--NOBODY SAID IT WAS EASY

…Oh boy, there’s a lot of unruly rain beating on the roof right now.  Not so much angry, as agitated.  It’s been going on for some days.

…Is there anything more utterly evil than ISIS?  Calling them terrorists doesn’t seem like the right label.  Even terrorist sounds too tame.

I read this the other day and it made me sick:

    In October, Islamic State Militants in Syria demanded that two Christian women and six men convert to Islam.  When they refused, the women were publicly raped and then beheaded along with the men.  On the same day, militants cut off the fingertips of a 12 year old boy in an attempt to force his Christian father to convert.  When his father refused, both were brutalized and then crucified.

Later that day, in a video, ISIS warned Christians, “You will not have safety, even in our dreams, until you embrace Islam.”

…Sorry to bring you down with depictions of such depravity, but it doesn’t seem like enough people care about this.

…Turning the corner, here are some interesting and funny things friends on Facebook had to say:

-I hope you've been trimming your Hanukkah bushes, ladies.

-I hate it when I think I’m buying organic vegetables and when I get home they’re just regular donuts

-"Dad, can you settle an argument?"
"Sure."
"If someone farted while they're filming a movie, would they have to stop and redo the scene?"
"Well, first of all, good question. Second of all, it depends on the movie..."

-When you're 30 years old & you still brush your hair straight & have no fucking idea what's in store for you. You think you do, but you don't

-Cora: "Now that I'm five, I'm going to have a lot of questions. For example, did we always have words?"

-I live in a strange writer's world where I make copy editing notes to page designers that say things like: Italicize "do you realize how much better you have it, you dumb bitch?"

-I love when a guy walks by and I can smell his colon

-I smell like his colon right now

-I can still smell his colon on my pillow right now even though he’s not here 

-Parker, bobbing up and down in the bath: "I’m doing some work here, Mom." Me: "Oh yeah? What work?" Parker: "I’m exercising my penis."

Oh. Oh okay.

 -I asked Griffin if he wanted to invite his little 9 year old classmate and love interest over for a playdate. He said, "if you take the play out of that then you've got yourself a deal."

-Mom always taught me to stay positive and ignore all the mean things girls do and say because one day they will grow up and realize how awful they were. I'm still waiting for that day.

-My coworker is voting for Bernie Sanders because he mistakenly thinks he's 1) that rad dude from the Ponzi Scheme, and 2) that bro who banged all those hookers. What do you guys think?

-My child has no concept (yet) of the horrors of this world and insists on asking us things like, "Have you ever seen a wall of butts?" and then telling us about her imagined wall of butts, so we've got some comic relief over here at least (always).

-Hypothesis: social media, while offering a chance to connect, has also offered a way for us to isolate ourselves, to shout into the void, to be our worst selves, to join a careening shriek. We don't talk to each other; we talk about each other. We become strangers; we become strange. Platitudes and generalizations and outright lies are shared wildly, believed fervently. The shrieking grows and grows.