THE SMUG
Once a noxious smug spread from sea to shining sea. There had been smug attacks in the past, periods of time when the well-being of large segments of the population was imperiled, but this particular smug was thicker and more widespread than any in recent memory. A smug so dense as to make it difficult for many people to see beyond the tips of their noses. Nor was this a temporary smug, a passing phenomenon that might be expected to dissipate with time. By all accounts, it had been gathering over the course of many years, while computer projections suggested it might continue doing the same well into the future and come to affect every aspect of life in what some termed “a 100-year smug event.” Those likely to find themselves victims of this oppressive smug were, as might be expected, the most vulnerable members of society: the old, the sick, the impoverished, and the very young, who were perhaps the most at risk because they would be suffering the consequences of the smug longest. Of course, there were also those who had the good fortune to enjoy a life far above the street-level suffering. “If they don’t like their situation down below,” these more fortunate ones would often say to each another, “what’s keeping them from pulling themselves up by the bootstraps and earning the right to join us here, where the air is sweet and clear and you can see as far as anybody’d ever want to? The view from up here is truly something to behold. A shining promise of the good life open to all who seize it.” Seen from on high, the dense layer of smug settling down over all that lay below inspired many such declarations. But mostly the talk was of the fairytale tableau cast each day by the setting sun as it filled penthouse after penthouse with its reassuring glow. “It’s sad how people down there just don’t seem to have what it takes to join us up here,” those who were above it all might remark over cocktails as they sat and looked out at the rosy world before them. “But now, whose fault is that, I ask you?”
Copyright © 2020 by Geoffrey Grosshans