on the surface. Cynicism feels like spiritual Novocain, numbing your whole range of deeply human emotion, because those feelings reflect frightening vulnerability and open up the possibility of yet more disappointment.