Sometimes Life Feels Like Nothing But a Sinking S#it Pit

I was looking at my kitchen table the other day thinking I had better start reading these newspapers that have been piling up and de-clutter my tabletop.
I started reading the newspaper pictured above and saw the headline about another 9/11 being planned by the usual suspects, another gun slaughter in the USA, a story about a huge diamond and an ad for the world's biggest garage sale.
I couldn't help thinking of that John Denver song, 'Some Days are Diamonds' when I read through all of those stories.

And that garden shovel in the ad above made me think that I didn't need a garage sale, I needed a golden shovel to get through most of the news today.
Scovel Your Way Out of the S#it?

The paper under that one had singer Jimmy Barnes on the cover with a quote from him saying how he nearly ended it all one night.
I thought how many blokes haven't thought about that?
Q&A: Jimmy Barnes opens up on addiction and coming back from the brink

In the centre of that paper was a picture of Jimmy standing in the ocean with the headline, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place".

I read that Jimmy Barnes story above and thought it's good to see someone like Jimmy coming out and being honest about those dark nights in his life, and I thought that I should pull his book out of my "to read" pile and make a start on it.

But I discovered that I didn't have that book of Jimmy's.
I had the one he wrote before that (and his children's book), even though I saw him in August at the 'Byron Writers Festival' thinking I had bought his latest book.
I'd seen Jimmy do a talk with Tex Perkins at the writers festival and decided to buy his two books, thinking I was up to date with the books Jimmy had written, but I had 'Working Class Boy', not 'Working Class Man'.
Doh!
Now I'll have to buy his other book once I've read 'Working Class Boy'.

I do like his children's book though.

The children's book has a CD in the back of it of Jimmy reading the story.
I joked with Jimmy when he was signing the kid's book for me that I had always wanted to learn Scottish;-)
Luckily for me Jim and Tex thought my joke was worth a chuckle and I got to walk away with my signed books ... and teeth still in tact.

I also thought it was rather synchy (sinky?) that next to Jimmy's 'Light in the Dark' newspaper story was a small story about how a lot of young men drown in rips (R.I.Ps?) while swimming in the ocean.
I was nearly one of those young men in my early 20s when I got caught in a rip I didn't think I was going to get out of, which is one of the reasons (besides sharks) that I don't swim in the ocean anymore ... apart from going into waist/waste deep surf;-)

I read my newspapers digesting those stories at my dining table then threw the old newspapers in the recycling bin and went to put a load of washing on.
The life preserver hanging above my dryer caught my eye as I was still thinking about all those years ago and struggling to save myself from drowning and my own suicide attempt on a dark night at the end of my teenage years.

And I thought it was rather apt that I should run into Jimmy in Byron Bay of all places, home of my favourite lighthouse.
Guiding Higher Light

Cape Byron Lighthouse, Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia

Life can bring you down at times, but -

Or...