More than Necessary

"For the first two years of a child's life, we spend every waking hour trying to get the child to communicate. Then we spend the rest of our lives trying to figure out how we can reverse the process." -Erma Bombeck

Parents have the fantastic job of having a child. Then raising them. Which means feeding, burping, taking care of, getting scratched in the face, performing potty duty, and waking up at 2 AM to soothe the crying child while being frustrated because they don’t know what the baby wants. What parent doesn’t want their child to start talking?

Then the kid reaches the “terrible two’s”. He/she can crawl and walk now, say “no” to nearly everything, and eat a decent array of food. Most of all, they know a basic amount of vocabulary. Unfortunately, if the parents hadn’t supervised their language, the poor innocent kid might be reciting some curse words now and then. Cute, but not good. Regret #1.

Ah, school. It gets more interesting. The child begins to learn more foreign languages, and new information. With no one else to tell their profound discoveries, they unload it in a messy barrage on their parents. “Di’ you know da numba 8 has two circles in it?! COOL!” Regret #2.

And then comes the more dreaded part--puberty and the teenage years. Yes, we understand the mood swings, the different voices, and the modified body parts. But what many parents don’t understand is why their teenagers start getting upset with them for no reason, and refuse to listen. Did puberty plug their ears with something, too?...besides an iPod? Regret #3.

Off to college and beyond. Believe me, I bet parents would be bald by this point after pulling at their hair, wishing their children could just shut up. Luckily, their child finds the special someone. Then they’re whisked away, gone from the house faster than the time it took to spank, feed, house, and raise them. Now the parents wished they had anything at all to talk to…besides to each other. Regr--well, no regrets.

-the clam.

Security--Gone Wild?

Have you ever thought about your sense of security?

If you haven't, I'm sorry to bring you not-so-good news.

Unless you live under a rock (-cough-), you probably already know about the recent school shootings. In fact, whenever you turn on your TV to watch your local news, you're bound to hear "Two men have been shot and killed today, this afternoon. Witnesses claim that the suspect was seen trying to rob the men..." Whenever I hear that, I would think Wow...just imagine. Those two people who got killed...did they even know they were going to die tomorrow? Did they know that their last day was yesterday?

Why is it that these people even DO these things?

Whether or not you like it, people like those shooters exist outside that front door of yours. This is when the question of security comes into play: When are you actually safe? Truth is, you never are. You could be watching your television. You could be eating your dinner. You could be sitting here right now reading this blog post—and yet, you're never safe. How would you know there isn't a gas leak conjuring up in the garage? How would you know a fire is starting in the next room? (okay, that last one was lame...the smoke alarm, duh).

Woah woah woah. Don't be getting too afraid now. It's not like going outside is going to help. Everytime you walk out that front door, you will never know if it's your last. You could be going to the supermarket, and a madman can be waiting there for a shooting. You could be standing on the sidewalk, and in a heartbeat, you could be dead because of gang violence.

Okay, I REALLY apologize if I just rained on your day. But you need to sit down and realize reality at some point in your life. In this world we call life, you will always need to defend yourself. It's a very sad epidemic, but it's happening...and it's spreading like chickenpox wildfire. But the thing is, this is serious! Nowadays, kids can't even go to school knowing that they're safe. Kids don't have that sense of security anymore. Toss in technology and the world of the internet, and all sense of security has abandoned a child. Even a simple site MySpace is becoming a hunting ground for child predators.

Have you ever thought of a "series of events"? No, not A Series of Unfortunate Events. The real deal. Maybe you're thinking of washing your hands. But you decide not to, since you're e-mailing a person. That certain person gets the e-mail, and they stay behind a little longer, being late for work. That person rushes out the door, and drives like mad to work. Another car comes speeding down the road, and a huge accident occurs. That person dies.

Would you feel guilty? Would you regret not washing your hands, and most probably save that person's life because you didn't send that e-mail, and that person would've gone earlier, and that person would not have met that other driver? It's happening...even as you're reading this blog post.

Okay...I think I rained on your day enough...I shall leave now. Let's hope digital delay or stolen apologies can humorify this blog up. Sorry guys—just saying what's the truth.

-the clam.