On my birthday, just as I am heading out for a birthday walk,

I see the news about a 3 year old child killed not far away from my hometown.

If I died today, the people mourning me would have said

What a shame, she was too young to die.

Yet they, and I, find nothing to say about the three year old.

They say that the too young to die age depends on where you are born,

But in the place where I was born, people of all ages die every night for the most unnatural reasons.

Well, then, it depends on the willingness to leave the place of your birth, to detach yourself from the land, to be a foreigner, to look for someone in the crowd who at least understands your language,

To miss home while your home is crumbling away.

I am not judging myself or anyone

I’m just saying that grief is always an appropriate emotion.