Love

(Im)mortality

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

“The man who kills a man, kills a man. The man who kills himself, kills all men. As far as he is concerned he wipes out the world.”—G.K. Chesterton, “The Flag of the World.”

The suicide is committing, from his or her terrible and terrifying and terrified point of view, genocide. Humanity-cide.
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Anniversaries …

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

The reminder came like a … like a … um, simile. The reminder arrived like a reminder of other times when something forgotten was brought up by others.

Worse, it wasn’t much of a reminder. I am a certain age, 16,984 days as of 6:37 p.m. tonight, so almost every single day of the week offers the anniversary of one thing or another it seems. Another one hit today. A bigger and better one tomorrow.
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Tails, You Lose

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

“Tails.” I spoke the word with my out-loud voice. I ordered white tails to wear at my high school prom.

For many American high school students, senior year means at least two things: Graduation and Senior Prom Night (and the morning after). With no research, I can tell you that “prom” is short for “promenade,” which is long for “prom.” For naive bookworm me, the prom, far more than graduation or even theconstantthinkingofthoughtsabouttherestofmylife, was the source of many anxieties.

(There is an ancient cliché about how native peoples who live in the Arctic have 1000 words for snow because they know snow so intimately that they have 1000 words to describe 1000 unique realities. Replace the word “snow” with “anxiety,” and you have me. A thousand different anxieties.)
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