A Reunion of Sadness

Funerals bring people together like a warm bonfire on a cold winter's day. Black-clad people from all walks of all life join together to tell stories, shake hands, share laughter and tears. People who know each other only by name cry and hug each other in a slow, sincere, sorrowful way. Hidden smiles are released as well as hidden tears. It is a reunion of sadness.

It's sad when relatives and old friends have to gather together on such an occasion as death. My Uncle Nathan died about a week ago and I attended his view the other night. It was hard, seeing my family cry like that. It's the type of tears that come straight from your heart, sobs that never end, empty stares. I don't really feel sad for his death since I hardly knew him. He lived in Colorado for the past few years. I do feel sad for all those who are hurting because he left.

I've experienced that sadness leaves when we're around others, especially those who love and care for us. All those people in the room of the viewing shared in one universal unspoken language of sorrow. They all felt that sad emptiness that comes with death and because of those feelings they shared, they were able to connect. People who hadn't seen each other for years would embrace as if they were the best of friends. It was amazing how as soon as the people filled the room, comfort and happiness entered too.

I was thinking about this years reflections theme, 'Together we can...' I know that a lot of people may take this to mean together we can do anything or together we can make a difference. I've been thinking of it in a more solemn, every day sort of way. Together we can make it through this. Together we can heal.

9/11 was this past weekend, and we watched a few hear-wrenching videos with footage of the tragedy. That was a hard thing for America, and when that occurred everyone across the U.S. shared in that unspoken language of sorrow. I believe that we have never been more united as a people than we were at the time of that awful tragedy. People came together because that sadness and fear was too great to bear alone. Together America is still healing.

We have families, we have friends, we have people because we, as humans, need company but we also need comforters, people who share our hardest feelings. We need people to listen to us, to hold us, to lift us up. We, as humans, cannot stand to live alone. I don't know how the hermits do it. Only together are we strong enough to face the tragedies and awful events that shape us as a Nation and as individuals. Together we can...

Ironic: opposite of what is expected

I think I'm going to talk about irony. You see I had to make a poster on the vocab word, 'ironic' for English. The picture I drew depicted a more coincidental situation than an ironic one and I got docked points. It seems ever since then the world has been try to show me what ironic truly means. Lately I've been trying to go to bed earlier so that I can get up earlier therefore giving me time to work on my online class. Well, every night ended up the same and I stayed up a lot later than I wanted and never did get up earlier. Last night, though, I finally went to bed at nine o'clock and had set my alarm for six in the morning. I was just falling asleep by nine twenty when my step dad came in, turned on my light and told me to get up I'm leaving with my mom.
It's ironic that the first night I actually go to bed early I end up staying up till midnight. To make a long story short, my mom and step dad were having some problems and she called the police. I always wanted something different to happen in my life to sort of mix up the ordinary routine, but having three men in uniforms in your house isn't always so fun. At least my mom let me skip school today to catch up on my homework and sleep.
Another ironic thing. Today would probably have been the only day in a while I would get either time to myself or, if my mom stayed home, at least alone time with her. Having seven younger siblings can be fun when playing games, but having seven younger siblings also means that there's seven other kids competing for two parents' attention. I was hoping that, when I found out my mom had stayed home, we would have some time together, but then I saw my step dad. Well, that's how it goes right? Thank you world I think I understand what ironic means now! I can say one thing, I will never again misinterpret a vocabulary word, I mean what if next time I get 'chaos' or even worse, 'annihilation?' I think I'll keep my dictionary close by.