Dad's legacy.

My father spent a bit of time working in Asia right before I was born. He was there for about a year and a half, maybe two years with my mother, but when she fell pregnant, they decided to come back home to the U.S. to raise me here. While they were there though, my dad became good friends with one of his work collegues. He was a Taoist and by the time my parents came home, they had both absorbed quite a number of the Taoist beliefs. As such, I grew up with that influence and I still think that many of it's tennants make a lot of sense. The one that sticks out most for me is the concept of ballance. The last week and a half have really reminded me of that. On the one hand, the world has changed in a serious way for me and I now see the kinds of monsters and demons that society has denounced as mere myth and superstition. The darker element of life has been thrust right in front of me and it often feels like it could overwhelm me at any moment. On the other hand though, Jen has become so precious to me so very quickly. I know that a lot of it has to do with her being the only other person that's in this situation with me, but I can't help feel that all it has really done is speed up what may well have happened anyway. She gives me a reason to keep looking for a way to move forward rather than just stall or let things start to drag me under. Sounds mushy I know, but there's nothing more satisfying than the feeling I get when someone genuinely appreciates the help I can give and with Jen, I always know that she's grateful for my help.

It's amazing for me to think that one of the worst events in my life may also be the start of one of the best things in my life. The reason Im mentioning all this is that I'm thinking of taking Jen out for dinner tonight and seeing if she'd be interested in making our cover story into a reality. After spending the morning watching cartoons again, I realised that I'd have to be a complete fool to let a woman like that slip through my fingers. Let's hope it all works out.

-J.C.