Here It Is Again Yet It Stings Like The First Time

On the subject of the never ending cycles of our lives the triumphant September tradition of the new EA NHL game is upon us.

Observe:



I know it's not THAT much different than last years, but I usually only have a six 9 month attention span on these game. I don't even play them competitively (like online or with other real people). The mindless imaginative hockey world it puts me in for 20 mins a game has become a institution in relaxation for myself. Which is kind of miraculous because I rarely can "truly" relax doing anything. So, even though I have no time to really play the damn game, I grabbed a few other games, went to the store before class, did a trade-in and behold, another year of NHL 09.
It's kind of like if children of late 60's kept buying new versions of that crappy electric football game, where the pieces move around an electrified board bumping into each other, every year, because the players names were different on the back of the little players' jerseys. Keep in mind, I bought my first EA NHL game back in 92 for the Sega Genesis. That's right, if the end doesn't come in 2012, I could be celebrating twenty years of playing video game hockey. Professionals don't even have careers that long- oh and the games never get locked out or go on strike.

I went to the gym early today, as I have a long day ahead of me at school, and it gave me the time to watch the CNN while running, and was reminded of what the date is. Here we are seven years removed from this frozen marker in our history. I know I'm the one who is going to reflect back to that point, and see where I was and who was with me in that time- but it feels selfish. I've always felt empathy towards those who lost people, but now, looking back at seven years (they say every seven years we are a different person) I think about the victims even more, like how their lives have moved on, evolved and how this date, will forever be a marker of what life was before and after. This is a truth for those individuals who lost so much that day, but it's also a metaphor for our country. The before and after. It's the human experience to suffer loss, it's in our contract to feel happiness and transcendent joy, that we are vulnerable to suffering great tragedy. People who have lost suddenly and tragically have these date markers, this one just hangs over the collective.

September has the been the marker of new beginnings for most of my life (as I feel like I've been involved in schools FOREVER, and September is the recognized start to school). Now I can go down the line, I was at Hofstra, I was working at The Sports Authority, I was at Stony Brook and working at Borders, I was just at Phil's wedding while desperately seeking a teaching job, I was teaching for my second year, I was disastrously unemployed, and now I'm in Los Angeles at film school. (All enjoying John Harvard's Pumpkin Spice Ale except for this year!)
I mean, this is pretty all over the place- but mostly, except for the loss of my grandpa, a few friends I lost touch with, I've stayed mostly the same. I mean, I still bought the new NHL game...

But for those people, who's lives a marked with personal tragedy, I can only imagine and hope they've evolved and have found solace.