A year is not enough

I know that we're not kids no more. But I'm not ready.

https://www.facebook.com/zinmagazine/videos/1121868977874935/

The Future is So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades; or, Where Do We Go From Here?

was it?

and now i realize, it wasn't love i sought. it was the pain. 

de kooning

her.

Crying out for Syria

For the first time, in many years, today I seem to be feeling older. Of course there are the normal creeks and cracks of my joints, but there is no new physical ailment to attain to this phenomenon; rather, I feel as though I have been enlightened beyond my human (age-permitting) capacity. 

Why? I met with a young man from Syria today. He told me of the horrible occurrences his country is facing. His people are being tortured by a morale-less, abhorrent, brainwashing, dictator, al-Assad: a repulsive man who will go down in history next to the likes of Hitler and Stalin. While I will never put my new friend at risk by exposing his identity, I must confess that he poured out his heart to me, nearly in tears, over the anguish of his life, his family, his friends. Without flinching, he told me a of story in which a friend was tortured for two weeks by the Syrian government. He was an innocent man. His throat was gauged, his family still mourns. We talked at length today, for over two hours, about what Americans can do (yet haven't done) about this situation. The Syrians are crying out for our help, but for some reason the mass media has labeled the citizens of his country as "Terrorists that cannot be trusted", and so we Americans have yet to act. 

Factors in why we have yet to take action include the invaluable efforts of our media to keep us at arms length from helping the Middle East. Or so it seems? I have been continuously annoyed by the new generation of anchors like Erin Bernett and all the other stuttering, negative, attacking, news people about. CNN is just the tip of the iceberg. Can we not get over attacking everyone? According to mass media: Middle-Easterns are all terrorists, blacks are about to kill me, and the Hispanics are all illegal. Where is the truth? The unbiased viewpoint from each side? Where is the positive story? How can I actually use my time and effort to help the world? That's the news I want to watch.

While I continue my search to get to the bottom of this, I must also wade through the other back-trodden waters of deciding which politician I can actually trust with my vote. Should I choose the one who talks the talk, but fails to (convince congress) to walk the walk? Or that guy who claims HE can make this country avoid another earth-shattering recession? The guy who is lax on Syria and plans to stay out? Or the guy who, at least, wants to arm someone (be it rebels) toward the fight against the malicious dictator?

While I am still in flux for the latter, I know my heart goes out to my new friend, his family, and his country. If anything, maybe these roads toward Damascus can bring a new light to things as they did for Saint Paul some 2000+ years ago.

And as I feel older, I will contemplate the anatomy of my hair. It is a strange thing... our looks, how we see ourselves as we begin to age:

Revisiting the past

When I knew less.

Or maybe I knew more.

Film, natural sunset. Germany, apples. My life, for nearly three years. Now gone, almost forgotten.