My Buddy Beelzebub

Here’s one big thing that I miss now that I don’t live in the city:

SatanCon

No, this isn’t ComiCon for devil worshipers. It’s a gathering of members of The Satanic Temple.

Members say they don't actually believe in a literal Lucifer or Hell. Instead, they say Satan is a metaphor for questioning authority, and grounding your beliefs in science. The sense of community around these shared values makes it a religion, they say. (source)

So, not the same as the conventions thrown by the obscenely hypocritical, wealthy, evangelical, big box, predatory, christian-in-name-only asswipes. I expect SatanCon had fewer narcissistic, greedheaded, grifting pedophiles.

I’m just pissed that I missed out on the chance to get one of this year's t-shirts.

Speaking of Satan, I was watching one of the last episodes of Lucifer last night. In the final scene, he and his daughter sing/play (piano and guitar) an impromptu duet of the song Bridge Over Troubled Water.

For the first time it really hit me. I’ve always appreciated the lyrics but they describe something that was foreign to me until well into adulthood. As a kid, I didn’t have a bridge.

When you're down and out
When you're on the street
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you
I'll take your part
Oh, when darkness comes
And pain is all around

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

Back when the album came out, I much preferred The Boxer. In my angry, violent and neglectful home, the lyrics spoke to me more clearly.

In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of every glove that laid him down
Or cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame
"I am leaving, I am leaving"
But the fighter still remains

I was a fighter (in a nonviolent way). I survived and I left. So many decades later, the fighter still remains.

In last night's show,  I couldn’t hear Lucifer and his daughter, obviously (for new readers—late deafened adult here), but when they duetted, in the context of the storyline—man, I totally landed in Resonance City.

Ya know who my bridges have been as an adult? The Amazing Bob, Jen, Oni and my beloved Ten. The best thing about childhood? It ends and, if you're smart, you unlearn the shit lessons that were pounded into you. You move on to grow and evolve, to become yourself.