Loyalty

Simon Smiddo had decided this about loyalty: He would be loyal to those who shared his beliefs. If that alienated any member of his family, that was the way it would be and tough shit for them.

As for his profession, he would not be loyal to those who were terrible at it or immoral in practicing it. If this alienated anyone he worked with, that was the way it would be and tough shit for them

Tearing

Up and down are opposites. But if you use the word tearing with them, you might think that they mean about the same thing.

But they don't, truly.

At first, I thought they did. But after I gave it more thought, I realized this:

• Tearing up is usually something you do with your hands, such as tearing up a piece of paper.
• Tearing down is tearing on a bigger object that you can't hold, such as tearing down a ruin of a house.

Before The Fact

I found this on the net while surfing it last month. It comes from a blog written by Luc Sante, a native of Belgium who moved to the United States with his parents as a youth and has written about New York things.

If you want to read the entire post about it, and I recomment that you do, the link at his blog is here.

Moving Forward ...

I thought of posting about the death of my parents, and had planned to do it before today. However, I've found that I just won't go through some notes in a folder about that.

I didn't post anything else except for the one above this one until today out of respect for their deaths. With that date here today, so I'll post more often.

I found this on the Internet. I post it here for you and especially for me. I'll try to remember them. Better yet, I will try to do them.
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You are not alone.

Join us.

Many of us will NOT give up.

Hope is still alive.

Somebody somewhere loves you.

Pass this along.

The Last Eight Months

The time from early May to late December of last year has been the most trying mentally, emotionally, and psychologically in my life.

After a short period of quickly declining health, my father died on Sept. 16 of last year -- the day before my birthday.

Then, after another period of quickly declining health, my mother died on Dec. 26 -- the day after Christmas.

That's why I had not written many posts during that time, and why I made vague references in earlier posts to the poor health of some relatives.

I've been trying to organize my notes to write about my parents and that time. When that happens, I'll post it.