It's The Parts of a Life You Don't Know...

Once upon a time there was this guy and he always thought he was...Different. Thing is, he was. He had several talents and skills and it served him well throughout most of his life because one of those abilities was he could turn off certain emotions, let go of that which makes us human and, instead, can make us into monsters. There are agencies that look for those kinds of people because they're useful and disposable and we rarely ever hear about them until one of them gets loose and does something that makes the news. 

One day this guy knew he was at a dangerous cross road in his life and he had to make a choice. He could continue with the way he'd been living, hurting way too many people in the process, or he could learn to be human...Again. He chose the latter and tried to make amends for a lot of damage he'd done in his life. You see, one of the things he knew how to do well was kill and just kind of forget about it afterward. Mentally he knew this was screwed up and he tried to find some kind of feeling, remorse, anything. The answer presented itself in a horrible way. 

AIDS.

He had a great many friends who were affected by this disease and back then, at the beginning, not a whole lot of information was available...There were some books, one of the worse and most dangerous was one called 'The Myth Of Heterosexual AIDS'...He began to help those around him, friends whose partners were fading fast and would sit in and help take care of them once a week, giving their loved ones a break. Over the period of months he came to know seven of them, he was there for the deaths of five and, for the first time in his life he understood grief, really understood it. 

The years have passed and he's watched way too many die, friends from high school, from college, from life and he's had his own demons to battle along the way. He truly wishes he could take away the pain from those who are fighting their own spiritual battles as they do whatever they can to keep someone alive. They lie to themselves, they find 'Religion' sometimes, they pray, they work their asses off to keep their loved ones alive. He hurts for them because they won't accept reality.

Before he leaves this world he'll see a few more friends die and he'll wonder why he hasn't joined them...Until then he will do what he can to fight the ignorance and racism and bigotry of those who just want the dying dead and want to believe that miracles are going to happen and 'God' is going to save us all and it ain't going to happen.

I know this guy with these special skills and talents. 

And he's rediscovered that his anger is still there in his soul. Only this time he knows where to direct it.

Others will as well. 

Sometimes change will only happen when enough of us are angry, when we've finally gotten tired of doing nothing while every aspect of our lives are taken from us, while the lie 'It'll be all right' is continued to believed because we will always grasp at straws.

The world is running out of straws.

And it's those parts of a persons life you don't know about that will eventually make a difference.