Friday, April 17, 2009

Life and Death

I had one of those mornings where you wake up and try to sort out which day it is. I convinced myself it was Thursday and got up and got on with the day. A pleasant surprise when I got to work and realised it was Friday! I've been stock piling perennials for the last week, hoping for sunshine this weekend to get in the garden and get busy. Weather forecast is iffy, well see.

I had lunch with a girlfriend last weekend and we were talking about a 3rd mutual friend who has had a tragedy in their families life. A younger brother (an adult) is being charged with attempted murder for an incident late last year that happened outside of a dance club downtown. The victim was his girlfriend and mother of his child. Other parties were involved and lots of finger pointing everywhere. 'Kids' with guns. This guy isn't a thug or hoodlum. We know this young man and his GF. They've been to party's at our house. People I believe to be 'good kids' Good kids who thought it was necessary to carry a gun when going to a club.

During the course of our conversation my friend told me that her three sons (all in their 20's) also carry guns and concealed weapons permits. I've known these boys their entire lives. Again they're not thugs or hoodlums either. Their rational is everyone is carrying them and they need to as well to be safe. My friend is as anti-guns as I am but beyond ensuring they have permits there's nothing she can do as they're adults.

I've never liked guns. I don't talk about it much here but when I was a very young man my first lover was a private investigator. He ran a company that provided security and investigative services for a variety of clients. He carried a gun. I never liked it but I got used to it. He was a very safety conscious person and took gun ownership responsibilities very seriously. Unfortunately that didn't help him when he was jumped on the street by three guys. His gun fell out of his holster in the struggle and one of them picked it up and shot him. He died then and there. Had there not been a gun involved in that situation...

I'd like to say I don't understand it but I kinda do. To these kids we're the older generation and we just don't "get it". They're used to it. There were guns in the high schools they went to. It so common to them they think it foolish to not carry one. I was discussing this with another friend and her comment was "Why would you want to go some place (dance clubs) where people carried guns" Why indeed. I guess that's how out of control the whole thing is. To them it's just an accepted part of life. I guess dying young is too.

Seattle is for all it's posturing, still a small city. To call it 'urban' would be laughable to people from real big cities. What I mean is it's not like these kids were raised on "The Mean Streets Of..." They're just normal kids. With guns.

I've been mulling this over in my mind trying to figure out what I feel about it. What can any one person do to fight against this? So far I've got scratch. It makes my blood run cold. Thoughts?

OK, sorry for being so heavy, it's just what's been on my mind. It's nice to be at an age where working in the garden is all the excitement you need.

Here's a bit of random-ness for you. I got this pic in an email from the Ex last night. It's our first apartment. Either the building hasn't fared well over the 20+ years, or my memories of it are filtered through the golden light of time. We had the top left unit. I planted the ivy hoping to have the effect of an old ivy covered building. Who knew it took ivy that long to grow. Seriously it's been like 25 years. I swear I can watch the stuff grow up the trees at my place now. Oh well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. It was a cool old 1920's building with insulated iceboxes opening to the hall and your apt. for your grocery deliveries. I always thought that was pretty cool. Could that tree have grown in the past 25 years? I have no memory of it.



I haven't been much of a blogger lately. So many folks are taking breaks or just not blogging much these days. Well, I am going to take myself in hand and re-commit to blogging here. I get so much out of it, I need to just get back in the habit and stop PROCRASTINATING. A word I hate, probably because I'm SO good at it!