Monday, July 23, 2012

On Rising Above.

Bullshit things happen sometimes, if you'll pardon my use of the word. But really, how else would you describe it? "Terrible," just doesn't seem like a strong enough term when an idiot with too much money and time on his hands can stockpile an arsenal, walk into a place of joy and either end lives or forever alter them. No, I'm sorry, but the senseless destruction of innocence is nothing short of complete and utter bullshit.

The next few weeks will be devoted to trying to find out what motivated the Colorado theater shooter (I won't be speaking his name here or anywhere else). News cycles will dissect every detail to the point of exhaustion. Weeks will turn into months, months into years. Books will be written by experts trying to understand the unfathomable, to attach a motive to the tragedy and saturate it with meaning so that it can be wrapped up and shelved and we can all go back to sleeping easy until the next bullshit thing happens.

Because it will happen. In one form or another, on scales large and small, bullshit things will keep happening in the world. And that's infuriating.

It's infuriating that the automatic response of so many people in the wake of gun violence is to raise their rifles above their heads and shout about how more shooting is the only thing that will solve the problem of shooting.

It's infuriating that while the technology to build better bombs, laptops, and cell phones is light years ahead of its time, cancer and AIDS remain incurable enigmas.

It's infuriating that major organizations contribute literally millions of dollars to groups that willfully endorse discrimination and can classify the act as, "charitable."

It's infuriating that Sally Ride, who sadly passed away today, is remembered in death by the president of the United States as, "a national hero and a powerful role model," while her government rewarded her heroism by denying her the right to marry her partner of 27 years in life.

The list goes on, doesn't it? Bullshit things that are so enraging, so unspeakable, that sometimes I am literally choked with anger so potent that I just want to yell at pretty much anything and everything.

But I don't. I won't. It wouldn't accomplish anything, wouldn't even make me feel better. Even the most righteous of anger twists and turns and boils into something wrong if you indulge it too much.

The only thing that lets you rise above the bullshit is living.

That's the secret, the thing that nobody really tells you. The purveyors of bullshit generally seem to think that all that matters is winning - killers kill, haters hate, liars lie, and they all feel like they've succeeded at the end of the day. But they're wrong. The ultimate fuck you (pardon the word) to all of the bullshit is to choose to get up each morning, live the hell out of the day, and go to bed so you can do it all over again.

Be joyful. Be honest. Be kind. Be awesome.

Live. Because even if you're robbed of tomorrow, nothing can stop your today.