Earlier this week I received a forwarded e-mail of the sort I would not normally have opened but that the forwarder was someone important to me. It suggested that Americans who supported our soldiers in Iraq ought to show this support by wearing red clothing on Fridays.

I'm really not all that committed either way on the issue. That is, I think much to much noise is made by the objectors, as it is unlikely that pulling out our troops quickly will have any but detrimental effects on the world, but that doesn't mean I think the war was entirely well-thought. That thinking is entirely hindsight here. I think far more people favored the war before it began, based on the best evidence available to them at the time, and that it is a bit disingenuous to say now that it was a bad idea. Still, troops need our encouragement, and while I'm not the person to run out and encourage anyone, I certainly do not want to discourage them.

All of which meant that Thursday morning when I was looking for a T-shirt I passed up the red one, so that I could wear in on Friday; then on Friday I donned the red T-shirt, to show my support for our troops.

At the end of the day, my wife commented on it, that I had worn red in honor of AIDS Awareness Day. Did I not know that it was AIDS Awareness Day? Did I not know that red was the color adopted for AIDS awareness, and that red ribbons were the symbol for AIDS research support?

Actually I knew none of that, really. I probably saw such ribbons and recognized their function at some point, but AIDS research holds my attention less today than the war (I was interested back in the early 80's when I was involved in the medical radio program, but one can only have so many primary interests, and that is not one of mine). I take some consolation in the fact that she was completely unaware, in turn, that there was any movement to encourage wearing red on Fridays to show support for our armed forces.

In the end, I suppose that wearing a color is not a particularly effective means of expressing support for anything.

I am reminded of a Mad Magazine strip decades ago (when I was still young enough that occasionally reading that magazine would not be a blot on my character). In it a husband was driving while his wife was nagging him, calling him an idiot. He patiently explained to her that that day had been singled out by liberals as a day for opponents of the (Vietnam) war to express their opposition by driving with their headlights lit. He, he continued, supported that war, and so was driving with his headlights extinguished. His exasperated wife exclaimed, "Yes, but, at night?!?"

I probably will not attempt to express my support for anything again any time soon by wearing colored clothes. For all I know, some clever boy in the AIDS support community might have started that chain letter to get conservatives wearing red in time to be counted supporters of his cause this week. That, though, is definitely the cynicism of my hindsight at work.

Speaking of work, that long-awaited article in the Theory 101 series at Places to Go, People to Be, Creative Agenda, joins its brothers System and the Shared Imagined Space and The Impossible Thing Before Breakfast on the web pages of that respected e-zine. It is about what we mean when we say that a role playing game is "fun", and how we do not all always mean the same thing. It is worth a look, even if you have only the author's word for that.

I've also put a bit of time into approving members for that new forum opened for my church. That has taken a bit of my time. Last night I also stole a few minutes to add an entry to my MySpace Harry Potter blog (maybe so soon because the entry about Peter Pettigrew a couple days back was such an obvious one), this one suggesting that Voldemort made a mistake when he used Harry's blood in his return to corporeal form. Thus far that blog has gotten no comments or kudos, but it is being read by someone, as it has over a hundred views since I opened it.

However, time is short. I have a rehearsal within the hour, and must pack my equipment to get there. I'll be back to look at the forums later.

--M. J. Young