Cure AIDS. 8000 people per day die of AIDS. That means that in 1 month, more people die from AIDS than died in the southeastern tsunami. I can barely function when I consider what that really means. What if I had AIDS? What if I had a disease that no one wants to talk about, let alone be around? What if I was sitting in a hospital bed for months and friends got bored of visiting me and family lost hope in me and I was afraid to touch my fragile sweet tender endlessly beautiful daughter and my 5-year plans turned into fighting just for tomorrow and I stopped loving everything worth loving strictly as a defense and I finally killed God and Goodness and Life and Light and Hope and Hope and Hope? What if hope was the hollow echo of a child's musings? What if I were Eight Thousand People today, April 26, 2006? And Eight Thousand People tomorrow, April 27, 2006? What if I were Twenty-Four Thousand People not looking forward to this weekend? What if the leaves on this tree of life kept falling and falling and falling until winter was the only thing left?
rock-a-bye, baby, in the treetop,
when the wind blows the cradle will rock,
when the bough breaks the cradle will fall,
and down will come everyleaf everyone everything...cradle and all.
