Mad World

     I begin by saying that I'm not in a happy place right now, so I apologize if my words make any one of you sad or low.  I have always viewed part of the reason for my existence to be a light for others, so I certainly don't want to run contrary to that goal.  It's dark in my head, fair warning.
     There really doesn't seem to be any sense in the world right now.  Terror and destruction is raining down from extremists ... Brussels, Paris, Egypt, Turkey, Yemen, Tunisia, California.  Islam is being vilified, when more Muslims are being killed daily at the hands of these terrorists.  The refugee crisis is catastrophic and untenable; children continue to drown, families are broken, a generation or more is being lost.  Syria is forfeit  ... with towns like Madaya where the people are literally starving to death.  At home, our Presidential race is comical and frightening; each day bringing ridiculous statements doled out through tweets.  Tweets.  The decayed state of discourse in our nation is best encapsulated by 140 characters.  The Senate Republicans have decided that they don't have to do their jobs, but they get to keep their pay and their health insurance and fuck the nation, as they best understand the Constitution.  And let us not forget the North Carolinian Republican lawmakers who have decided that discrimination of LGBTQ people is a-ok in their book.
     For fuck's sake.
     This madness is overwhelming.  We need action; we need superheroes.  We need something, something more than prayers and good wishes.  We need to remember that this is the only world we have, and we are fucking it up royally.
     And on top of all this sadness and misery, my dear, sweet father-in-law is dying.  I saw him last September, and we both knew then that might be the last time I would get to see him alive.  We didn't need to say it to each other.  We just knew.  He doesn't need me sitting there being weepy and morose - no one needs that.  He doesn't deserve pity, that would and should piss him off ... some insipid prayer circle of who can get Jesus on the line first.  (Editor's note: I had something a bit more intense here, but for the sake of my beloved Aunt, I have reigned myself in a little.)
     It doesn't work that way.  None of it works that way  
     And before my religious friends and family think I've lost my mind, my way or my faith.  Nope, the Lord and I are tight.  I know what I've discussed with Him about my father-in-law, and we're keeping that close to the vest.