I was coming back from a bank run when I was stopped waiting for a red light to change.  The light changed to green but immediately a motorcycle cop stopped in the middle of the intersection and stopped us from going with the green light.  Followed was a hearse and a procession of vehicles.

     I wondered why do dead people get the right of way?  What hurry are they to get anywhere.  The living, we only have so much time on this planet, we sometimes have reasons to hurry, but the dead, their dash is over, they have no reason to be in a hurry.

     When I was in prison there were people in their for murder, and people in there for sex offences and more often than not those with sex offences had the longer sentences.  I think it’s an interesting commentary on society that an act that actually takes a life can have a less severe punishment than an act that has a potential to create a life.  I think this says something very fundamental about the value of life, and more specifically, human life, in today’s society.

     We allow violence and murder on prime time television, but we don’t allow sex or nudity.  In fact, by the time the average person reaches age 18, they have witnessed 200,000 acts of violence and 40,000 acts of murder on prime time television.  Why is it we train our children on the ways of taking life but we go out of our way to protect them from learning how to make life?

     I’m still trying to figure out what to do with what’s left of my dash.  I am having a hard time being comfortable in a society that has so much reverence for and glorifies death.  I can’t help but wonder if this has something to do with our numbers?  Given that they’re seven billion of us on this rock, perhaps that’s just too many for human life to have value.

     I like listening to Mexican and Latin American music at times, and I think what I enjoy about it is that it is so full of life.  Most popular American music is dark, violent, or sad and grief filled.  I would rather be part of a society that celebrates life than death but I’m here and stuck with what it is.