In this picture I'm flanked by two extremely close friends of mine...Tupac and Maxine. They both died tragically not too far apart from one another. I flipped through more pictures of my youth only to come across at least 6 other friends who had been taken from this world...violently. I can't even count acquaintances. There was a time all that loss felt like the norm; today it felt unnatural, strange, downright wrong. Half of my life was surviving a war zone...genocide. I'm grateful for what I have survived. GratefuI that I can spend an evening with Fallon playing a pie in the face game. Grateful I didn't become a statistic like I often thought I would. Grateful that my own children don't have to confront the loss and violence in their neighborhood in the way their parents had to. But, I also feel helpless, a bit depressed that there are so many of us who still do. And it feels like it's only gotten and getting worse.

I'm hurting today.

Love you guys.

J