Missed moments? Not really.

I'm a firefighter. I work a 24-hour shift. Within a three week period, I will have worked every day of the week. I'm either working a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday every week--in short a lot of weekends. As a result, I miss many of the social outings my friends have. The 24-hour shift means I miss many of the events at home too. With an 11-month old daughter at home, this would seem to take on an even greater magnitude as she is starting to complete "the firsts"--first steps, first words, first time sleeping through the night (still waiting on that), etc. I'm going to miss a lot of these firsts. But, it doesn't really bother me. I may miss "The First," but there will always be a first time for me, and it's just as good. I liken to Uluru in Australia. That rock has been around for a few million years and millions of people have seen it. But, it was still quite a moving experience when I saw it the first time. This is some solace for me, as the worst part of my job is that every third day, I leave my family for 24 hours. The reconciliation of that is that I get the next 48 hours with them. That's 48 hours of make-up time, and I'm grateful for it.

Legacies

Here we go--I'm sure all the world needed was another take on Michael Jackson's death. But, it drives me nuts how crappy people are suddenly canonized just because they die. Michael Jackson paid at least $15 million to a family to shut them up about abuse allegations. We seem to have forgotten that now that he's recently died. He's the King of Pop again and was just "eccentric." This I know--innocent people, even eccentric ones, don't pay $15 million. Steve McNair was killed by the woman with whom he was engaging in an illicit affair, yet we're constantly being told what a great player and person he was. NO!! If there is anything that should be illustrated by his death, it's that he's dead because he cheated on his wife. How else can one sum up these men's lives? What mitigates all these horrible acts committed in order for people to see them in the best possible light after they have died?