Men in all seasons

A note from my buddy Deke, (that's a pic of him, below) who often communicates by sending me music files or videos and often sent in the middle of the night. Not a sound sleeper, he. We once spent a couple of weeks like that, where he'd send me musical mp3 files and I responded with jpg images.



Last week I wondered to him if the world was having a nervous breakdown or if the Internet just inundated you with so much information that it gave you that impression. His email reply.

Ya know, Goats*, it's like this -- when I was a child, I played with
childish things. And then my mother molested me and my father beat the
shit outta me. I began to sit in coffeehouses, drinking espresso,
smoking black cigarettes and rejecting the triune god.

Okay, okay, seriously -- I learned at an unreasonably young age that
grown-ups lie about damn near everything. I resolved to eschew such
lying. If a child ever asked of me why people did drugs, or why bad
things happened to good people, I would respond with the best answer I
could. I would not dumb it down for the child. Only twice have I had
to apologize to a child by saying, "You will understand better when
you're older." Not "you will understand when you're older," but "you
will understand *better* when you're older," and made it clear to the
child that even as a grown-up, it was difficult for me to understand
the answer, too. I've never said anything remotely akin to "Yes,
Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." Cuz kids are fooken sharp, they
have a lot more on the ball than we give 'em credit for, and they
share our existential concerns (though they may not be able to express
them as such to us).

So -- is it the internet, or has the world always been in a constant
state of nervous breakdown? It is the latter. The world has never been
a normal place. Thing is, that's just fine. It is perfectly acceptable
to not be okay. In our lives, we will not be able to solve all the
great and pressing issues -- war, famine, pestilence, plague, flood,
you name it -- but we can have a damn good time trying to solve 'em.

So why do I send you this shit? Cuz I know that you see the humor in
it. The laughs we share may not be the delighted burbles of a child --
they're probably more like soft, low chirrups which gradually become
maniacal howls -- but they are laughs just the same.

*A diminutive form of his nickname for me. Don't ask.