Every time I flip the hourglass, I receive perspective. I can add it up in piles of sand. How did I ever ignore such imperfections? After the smoke cleared, only the governments gained. Empires and emperors have never felt shrapnel, their relatives weren't casualties. After the cities are razed (and the names are stripped from those buried beneath rubble), they speak in abstracts about "acceptable losses." And this is nothing new. If only I would have known, I would have tried to change the world-how it works.