Strong Medicine

A very wise man who sadly is no longer with us wrote these words just a few short weeks ago:

When an organism — a person, a society — gets really, deeply ill, gentle medicine may not be sufficient. The easy, comfortable path — well, maybe if you’d known a few years ago, but not now. Now you need the strong shit.

But the strong shit HURTS. You look around blearily and cannot comprehend why you’re enduring this. You make what you think are sane ultimatums: no more, unless we can get these side effects under control. No more unless the tests show it’s working. No more unless you can eat ice cream again. But this is not sane; this is despair creeping in.

Remember, then, why you are doing it — why you’re trying the strong shit. For some it is a fight. For some it is just…the thing to do. For me, for you, it is love: love of a person, of people, of a society. Hold on to that love. It does not make the pain, the shock, the outrage go away — but it provides a direction.

Hatred, despair, negativity, these have no direction — they go everywhere and nowhere and you end up in the same damn place.

Love flows always forwards. As a person, as a society, hold on to that love. Hold on to each other. Love each other. Always.

Welcome to November

Autumn Leaf

It’s that time of year when the weather abruptly turns cooler, I need to clear the fallen leaves off the patio at least once a week, the rain comes back, and I know I’ll be driving home from work in the dark for the next 4 months.

Kind of depressing, really.

On the bright side, I did get a nice shot of this colorful leaf today before the rain hit.