One of my best friends recently informed me that a mutual friend of ours lost his mother to cancer last week. She was only 50.
I thought to myself, that’s fucking absurd. 50 is only a little bit past halfway in the grand scheme of things.
Then I remembered that this was the 3rd funeral said best friend had attended so far during his 20s. Two to cancer, one to suicide.
I thought to myself, that’s fucking absurd. Losing three people in a decade. What kind of luck is that?
I woke up yesterday and groggily checked the news to find out that two countries close enough to be brothers and sisters to one another have gone to war over essentially nothing.
I thought to myself, that’s fucking absurd. Why indulge such needless, pointless death? For what, the fleeting ego of a geriatric despot?
I spoke to my friend who lives in one of those countries and found out that his effective wage had dropped by nearly half in just two days over it all.
I thought to myself, that’s fucking absurd. He works hard and through no fault of his own, his time is now worth nearly half as much as it was.
My in-laws and parents both have been talking to my partner a lot lately and suggesting that we settle down and have children.
I thought to myself, that’s fucking absurd. The voices that surround me sing a klaxon chorus of warning and coming ruin - climate, pestilence, war and more, and you want us to bring a child into that?
The only certainty is uncertainty.
I thought to myself, hold on, isn’t that fucking absurd?