SOMETIMES I WONDER WHY….                                                                                                                 (all such hard knocks have to come in clusters)

The events of the past couple of weeks seem to have come at us much like a …cluster bomb.                                                        

First, on a personal level, a long time friend and Vietnam vet with a severe PTSD disability, who had spent a number of years honing and perfecting his photographic skills, was robbed of all his camera gear, camera gear which had been his main “lifeline” for some semblance of a normal life. This malicious act triggered a nearly fatal meltdown, the ripple effects of which still linger on. Meanwhile, the VA’s usual indifference and lack of meaningful support during such a life-threatening event simply compounded the effects of that situation. Fortunately, thanks to his own innate stubbornness, and determination not to let the bastards win by default…along with a few of his friends’ help…his resiliency reserves have allowed him to slowly mend, and climb back out from that pit of mental demons turned loose by that event.

Hard on the heels of all that, of course, the Boston Massacre erupted…the traumas of which will probably linger on for years to come. The only consolation from it all being that one of the culprits is dead, the other barely alive, facing a dismal future if he does survive, and the citizens of Boston demonstrating that their good old – Bean Town – is not only tough, but resilient besides.

Then, hardly allowing a pause for a breath for our glorious media types, way down in Texas, the town of West, was largely blown away by a horrendous explosion and fire at a local fertilizer plant, injuring and killing as many folks as in Boston, perhaps even more.

And now there’s more to come…as the mighty Mississippi and all of its tributaries roll out their annual flooding rituals threatening to, yet again, wash out everything in sight, leaving the Midwest soaking wet, while the Western regions, because of extreme heat and dryness, face their own annual firestorm holocausts.

It’s as if some kind of malevolent spirit with a vicious sense of pranksterism has come for a long and tiresome visit.

Sometimes I wonder why…all such hard knocks have to come in clusters.

CENTURION