Categories
big questions life religion

(Choosing) My Religion

Love this song.

I may have told this story here before, but when I was about 10 or so, I was kicked out of Sunday school for the only time I ever attended. When the instructor asked if anyone had any questions, I raised my hand. The story of “Noah’s Ark” was new to me, so I had PLENTY of questions, and she rebuffed all of them before kicking me out of the room.

When my mother asked what happened, I told her what happened. She’d always told me to ask if I didn’t know something, so when I explained the experience, I figured I wouldn’t be in outright trouble, but I was worried how she might respond.

What she said was: “Do you want to get ice cream?”

And that’s when I knew that if I was going to find some kind of faith, or religion, or spirituality, it was going to be up to me. So since what I’d been exposed to wasn’t going to work, as an adult, I’ve created my own.

Categories
life

“The best part? The cows.”

Three weeks. That’s the shortest amount of time I’ve ever been unemployed. The day I was let go from my most recent job, I was contacted by a temp agency within a few hours of getting home. I guess I could argue I was “unemployed” for even less time.

While I was working my previous job however, I knew from the first day on the job that something was amiss. A week or two in, and I was aware I should be looking for something else. And while I searched, that left me with one thing to look forward to every day I commuted to work.

And that was the cows.

Categories
games life

Personal Games: Disgaea 2 (PSP)

I went on my honeymoon this year, after over three years of being married and saving, to Tokyo. I’d been before in 2008 for a meager three days, making the most of a situation I had dreamed about for so much of my life, and something I’d never thought I would be able to do. But there I was walking the streets of Akihabara to buy games I couldn’t read the language of, fascinated by the culture shock and plethora of lights and sounds from every street. It was heavenly.

While I was there this time with my wonderful wife I bought more games (no surprise there), and to my surprise, I stumbled into a couple at a second-hand store. As a terrible victim of nostalgia, I had to take them back to the US with me as a long-loved symbol of a trouble era of my life. I’d put in the work and rebuilt my life and mental health off the back of one.

That game was Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days.

Categories
life music

Ode to a Rabbit

There are very few things I know for certain in this world after nearly 40 years here: love is rare and should be cherished where you find it. Sleep is just as lovely as it is dangerous. The right songs can not only bring us to tears, but help keep us alive.

And that’s why I’m writing this, after multiple days of difficult mental health: when I’m having trouble, one of my go-to artists helps me to both cry out some energy and remind me that the world isn’t as bad as my brain chemistry is telling me it is. Even if the music that saved me makes me sad.

Even if the music couldn’t save its creator.

Categories
life new year

2022: Starting Again

2022 sucked. Stand Tall friends, you survived it!

Oh wait, we should probably expand on that.