Twitter

As of this afternoon I've joined Twitter, at long last. The reasons for this are multi-faceted, but worth mentioning. To start with the obvious, some of my closest friends swear by it, and it did lead to my having an excellent, healthy lunch in Urbana on Monday. Less likely, I joined in part because someone at a funeral viewing showed me his Twitter account, I guess because he was tired of talking about his late family member.

Along too-similar lines, I joined Twitter because of the tragedy in Norway today, and Twitter is the place to get news the fastest. Eighty kids, with the possibility of more? There are no words for this horror, this sadness, this senselessness. I pray for the victims, their families, their nation. Also, for the killer, though only with sighs too deep for words.

I'll also share what I did on Twitter: due to the kind of day it has become, the song in my head for the past few hours has been Crooked Fingers' cover of Bruce Springsteen's The River. It's beautiful and terribly sad, and I should bother to check out the original. The only sadder song I can think of is this one, which never fails to make me weep. The reference to the melody of The Minstrel Boy really puts it over the top for me, as I sang it in a group very similar to the one in that link (though our interpretation was much more heartfelt).

Tomorrow cannot come soon enough.