nothing to gain, everything to lose

I’ve been silent here (and pretty quiet elsewhere) for nearly two months now. At first, because I simply had other things on my plate that took precedence (a cross-continental move, finishing up old business on one side of the country, starting a new job on the other, setting up a new household, and trying to breathe a little in the interstices.) Later, because I found I just didn’t miss this very much.

Which is a roundabout way of me saying that the two-month hiatus from blogging I’ve been on will continue indefinitely. I know better than to say “permanently”, chiefly because I have a few times before. But I will say, it feels different this time.

Or rather, it doesn’t at all, and that is kind of my point. When I started doing this a little over a decade ago, my country had just waded into a war in the middle east, justified largely by the fact that another country’s leader had murdered  his own people using means that were somehow less morally acceptable than the time-honored tradition of hurling enough mass with sufficient force into a human body as to cause it to cease functioning. No one questioned that that man was repugnant thug unworthy of the title “human”, much less “president”. Nor that his people were suffering immeasurably under his thumb.

The problem was, no one seemed to be able—or importantly, willing—to make the case that by intervening with force, we wouldn’t make an already bad situation worse. Never mind making the case for the likelihood of a "good" outcome.

If this show is going into re-runs, count me out. I’ve said it all already.