Comfortably Numb

I have spent the last month or so being "comfortably numb". That changed today with the news of the school shooting in Connecticut. I apparently still have anger issues, because I went off on Facebook, posting like crazy about it. I haven't been angry in a while, so I guess I am getting better.

I have had the blues the last couple of days. I really miss John. I remember missing him more on Jes' birthday than either his birthday or my own. I am really missing him with Christmas coming up. He was always there sharing in my Christmas ideas, being my sounding board. We talked for a couple of months about what to get Jes and we usually went shopping together to get something really good for her. This year, I can't even think what "big" present she should get. John was always better at that then me.

The summer before Daddy's cancer diagnosis, Jes and I went to visit, and I took one of the best pictures of him. It is one of the last ones any of us have of him when he was healthy and happy. I felt compelled to give everyone in my family a copy of this picture for Christmas this year. I told Betsy that I was doing it because I didn't want anybody to forget. But when that came out of my mouth, I realized how ridiculous that is. So I don't know why I feel the need to give everyone a copy. When I was in Louisiana, I went through a box of old pictures, and it was comforting in a weird sort of way, so I think I am trying to give that comfort to the rest of us. It is also my way of including Daddy in Christmas. Maybe it will bring up the conversation we seem to avoid having. I would love to talk about the good old times. I would love to talk about Daddy and John.

Sometimes bad news seems so overwhelming. It clouds out the good in the world. The good things are usually so fleeting, so small, they come and go almost unnoticed. But the bad news stays and stays. The world seems like a very ugly place full of very ugly people, and the ugly ones block my view of the good ones. And it seems like the good ones die in greater quantities. 27 people, including 18 children, and only one bad guy died. Two really good people in my life died, and the bad ones are still alive and kicking. Un-fucking-fair. And it makes for a very ugly world.