the needle and the damage done

It's more than just a good song, it is a reality. If you scroll down a couple of post you will see one titled "Its a beautiful day in my world". Following that is a comment left by Luke just over a week ago. He would often connect me with these odd Manson related tidbits. He turned 20 a couple days after he left that comment, the following nite he died of a heroin overdose. Yeah its a real drag. What makes it worse is that the last time I saw him, Dec 31, we were talking about heroin, side effects and triggers. He had cleaned up a couple of times, but apparently the last time didn't take. One of the last things I said to him, aside from "see you later", was "that's what you'll have to live with the rest of your life". It can lead to a head heavy with the weight of salt water.

Of course in times like this we retreat into our heads, dangerous tho this may be. Today I came to the conclusion that people are diamonds. we are all of different color, clarity, cut and carat. We often like to think that we are as hard as diamonds but we are all flawed and unlike the gem we can't be taken to a jeweler and have the flaws cut out of us. We may go to plastic surgeons, psychiatrist, analyst, acupuncturist, rehabs, rabbis, priest, pastors, elders, ministers, mentors, but we will always have inherent flaws that lead to chipping and in our ends, shattering.

Having been a fan of Syd Barrett in Lukes memory I would like to quote David Gilmour from a song written about Syd and say "Shine on you crazy diamond".

I don't usually drink on weeknites, but now is a great time for a beer. Here's to you Luke.