Waves have it hard.

I mean, we treat them as if they are hard.

Especially big ones.

They don’t touch or caress or embrace…

They crash,

And pound,

And batter the rocks and shore…

And us… you know… if we get in their way.

This has been a very wave-y week.

The tragedy in Las Vegas, Tom Petty… and a few more organically inspired waves closer to home… the death of a friend’s beloved pet, another’s soul dog at risk. And still another friend working through grief even before Death’s angels look at their watches and say it’s time for them, and her loved ones, to go.

It’s a lot for those dealing., front and center and oh-so-tragically with the loss of a loved one.

It’s a lot, also, for those who care about and love the folks in such immediate pain.

A lot for the first responders – both in job and in spirit – who run toward that pain, verses running (or stepping silently) away.

And a lot for a country and world who watches, even if not knowing anyone personally hurt or dying or dead. A country and world filled with far more people interested in peace, and the beauty of life and living, than not.

Huh?

Oh… you want proof.

Okay.

Look around you.

No, don’t turn on the news. Actually, turn off the news.

Also, stop reading Facebook posts speculating about the whats and hows and whys by some guy behind behind a computer in Hackensack, professing the knowledge of specific solutions to horror, whilst spewing blame and hate.

Just… stop and unplug.

Pay attention to the people around you.

The people… outside of anyone’s individual politics or ideology or dogma or….

Watch their shoulders drop, even if only a little, at the mention of Las Vegas.

The shaking of their heads, an unconscious ‘no’.

Notice mouths that open just a bit, eyes that turn shades of bewilder… and maybe fill.

Accept hugs, offer your own.

Be with the good, the supportive.

It is important to take that in… to remind ourselves.

On April 24, 1999, Tom Petty gave an interview to Alan Bangs over in Germany.  He gave some great answers to Bangs’ questions on sacrificing idealism as we get older… Bangs’ queries as to the compromises we all have to make in the face of reality.  My fave quotes from Petty…

“I don’t know…I think… I think. I think It’s all about not compromising your ideals…I think it’s important to give them hope and realism in the same package, you know? You can be realistic, you know, but there should be – there should be hope in it. Because hope’s what we’re all about. If we don’t have hope we don’t go on.”

“I think for it to be unhip to be idealistic is weird, you know? I mean, even the best rebels had some hope in them.”

and my fave…

“You know. But I don’t understand the ones who have no hope and invest in hate. That’s not going to work out, you know? It’s a waste of your time!”

I know, right?

Cuz it is.

It’s been a week infused with incredible horrors… and sadness… and confusion. Tainting humanity’s tea with a palpable bitterness, making it a little bit too hot. Thus, the burn.

I’m going to dilute mine a little, take down the acidity with a dash of the ordinary and extraordinary that occurs on each of my everydays. I may also let it sit a bit, as I process. Less burn, more perspective.

In the mean time, I’ll be visiting one of my favorite places to watch waves boom over the rocks, purposefully following them beyond their fearsome introduction … as they then becoming nearly silent, sending foam and fingers to explore the rocks and tumble into tide pools right before my eyes.

Reminding me it’s never all one thing, or the other.

There, I’ll send my prayers and good thoughts and love and faith and hope out into the world on the strings of imaginary multicolored balloons… perhaps to a Tom Petty soundtrack.

I’ll let you pick the songs.

Thanks for readin’.

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