Things I Never Expected

That I would have to go through a metal detector to walk into a courthouse or go to a basketball game.

That students would have to pass through metal detectors to go to school.

That people would weaponize fertilizer, pressure cookers and small rental trucks.

That frustrated people would set out to kill as many civilians as possible just because they could. 

That one day many people would call me to ask if the Significant Other had been inside a building attacked by a missile in the form of a commercial airliner.

That one day I would call a girlfriend to ask if her children were safe from a shooter at their school.


That one day I would call the Younger Person to be sure he was at work and not running on the bike path three blocks from his apartment.

That I would get tired -- really, really tired -- of hearing politicians say, "If we do X, the terrorists will have won."

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“Man has free choice, or otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards and punishments would be in vain. ” 

― Thomas Aquinas

Summa Theologica

“It is impossible to overlook the extent to which civilization is built up upon a renunciation of instinct....”

― Sigmund Freud 

Civilization and Its Discontents