At the risk of calling out the trolls, I will post this anyway. I just wish you to read this well thought out response to the question of gun control on many people's minds. I read it all the way through and I agree with nearly all of it. It has made me reconsider several stances I had on guns. I encourage you to read it and consider carefully what it says.
Who knows where the cold wind blows? I asked my friends but nobody knows. Who am I to believe in love? Love ain't no stranger. I am not going to lie to you: this year, as a whole, sucked. It was a colossal waste of my life. I spent it in fear and pain, in loss and grieving for someone I never met, and have been left at the end with a fairly bleak financial future and more weight than I would like. If I ever could have a year to live over, this would be the one, as long I had the knowledge of how one moment would go. But, would something else have happened to make it happen this way regardless? It is likely many of you would say yes and others no, but not of you would have any fact to back it up. I will remain firmly entrenched in I don't care, since I can't know. That is my faith, and as nihlistic as it may sound, it serves me. Just as your faith serves you. I certainly hope I am understood. As I ponder the end of this largely pathetic year, I once again must take stock in what I am leaving behind. I will lay it out, as best I can, and I will try not to make you cry. Too much.
It is hard enough to grieve. Even harder, to accept that someone is gone and then move on. That moment when you blow out the candle for that last time, to know that you will never see them again, is profound. I have only had to do it a few times that are significant, but I have. What brings this to the front of my mind is an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The episode is about a quelled rebellion on the surface, but it begins and ends with a candle.
So, every once in a while, I search for people I knew when I was younger. In particular, a woman I once knew as a young man. Most days, I lose an hour searching and I don't find her. Until today.
It seems that when it rains it pours. My spirits are still high, but I am now accustomed to things just not working out. I am looking forward to the time when all of this is over, but I am also trying to learn any new things I can get away with from this situation. Here is a summary of some of the things I learned, in brain dump fashion. Ready, GO!