Some venting

 When I was young, people told me life is hard.  I thought they meant life is like training for your black belt in Muay Thai, rigorous, tough, a long stretch of hard physical work for a year or so, then a just reward.  I had no idea it was a series of extreme mental challenges and you daily fight just to stay afloat in a deranged class 5 rapids and hope people would toss you lines to shore and nurse you back to health.

Maybe it hasn't always been this way, I can't tell, but things certainly got worse with the 45th President, who attempted many horrible thing and got away with several.  To make matters worse, people who could've fought him with a sarcastic sense of humor, a watchful Twitter account or simple action on a local scale all died during his reign; Chris Cornell, Rachel Held Evans and my uncle.  Sometimes I imagine Trump and Larry the Cable Guy toasting champagne to Rachel's death.

The demon king is in the past, but his influence still reigns.  So-called "laws" in Oklahoma, Texas, other states in the South and Midwest and especially Florida, repress freedom, the population and criminalize the innocent and do nothing to the guilty.  Stillborn children are happening and the women can do nothing.  Women are getting raped and can do nothing.  Trans people are being refused comfort.  The entire LGBTQ+ community is being treated like it doesn't even exist.  And they have the gall to claim my God as their logic for their actions, telling me I lack faith and Biblical Literacy.

Jesus was kind at every opportunity, to everyone.  But that doesn't matter to them, they want to build ways and keep the "them" out.  I admit, I too want to keep "them" out, solely to protect "us," because I don't think they'll stop until we're all gone.  I wish I could talk with them and we come to an understanding about the value of life, rather than just talk sports and some classic rock bands, mostly the "inoffensive ones" and ones whose members were on the 700 club.  But it seems they need to change, because I've tried to meet them halfway and stifle part of me and it only makes me miserable in the long run.