Money . . . at one time (a long, long time ago) it didn’t exist and/or was largely unimportant, and those days may well come again.
Someday.
But right now, money is a vital part of most people’s lives. I get that.
But money’s not the only vital thing in life, and it’s just flat out stupid for anyone (be they an individual or a corporation) to make a decision considering only the money factor, lest you find yourself killing your children just to reduce your grocery bill.
As we continue to adapt to L’s presence in our lives, the list of people telling me this is a “magic” time of life continues to grow; not so coincidentally, this list also serves as my “People I should really do a disservice to someday” list.
But as much as people saying this annoys me, they are technically correct . . . technically . . . since “old school” magic, I’m told, does tend to involve a lot of screaming, sacrifice, and spilling of bodily fluids . . .
(Let the record show that I’m not blaming you for this, son; this was all part of the deal. There have already been joys aplenty to balance out the hardships, but it never ceases to amaze me how easily some people, when not actively participating in the hardship portion of something, will dismiss those hardships as irrelevant.)
Ever since L’s arrival, Mom has been on hand to help us with the thousand and one things that needed to be done. Today, however, is the day she headed back home to resume her own life again, and I wanted to give her this candle to guide her on her way and to express our profound thanks.
(See, Mom, I told you I’d be sorry to see you go even after “way too much time together.”)
So I realize it has become a tradition for the President of the United States to be presented with a turkey before Thanksgiving, a turkey which the President then promptly “pardons,” saving it from the Presidential dinner table. Sooner or later though, somebody is going to be sitting in the Oval Office, look at the turkey, and say “Make sure that he’s deep fried.”
When this happens, the implications for the questions perpetually surrounding the topic of capital punishment will be staggering.
Who knows? It might even work out well for this country to adopt the approach of “Only execute those you are willing to eat.” (But if it happens, expect there to be a spike in the obesity rate in Texas . . .)
Naturally that’s just a general rule of thumb since it doesn’t even include, for instance, the devils that masquerade as, and may even believe they are, angels. (See politicians if you need an example.)
For some reason, the topic of “angels” kept being brought up today, so that’s what’s currently on my mind. Now my attitude toward the subject, be it a literal or symbolic one for you, remains the same:
Like a wise tree once said, I’m not entirely on anyone’s side, because no one is entirely on my side. You flat out can’t trust devils because you can’t count on them to do anything . . . not even to consistently act like devils. Angels, on the other hand, you can always trust . . . the problem is I mean that in the sense that you can always trust them to act like angels, first, last, and always, and an angel’s point of view of what is “good” may or may not have any relation to a human definition of “good” (or if that’s too broad for you, my definition at least). (See the slaughter of the first born, if you need an example.)
There’s only two kinds of people in this world, those that make false and arbitrary divisions, and those that don’t.
– Unknown
Sentimentalist that I am, with L’s arrival I find myself with an interesting (to me, at least) new way to consider those people from my past that I still think about.
Some people I find myself vaguely wishing they could be here in person with me right now despite the limitations preventing this, be they physical or social. Some of the physical limitations are of the “corporeal” variety, some are merely of the spatial, but none of those category of wishes for their presence surprised me. Even the wishes for presence limited by social mores didn’t surprise me beyond a mild startle at the realization that I’d have a better chance of overcoming the corporeal difficulties than I would the social ones. (“Hey, I know it’s been years, and I know you have your life and I have mine, and for so many reasons there is no way you can really be a part of this with me despite everything we once meant to each other, and yet . . .”)
What did surprise me was the realization of just how many people from my past that I still miss, but not only would I never want them near L., I am now actively glad they are gone from my life just so that will never be an issue.
Go figure.
Spambots are just a fact of life out here in Twitface Blogspace, so I almost never pay them any mind beyond a wry tip of my hat to those evil enough to try masquerading as someone saying something complimentary about one of my posts.
But the other day the spam filter caught what I thought was nothing more than your standard spambot, perhaps a little more verbose than most, but still nothing special.
Today I received a follow up from the same spambot berating me personally for having the audacity of denying its all important message to the masses . . .
Can Skynet really be that far behind?
They performed a circumcision at the birth center today while I was there for an (unrelated) appointment. Off hand, I’d say in descending order of upset we had the father, the son (who was really upset, but the father (who witnessed the procedure) was still more so, I’d say), and finally, the mother.
Of all the things one can say to a child in an attempt to comfort them after something like that (and that list is real short to be begin with), something that is not on the list is “There, there. Nothing’s wrong.” (Said by the mother.)
Suffice it to say the kindest (and loosest) translation of my thoughts after overhearing that was “Easy for you to say, lady!”
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P.S. I think the father said it best when he said “I’d seen him cry before . . . but this was the first time I ever saw tears . . .”
Candles & Curses 