When I was much younger, my mother taught me that history was divided in two. BC meant 'Before Christ.' But because 'Anno Domini' was too complicated for me to remember, we settled for the mnemonic After Death.
In 2003, I learned to separate my own history by that defining year. What came before, what followed after. There are certain hollow places that cannot be filled in a year, in ten. I will still chase after Vienna. I will still cry when I hear a familiar Beatles tune play. But with the old dreams and the old hurts are new ones, crowding and insistent. It is ten years A.D. Just because it's gotten easier doesn't mean that I don't find it hard that you're gone.
