open rectum. remove head.

now and then you get a reminder that life is an exceptionally short, self motivated gift. nothing more, sometimes less. a close wakeup in the last year for me was when my friend rusty almost killed himself with a badly executed B.A.S.E. jump from a cliff sans helmet. he put himself in a coma for a while and scared the shit outta me and many others. he's still here with us and thank christ. by rights he probably shouldn't be but i'm not going to point that out to anyone in charge. it did underline the frailty of our existence to me. for a short while. i guess everything is relative and human nature doesn't really allow a long introspection into such things. it's like pain. try to remember the last time you suffered serious pain and how it felt. you can't, not the same way you remember happy things anyways. if you could, many of us wouldn't set foot outside of our house. ever.

the newest reminder is a guy called John Hood who i stumbled across from Craig Clevenger's site. (Craig wrote 'The Contortionists Handbook' which is simply awesome) anyways, this guy, whilst in jail, wrote some exceptional book reviews which inpressed a great many writers. he's got a blog: theviewfromscranton, which are his thoughts now he's out of jail and under sufferage as an ex-con. really great snippets of someone's life who has something to say that's worth reading. he comments about the tenuous nature of freedom and simply, it doesn't sound trite coming from someone who has learnt it the hard way.

it makes me think long and hard about how easy it can be to complain or think negatively about a life that is nothing short of blessed. the occasional inspiration like these certainly help me to pull my head outta my arse and get back into things.

quote for the day:
"You live and learn. At any rate, you live."
- Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)