This has been a terrible week. Absolutely terrible. So, whatever motto I’m likely to have is something along the lines of everything sucks, life is unfair or go die.

As I’ve discussed before, I’m not really an optimist with good reason. Every time I get my hopes up, they have been dashed, so I tend not to do that. It saves me a lot of trouble.

I don’t really have a motto anyway. They are typically positive and are intended to inspire or motivate: to protect and serve, semper fidelis, the best or nothing, who dares wins, be prepared, live free or die, neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. If I had something like that, I’d probably engrave it on a plaque, too, but I don’t.

There’s a Finnish proverb that strikes me as having more truth in a few short words than most: Ei elämästä selviä hengissä. The English translation: you won’t survive life. No matter what you do, you’re going to die.

It means that all those assholes out there trying to cut taxes for multi-millionaires and lining their own greedy pockets while climbing over the backs of the poor will die just like the rest of us. It’s comforting to know that no matter how badly you fuck up in this world, your reward is death. Eventually, all pedophiles, rapists, murderers, con artists and scum will die just like the rest of us. They will most likely be replaced by others since there never seems to be a shortage of evil in the world. Some will live to be very old and continue the cycle of douchebaggery until the very last minute, but we all end up in the same place eventually.

Sadly, that’s the best I can do by way of positive epithets these days. Things might look up for me since they can’t really get a whole lot worse and maybe, eventually, I’ll find a statement that’s a little more uplifting, but for now, just knowing that no matter what happens in life, all of us receive the unfair reward of death is somehow reassuring. No matter what we do, good or bad, we only get one shot at living and it’s a time-ended phenomenon. We have to make the best of it while we’re here.