Absurd and Askew

I just have no words for this. Nothing. All I can do is laugh.

I knew after today's morning of tragic stories, I'd find one that would make the world seem a little less crazy. I have to say that it took a little time, but here it is... it's short, but it's well worth reading.

Woman Buys Foreclosed Home for Stranger

There are still good people in the world after all. After this morning, I was beginning to wonder.

There are days when it seems like the world has gone insane, when every news story holds some tragic relay of events that are both cruel and hard to decipher. I watch the local news every morning, then I watch the first 30-45 minutes of The Today Show. I get text alerts from CNN for breaking news events throughout the day. Today it just seems that it's been one shock after another.

First, the local news relays a story about a young man working at a Tim Horton's who tried to stop someone from breaking into his car parked in a lot next to his job. He was shot dead by the potential car thief and the guy got away.

Then The Today Show reported the sad story that the young news reporter Anne Pressly from KATV in Little Rock, Arkansas, who was brutally beaten and left for dead in her home last week, has died from her injuries. Her killer is still on the loose. The evidence collected thusfar suggests it may have been a home invasion and robbery and that her assailant was a stranger. They also reported on the two students killed and one injured in a shooting at the University of Central Arkansas in Little Rock.

Not enough tragic news this morning, so says CNN. I get a breaking news blurb from them stating that the SUV in connection with the Jennifer Hudson family murders and the Amber Alert on her 7-year-old nephew Julian King, who has been missing since the murders, has been found with the body of a young black boy inside, believed to be Hudson's nephew. His identity hasn't yet been confirmed, but the vehicle is confirmed as the one sent out with the Amber Alert and the Amber Alert has been cancelled this morning. Bad signs.

Not enough? I must have missed this one on Friday, so I just found out about it this morning when I was on CNN's site for more news on Hudson's nephew. Apparently, the FBI released their lab results that resulted in the 7-count indictment (including 1st Degree Murder) against Casey Anthony with regard to her missing 3-year-old daughter Caylee. According to Friday afternoon's blog post on CNN's Nancy Grace's site on the Caylee Anthony case:

The report confirming evidence of human decomposition and high levels of chloroform discovered in Casey Anthony's car trunk.

--(From Stacey Newman, Nancy Grace Producer, Friday Oct. 24, 2008, 3:23 PM ET)

Wow. So today's news isn't enough. Through my efforts to try to escape all this tragic news rather than try to wrap my head around the all the whys (because I can't), I'm lead astray by Jennifer Hudson's new movie, "The Secret Life of Bees." Having read this wonderful book by Sue Monk Kidd, and also being a big fan of Queen Latifah and Dakota Fanning, both of whom star in the movie, I decided to go off in a lighter direction in my internet wanderings. I visited the the official movie site, read a nice review by Roger Ebert on the flick, then wandered off to the movie's official Myspace page. While there, I shot out a Friend Request to the movie's page, and to Queen's and Dakota's pages.

For the time being I was sufficiently distracted.

I'm thinking movies. Then I remembered seeing the TV ads for the new movie "Changeling", directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich. Looks interesting, but I remembered the TV ads saying something about it being based on a true story. So I Googled it. I should have known better. I was trying to get away from the very real tragedies of the morning by going off in the direction of movies, wasn't I?

"Changeling" is based on events that occured in 1928-30 in Los Angeles called the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders. A man and his mother were convicted (and the man was put to death) for the kidnapping, torture and brutal axe murders, including dismemberment, of 3 young boys. According to the man's own confessions, he could have killed up to 12 boys; he changed his story frequently. It's a truly bizarre story, but the worst part about it is that it's true.

I guess I didn't move far enough away from the bad news of the morning. There are some tragedies that I will never understand. Even if I come to understand it on a (messed up) psychological level, I never can grasp it on a moral or emotional level. But then, senseless death is like that, I suppose. I doubt even those murdering senselessly, though they may have reasons that seem to be rational in their own twisted minds, are really ever able to make true, deep-down sense of their own actions.

So, I guess I'm off to temper the bad with some good on another internet foray. Hopefully this time I won't get sidetracked into even more bad stuff, but if I do, it won't be the first time. My curiousity tends to lead me in all sorts of strange directions.

Because sometimes people are just plain jerks without provocation or reason, I've had to remind myself recently of this very intelligent quote by Mother Theresa. It wipes the slate for me whenever I read it.

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.

If you are successful you will win some false friends and true enemies; Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.

-Mother Theresa

This quote also comes to mind and I truly believe that if more people knew of this quote and put it into action, we'd all get along a little better.

There is an awful lot of negative energy out there and some of it is directed at us by other people. But other people’s reactions and opinions are simply other people’s reactions and opinions. They are having their own experience and none of it has anything to do with you - it does not make you wrong, guilty, bad, unworthy, famous, loveable, or important. If you take it personally and take on the poison of another’s words, it becomes a very negative agreement you have with yourself. What anybody thinks about you, or says about you, is really about them. Not taking it personally allows you to be in relationship with anyone and not get trapped in their stuff. This agreement can also pertain to things that we take personally that cause us to go into upset.

-Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR THE MEAN DOG MUSIC WOMEN OF ROCK 2 BREAST CANCER BENEFIT ON OCTOBER 18, 2008


COLUMBUS, Ohio, October 2, 2008 – A change in the band line-up has been made for Mean Dog Music’s second annual Women of Rock charity event benefiting Central Ohio breast cancer research, education and awareness organizations. Women of Rock 2 will take place on October 18, 2008, from 8:00 PM to 2:00 AM at Whiskey Dick’s, located at 2690 E. Dublin-Granville Road, Columbus, Ohio 43231.

Performances for this year’s event will be by the following local bands: Enchanted, featuring Tina Moore and Wendy Black; Hardwood, featuring Vicki Wood; The Nikki Wilson Band, featuring Nikki Wilson, who also performed at the 2007 Women of Rock event; No Man’s Band, featuring Stacy Wilson; Overated, featuring Steph D; and Voodoo Slave, featuring Stephanie McManaway. Voodoo Slave is replacing the band Warped Minds, who had to drop out of the event due to a scheduling conflict.

Other additions to the event have been made as well. Chris Keigley, the singer for local Ozzy Osbourne tribute band Speak of the Devil, will volunteer his time to emcee the event. Sue Leighton, Mix 97.1's afternoon D.J., will also volunteer her time to be a special guest emcee.

Guitar Center has donated a guitar to be raffled off during the event. The guitar will be custom painted by local artists, making it a one-of-a-kind original work of art. Additional sponsors who have donated items for the raffle are Dirty Booty Clothing, Eddie George’s Grille 27, Lucky 13 Salon, Studio 35 Cinema and Draft House, Sharon H. Bell Designs, and Undone Boutique.

It was originally decided to hold a silent auction for all donated items, but it has since been determined that more money would be raised by raffling the items. 100% of the proceeds from the raffled items will go to local charity.

Mean Dog Music started this annual event in 2007, bringing together local female rock musicians and their bands to raise money for breast cancer research, education and awareness organizations in the Central Ohio area. All proceeds from the event’s door cover charge, advanced ticket sales, raffle, and limited edition merchandise sales, as well as any donations made by individuals during the course of the evening, will go directly to predetermined Central Ohio breast cancer research, education and awareness charity organizations.

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This event is open to the public. For more information regarding this event or to schedule interviews, contact Jill Cape by email at meandogmusic@sbcglobal.net. Logos and graphic advertisements are available upon request.
Women of Rock: http://www.myspace.com/womenofrock
Mean Dog Music Promotion: http://www.meandogmusic.com