The Sistine Chapel in My Living Room

We’re now in the last quarter of the forgettable year 2005 and, with one eye to the end of the year and the other on the lookout for a sky filled with locust, we make our way onward. Really, outside of the locust, are there any other signs remaining before the Rapture? I’m looking up at my ceiling and with, the right kind of eyes, I swear I see Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment Fresco.

Outside of my personal strife, look at all the other happenings if you want proof that this has been one shitty year. Bombings and murders in Iraq have killed more than 3,000 Iraqis and about 600 U.S. troops so far this year, and one still gets the uneasy feeling that we haven’t seen the bad guys’ best shot yet. Iran is quickly building its way into the nuclear club without a primer on appropriate manners and, apparently with the help of the Russians, they now have a missile to reach Europe which may cause a mass surrender among the mighty Euros at any moment.

Despite what anyone believes, there are still WMD tucked nicely into hidden shelters and valleys in Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Lord knows where else, and there may possibly be truth to the urban legend of “suitcase” nukes in the U.S. now. The relatively unknown but power hungry gang MS13 out of El Salvador has a well-paid gig with international terrorists to smuggle them through San Salvador, into Mexico and through its porous border with the U.S. Some estimate as many as 14,000 have been smuggled across.

On the disease front, we’re facing a myriad of new and improved viruses; from the bird flu to a new strain of the Spanish Flu, to old diseases that were once thought manageable like rickets, smallpox, typhus, and measles.

A series of hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast killing more than 1,000 which is said by many Islamists as a payback from God. Shortly after, a massive earthquake in Pakistan kills more than 50,000 mostly followers of Islam as if to prove that God, no matter whose side He’s on, is in a foul mood.

So I feel the general unease that I think most people feel and wonder why this is all piling up this year. Like most I also wonder when positive thoughts of the future will return and we’ll have that confident swagger back and can concentrate on the important things in life like Kings Basketball. It turns out that it isn’t likely to come soon enough for some. In the past few weeks, I have been listening to stories from a friend about her friend. He’s gone through it all – been the caretaker of a father with Parkinson’s since he was 13, got married and a bit more than a year later his wife discovered she had MS. He cared for her for nearly 23 years and in May of this year, one month after his mother died of Alzheimer's, his wife succumbed to an infection. He was just starting to get his sea legs back when his twin sister, who had been a rock for him during his wife’s illness, discovered she had an inoperable brain tumor and the prognosis isn’t good.

Having been through a bit of what he’s going through, the often-asked question becomes, why do bad things happen to good people? I asked a minister about this once and he suggested the answer was in the return of the Prodigal Son. Until recently -- like today -- I didn't know the relevance of this parable. I guess it's supposed to mean we should be happy with the good things in life that are around us; our own health and that of our family, a warm puppy, and a big glass of scotch. I'm not sure it makes up for the pain that living a life brings, but I guess you can always drink to your health and get your face licked by a schnauzer to pass the day.

Yeah, I know this isn’t light reading, but short of the Miracle in South Bend, we need some good news. I also don’t agree with Tina Turner; we could use another hero.