Twelve years. There’s still a bruise. Like everyone alive that day, I remember watching the planes fly into the buildings over and over and over. But mostly what I remember is how everyone in America was in one mind. One heart. We were closer than we ever were before, or have been since. Kind of ironic. Kind of beautiful. *** Jim Mitchem
Between talking to kids about homework and doing other domestic chores, I managed to ask my wife about Syria tonight. She didn’t want to talk about it. I did. “I don’t want us to bomb them. That’s it. That’s final.” She was serious. She wanted to talk about our busy little life and how we were possibly going to manage taking the kids to commitments every night of the week.
People like to categorize each other. It’s easy on the brain. That way, they can use their processing power for more important things – like binging on Breaking Bad. For example, I’m a white man in my 40s. I went to college. I’m married. I work in marketingand advertising. I have kids. They go to public school. I drive an American car. We have dogs. I like baseball. I vote.
Today is day one of a new school year. I have to be honest, aside from the part about releasing my children to a system that 1) drills them with knowledge all day and then gives them more work to complete after school because, I don’t know, that’s ‘just the way we’ve always done things’
Change. The kind of change that you have to swallow with more water than you’d think was necessary, is upon us. It’s the kind of change that doesn’t come gradually. Children and dreamers hang on to summer like a life-preserver. But, in the end, we must all let go and allow ourselves to be sucked into the vortex. “Let go baby, let go. Everything will be alright.” And so we do.
I haven’t had a drink in 22 years. Whether you realize it or not, it’s a pretty remarkable feat for anyone to go from darkness to light in their lives. People often ask whether I’m bothered by other people drinking. I’m not. My wife drinks. She doesn’t have DNA that turns her into a monster when she drinks. And by monster, I mean a completely different person with very bad ideas.
