One Week On

About this time last week I checked the news headlines before leaving work, saw nothing of import, picked up some groceries at Woolie's, shivered in the wind tunnel that is St George's Terrace, and finally trudged home just in time for the news anchor to announce that terrorists had bombed the London Underground, please stay tuned as we now cross live to CNN.

The London authorities now know who, what, how, when, and where. Why may never be adequately answered, however much they dissect the bombers' school records and travel history.

How bitter do you have to be to believe the slaughter of strangers excuses your own suicide? How selfish must you be to believe your own matyrdom somehow justifies the murder and maiming of innocent bystanders, and to damn your family to subsequent villification? How stupid do you have to be to believe that the people who encouraged you to explode yourself genuinely give a damn about you?

If you're going to serve a cause, try living for one instead of dying for one. Suicide is, and always has been, the coward's escape. If you truly care about something, you will fight for it. If you're determined to end it all anyway, then die with consideration - do it quietly in a bathtub somewhere and don't leave a mess - your loved ones will have a bad enough time as is dealing with your demise.

Most of all, leave the rest of us the fuck alone. It's one thing to say Good Day, and What about the weather, eh? and Oh, I don't think much of what the PM said today. It's entirely another thing to blame your whole screwed-up life on me or Pat who tends the garden or Nicki at the local shops or the guy with the Foxxy license plate or any random person you don't know and consequently feel no empathy towards. We are not to blame for your screw-ups. Deal with it.

How we choose to deal with it is ultimately what life is about.

But who am I kidding? Howie states there could be home-grown bombers amongst us even now. I foresee another anti-terrorism fridge magnet campaign looming. Even worse, Ruddock is denying there will be an Australia Card v.2. The US reckons "Buy Australia" is anti-free-trade. In Pakistan, there's been an awful three-train collision, and in Kenya, there's been another senseless massacre. But absolutely the worstest of all, ugg boots may not be made from real wool.

Life, such as it is, goes on. Nothing really changes.