So I’m wondering when the language starts to change. When does it get so bad that we stop assigning the same old pat phrases for the so-called certainties in life. “Our parents were just as worried when we were young.” Really? “The stock market is a long term investment.” Well what if there is no long term? “You’re young, the time for risk is now.” Well what if tomorrow REALLY sucks and the time for risk is long passed? We keep assuming that today isn’t really that different from yesterday, but all I keep seeing is a 737 careening into the Indian Point nuclear power plant and taking out the entire East Coast. Then will the language change? Depressing.

I keep thinking we’re sweeping it under the rug, again. We’re forgetting already. Go on with your lives, they say, which implies just keep doing what you were doing and things will be okay. Maybe it’s ten years of good fortune. Maybe it’s having kids. Maybe it’s just a scary new world. Somehow, all of it feels hollow and out of control. Like if we pretend it’s okay it will be. But it won’t. Tomorrow is World AIDS Day. 900,000 Americans have HIV. Eight of ten Eithiopian males will contract it. Islands are sinking. People are starving. There’s a drought. It’s very, very scary. Which is why I’m not supposed to think about it, I guess.