2013 is almost here

I've been thinking . . . yeah, I know -- run for the hills! The only trouble is here in Tampa there are no hills. Ha! Anyway, I've been thinking about the violent massacres carried out by one or two young men in the last 10-15 years. Let's face it -- humans kill humans. Humans also kill animals (wild and domestic), and harm or destroy their own environment. Let's go on -- animals kill animals and animals sometimes kill humans. And Mother Nature -- well, she comes along and kills and/or destroys everything in her path when weather patterns create tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, blizzards, torrential rains, floods, tsunamis, typhoons, landslides, and lightning fires. It's all just life. Maybe not the kind of life I would like, but no one asked me when I was born what kind of world I wanted to live in, so, in the spirit of my long-ago 16-year-old self, I say once again life is an adventure. 

And with that belief in mind, whatever life throws in front of me, whether personally or otherwise, it's all part of the adventure. In a way that sounds callous, like the murder of 20 six and seven year old children (at Christmas, no less) is nothing, but I want to be able to mourn the loss of life without losing myself in the wanton shock and sadness of it. Let's face it -- there are profoundly sad and isolated people in this country and they have the guns to carry out their killing sprees. We can't stop them, anymore than we can stop people from driving drunk or running red lights or playing soul-shakingly loud music or stealing or doing drugs. I believe that the meaning of the Mayan calendar end is really a fork in the road for our civilization. I'm taking the road less traveled in 2013 and I hope to meet many individuals along the way who, like me, want a more earth-friendly, peaceful, and community-minded way of life.