You're a bystander. It's my war. Not like I voted for it, or for the people who started it, or for the foreign policy that allows this to happen, but it is my country that is at war. It is my country pummeling people, bringing chaos to world order. Mind you, the world wasn't ordered to begin with, but oh have we made it worse. And yet, I have to take a vacation from war. It is too wearying. I think, even in the midst of war, people have birthday cake. Life goes on. That's about it. We can choose to give away the time we have worrying and feeling terrible, or we can hold onto life. No guilt associated. Whatever is going on around us, we are here. We live.

Enjoy your surf. Enjoy your family. Enjoy every day. I think your father did an amazing thing in buying a surfboard after he was diagnosed with cancer. That act was a declaration: I am here. I will live. I will not give up one moment until it is taken away from me.