Sponge

I'm really soaking up the sadness of the first world this week. I'm carrying the weight of people's sadness - Not for them, but trailing behind them and picking up bits and pieces of it, putting them in my pocket and letting them weigh me down.

The recent close-to-home murder of a father and husband my age with a child close to the same age as mine brought back memories of the even-closer-to-home murder of the young, beautiful school teacher on New Year's Eve. Fear of my surroundings grows stronger and stronger.

In a week I've heard the story of three children in one family suffering from a fatal genetic lung disease and witnessed the disintegration of a marriage of parents to three. I saw jobless, drug-addicted parents with the little ones in tow that they produce one after another and another and another engaged in a drug deal outside of a local grocery store and am impacted by the cancers that are sweeping the lives of those around us and further, a generation far exceeding any quality of life that continue to go on and on and on.

This morning I woke to the news of a tornado that stole many lives in Oklahoma.

My naivity to it all ceases more and more as the years go by.

21.5.13