3/18/2005: Priorities / Jonestown
Last night I spoke with two friends.. I found out one had had a stroke last month. She lost all feeling & movement on one side of her body, her vision was blurry and her speech slurry. She is only 40ish. Fortunately her symptoms cleared up - although her vision is still off - and she is on the mend, but things like that make you pause and remember what's important and what isn't. Keep getting better Tru!
Another friend is newly single, with two kids.. her husband has decided to move in with his new girlfriend. My friend isn't heartbroken - they hadn't had a fairytale marriage, though it wasn't awful either - but she's having problems facing her new situation. She said she's had four dates and wants to go out every night the kids are with dad.. she is also 40ish. I suggested she might be avoiding facing herself and her thoughts & feelings about who she is.. Most people would have been offended and told me to shut the fuck up, but she said "yea, I think that's true.." The fact is she's a very cool person and just doesn't realize it. It's hard to remember that sometimes and having a partner run off to be with someone else doesn't help, but it doesn't change it either.
All in all it's good to remember that life goes on: it isn't about the petty stuff and it isn't about the job or the money or the errands.. no matter how bad it gets, it could always be a whole lot worse. It's only been a couple months since the Asian tsunami, and Waco & Jonestown weren't all that long ago either. They have nothing to do with each other, or with these two friends, but it's all part of everything and reminds me to count my blessings.
More about Jonestown..
Anyone who was older than 10 or 12 at the end of 1978 remembers well when we learned of the murder of a congressman in a country most of us hadn't heard of before; and within 24 hours we learned of an apparent mass suicide by almost 1000 people at the same place. The young 'uns may not be so familiar with this tragedy..
I did a project a little while ago with Keyhole - if you don't know what it is, check it out. I started looking to find out exactly where the Guyana compound was, and along the way I got sucked into the whole People's Temple story. I found out a lot of things I hadn't known before, and some of them raised a whole lot of questions..
If you have Keyhole, you can take the overlay tour of all the pertinent places, all the events, and explore the links within. If you don't have Keyhole, you should give it a look - it's awesome.
