Current Post On Trae’s Blog:
My grandmother died last night. This wasn't a shock or a surprise. Her health has been on the decline, and she's been in hospice for the last month. She lived a long life, and in her final days she was surrounded by her three adult children.
My grandma was a kind woman. She wasn't perfect, but I always felt loved in her presence. She was a retired kindergarten teacher, and was still working when I was a kid. I have so many happy memories sitting at her kitchen table, and I'm going to carry those with me for the rest of my life. She was also proof that anyone who claims that you get more conservative as you get older is full of shit, because she certainly didn't.
I think it's interesting how the body processes grief sometimes. I don't know that I'll cry, but over the past month, knowing this was coming, I've felt a tension in my gut. Now that she's passed, instead of relief that tension is replaced by a sense of emptiness. That something is missing that should still be there. Something has been taken away, and I feel it.
Of course, as I wrote that, I immediately started crying... so I guess my body processes grief in pretty ordinary ways too.
I wanted to come up with something profound linking this to Beltane, which we sit in the middle of right now, but it just seemed hackneyed. Like I was trying to dig out some greater significance when the truth is death comes whenever it wants. The only predictable thing about it is that it's the end of all of our journeys. I hope that when I pass I'm so lucky to have lived such a long life with people that I love around me in my final days.
For the record, I will be fine. I just needed to get these words out while they were still in my head. I don't have some rousing conclusion or deep insight to tack on here at the end, just that gut feeling that something is missing.
Because it is.
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As a dude, I… can’t really disagree…
yea i think it’s why i have mostly female friends
As a dude, I can’t really either. But it should also come with the words, “in public.” At least in my experience, women are just as gross. Just not where everyone and their sister is there to note said behavior*.
*:observation void in groups of female friends hanging out with no one else around. There will sometimes be discussions that are nasty enough to make Bob Guiconne’s head spin. Exceptions also made for long term significant others – there’s only so long you can hide it as much as they’re around.
…no. You really must not get it.
There’s a difference between a conversation between trusted friends, and things you suggest to someone you just met.
Well of course there is. That went in there more for the crowd that sees dudes and super gross and immediately feels that true converse must be that women are sweetness and rainbows and never gross. Unrealistic, if nothing else outdated as all get out, but you still run into it a surprising amount of the time. Was well aware that that wasn’t particularly where she was going with it in the comic, just kinda made me laugh and comment as to the common phenomenon you get when people say this kinda stuff.