2011-- off to a C minus start.

the brilliant glow of last new year's eve aerials has long since faded, the confetti's been swept up and graces the land fill by now; hangovers suffered on the first day of this new year are over and done.

the first week of 2011 is history.  my texas tech red raiders escaped the inaugural ticketcity bowl with a win over northwestern.  way to have your guns up, tech!  last years super bowl champion new orleans saints look like anything but in a loss to the seattle seahawks on saturday.  the jets beat the colts and in news that matters, a gunman dealt misery and grief in arizona.

the dawning of each new day reveals the mystery that is to be.  tragedy trumps triumph every time. inevitably, the what ifs ensue.  what if a nine year old hadn't recently been elected to student council at her school?  without that fact, would she have been invited to see and hear her government in action?  had she not been tendered the invitation, had she not eagerly accepted, would she have lived to a ripe old age?

it is a sad instance of cause and effect. as for those left behind, her parents and the friend who invited her to go, a lifetime of guilt and "if only" awaits.

it is not for us to know what the next tick of the clock will reveal.  if we wasted our time worrying about it, forever dreading the next moment because it might expose some horror, what kind of life would that be?

might it be better to live life like that song from the 50's?  que sera, sera-- what ever will be, will be-- the future's not ours to see-- que sera, sera.

still, one can't help but wonder, what is this world coming to?

my thoughts go out to those who've lost loved ones, to those who are fighting for life after being wounded in the fray.  may there come a time a time when every waking moment is not consumed with the awful eternity before the shooting paused and the gunman was subdued.  may there come a time when your lives regain some sense of the everyday.  not that the events of saturday can be, or should be, forgotten, still...

in time life goes on, the seconds ticking on end reveal to us what is to be.  for you all i wish only good things.  sadly, the old saw holds true. "into every life, a little rain must fall."

may the rains in your life be brief and gentle-- and que sera, sera...  aio