On Divorce:
It turns out the surface effects of my separation boil down to a few extra hours to get work done and the lingering effects of a semester’s worth of sometimes nasty gossip. It wasn’t until I started having real conversations with the some of the people who heard the gossip or ended up the targets of it that I realized what sort of image I’d crafted for myself and how quickly that came apart at the first sign of my personal struggles.
So where am I now? I’m living deep below the surface effects and swimming around in a different kind of happiness. I know that things are still hard and I’m still learning how to be a single dad (for as long as I have to) but I also know that the learning has made me a better dad and a much better man. I’ve stopped seeking approval from all but a handful of people that truly matter in my life. With that sense of self assuredness, things can only get better.
On Race:
The boy with the bowl cut wanted to kill black people. I knew it yesterday–felt it in my gut–but I didn’t want to close the book on it until I heard (at least second hand) what he’d said his motives were. It’s simple: He wanted to kill black people. He laid charges at the feet of an entire race of people that included rape and thievery and the destruction of the American way of life. Basically, the dude said about blacks what Trump said about the entire nation of Mexico. One took action with bullets and the other with a presidential bid.
He’ll be tried and convicted and, for some, heralded. This will not end with one shooting. On the surface that ought to be the last touch of violence but it pulled back the curtain a bit more and revealed a good deal of struggle we all must go through as Americans in order to present a united front.