Age

Growing old is a bitch.

I've now lived long enough to see  my friends have kids that are becoming adults.  I have watched them make the same mistakes that we made, and now I get to see them punished for it.

We got away with it.  No one got hurt. 

But sometimes things don't work out.  Sometimes people get hurt, or die.  One poor choice and that is the end of a young, promising life.  Someone will pay for that choice, in the justice system and for the rest of their lives.  I don't know what to think now.  I'm as confused as everyone else.

At least two lives are gone in an instant, with the very possibility of more.  My heart goes out to my friends but that seems hollow, empty.  The struggles they face are just beginning.  The only end that I can see is more sorrow.  More pain and suffering.  Less healing and more open wounds.

My kids are getting close to this age.  Now I'm scared.  How to I talk to them about the terrible choice that was made that night.  How to I make them understand that the hands of time only spin one direction.  The choices they make have consequences and they are not immortal.

I don't know the answer to that, I'm not sure anyone does.  The best thing I can do is to make sure that this tragedy is brought front and center into the minds of my kids.  They have to understand that it's easy to make bad choices in the heat of the moment.  Choices that can define the rest of their lives.

My heart goes out to my friends, and their kids.  All of them are responsible, but one has already paid the ultimate price.  There will be more punishment to come, and that will last a lifetime to those that survived.