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Today, someone died…

The snow is melted, huzzah!

Today, a shot was fired within a block of the library. We locked our doors, called the police, gabbed about the possibilities. “Was it a gunshot?” “Yes!” “Where? Who? What?” I continued to unlock the door any time a patron wanted in or out … I was told to, but really, I was unconcerned. Grafton is hardly the type of town to host the next Dog Day Afternoon. When the police arrived and told us it was just a car trying to start with no manifold cover (something about spraying ether), and backfiring, I wasn’t surprised. Still, that’s what passes for excitement when you work in a small-town library, I guess.

Today, someone died in Grafton. No, they weren’t shot by the car backfiring. Someone died at the bowling alley, and that’s all I know. Not how, nor why … they waited, and the ambulance never came. They called for one twice. Somewhere nearby, there is grief. Nearby, there is anger. I know no details, only third-hand information (if not fourth).

If I had a spiritual guru, it would be Rob Brezsny.

Aries (March 21 – April 19)

On February 1, six big-name entertainers took control of the Super Bowl halftime show. The result was a histrionically boring spectacle of robotic sexuality and fake emotion. If there was any saving grace amidst the monumental emptiness, it was Janet Jackson’s climactic unveiling. In a New York Times article, Alessandra Stanley wrote, “The one moment of honesty in that coldly choreographed tableau was when the cup came off and out tumbled a normal middle-aged woman’s breast instead of an idealized Playboy bunny implant.” Your assignment in the coming week, Aries, is to be inspired by that moment of honesty. Strip away pretension and phoniness everywhere you find them, thereby exposing the raw humanity that lies beneath. One caveat: Do this ethically, and without breaking the law.

I’m not one for pretension or phoniness as it is. For some reason, though, I really, really appreciated this perspective on something that the rest of the nation has been playing up as shocking, horrifying, or – and perhaps this shocks me more than the others – even newsworthy. Today in Grafton, someone died because the ambulance never came. It will affect the news no more than a passing breeze, but Janet’s breast will never be forgotten.

I die of shame.