One more murder/suicide. It's the height of self-destructive rage.
Several of my Facebook friends have been posting uplifting memes as a way of digging themselves out of depression and dark mental places. It's a small sample, but I think a lot of people are having a tough time maintaining their emotional balance. It puts me in mind of Thoreau's famous quote, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."
I found my version of Waldon Pond years ago, but still remember the early '80s, when I was in my 30s and everything in my life was going wrong. It seemed nothing I did helped, and I was angry all the time. That level of frustration consumes you.
I think modern American life is not good for people. There is too much noise, too much congestion, too many rules, and a constant drum beat of fear and anger. It is not good for people to live in fear.
I like TBN because rural living dials down the anger. We can justifiably be angry at that gopher in the garden, and make serious plans to kill that sucker, without inflicting violence on people. We don't keep guns for self defense, we keep guns because we might need to shoot something. People in cities think guns are for shooting people. I can't imagine that. I have to work myself up for two weeks just to butcher a cow. I think if more people had been up to their elbows in a warm gut pile, they would be less casual about killing.
