In These Seconds

    “So—” said Billy gropingly, “I suppose that the idea of preventing war on Earth is stupid, too.”
    “Of course.”
    “But you do have a peaceful planet here.”
    “Today we do. On other days we have wars as horrible as any you’ve ever seen or read about. There isn’t anything we can do about them, so we simply don’t look at them. We ignore them. We spend eternity looking at pleasant moments—like today at the zoo. Isn’t this a nice moment?”
    “Yes.”
    “That’s one thing Earthlings might learn to do, if they tried hard enough: Ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones.”