This comic made my freaking week. It’s funny because it’s true:

click the image above for a larger view, or see it in its natural habitat

It’s very true, and just like the author of the comic above, Three Panel Soul (formerly of the hilarious MacHall, which I know for a fact was based on my alma mater) we’re right on the border here. I have to admit, I don’t really care to own a gun, but I would love to know, I mean really know more than “point at target – squeeze trigger,” how to fire a weapon. A pistol, a rifle, whatever. I’d like to know. And no, this isn’t some kind of wary but somber transition into discussing the tragedies at Virginia Tech this past week – my mind on the horrible events there is essentially the mind of everyone else, and everyone else, from media outlets to individual bloggeers, have said everything there really is to be said much finer than I could. The only thing that stands out to me beyond the rest of the coverage is the fact that the first two people who were killed, in the dormitory first thing in the morning, were a Resident Assistant and a woman who was with him at the time. It’s remarkable to me specifically, having been an RA, and having had unsettling residents in my building and even on my floor. My mother immediately, when we spoke about the killings, remarked at length how similar that RA and I were when I was in college. It’s sad, especially hearing the first hand stories of people who were in classrooms where the shooter slaughtered people within, or the stories of professors or people who went through great lengths to protect others only to wind up losing their own lives.

Still, death is, as much as life is, and horrendous death (that is, strictly defined in the Thanatology sense as death caused by human intervention, whether it be murder, accident, war, poverty, etc) is a horrible thing regardless of when, where, and what the casualties are. Whether those deaths are in our backyard or across the ocean in a far-off land, it’s saddening. In fact, I was impressed by a story I heard on NPR where audiences in the Middle East are enthralled by the events at VT, because that kind of lone-wolf mass-murder without a cause or a idealism or a religion behind him is all but missing from their culture – religious conflict, idealogical warfare, recruiting insurgencies, that’s all things that as well known in the Middle East – factions against factions. It’s incredibly indicative of our separate cultures how absent from their consciousness the idea of a lone gunman causing havoc is, and how normal it is and alien their faction warfare is to us.

Anyway – that was much more in depth about that than I really wanted to get.

I found myself, as I was listening to NPR, as I usually do, enthralled by the sounds of a cello as the music between segments rose. The deep, hearty, bass of the cello seemed to resonate within me, as I’ve always been in love with deep instruments that make incredibly deep sounds – there’s something incredibly primal and soul-filling about a cello or an oboe. As my mind turned to the oboe, I started thinking about my old friend Julia, who played the oboe with incredible skill and talent, turning out the kinds of music that did seem to sate that part of my soul that could only be filled by those sounds. Sadly, I haven’t spoken to her in entirely too long, and I found myself missing her. I should try to find her again, not just to listen to her play, but to reconnect. There aren’t a ton of ghosts from my past that I’d feel very comfortable reconnecting with but she’s most definitely one of them. To be honest, I was telling Raevyn that I think the two of us could probably be better friends now then we even were then. But having a chance to listen to her play again would be lovely as a fringe benefit.

In other news, my parents stopped down for a visit this afternoon, and after a lovely afternoon lounging in our living room, catching up, and giving me a haircut that was long long overdue, we had a light dinner that Raevyn and I prepared for my parents and bid them farewell so they could get back up the road with what’s left of daylight. It was a lovely visit, and I haven’t seen them in entirely too long. We’ll have to make it up to visit them next week. Sitting around the house watching DIY Network with them is always a pleasure, and chatting about horrible commercials, politics, and health is always lovely. Seeing them again reminded me how much I missed them, even as I know how self-sufficient Raevyn and I really are.

Before you ask, yes, I got a haircut. I’ve needed one for something like two months now. I’m sure I’m going to hear about it when I get back to the office this week.