It's a blessing...and (yes) a curse.

I once told a friend that I see the world like a neo-cubist: all sides of an issue at the same time. He told me (rather smugly) that I don't understand neo-cubism, because it's really about temporal flux. Or some such whatever. I told him that art was in the eye of the beholder. He gave me that look. You know the one.

I'm holding my ground. And while it's an interesting way to live, it's also kind of awful and very exhausting. The news yesterday that a House panel has OK'd a resolution to declare the deaths of some 800,000 Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire during World War I a genocide has hit me hard. And, because of my neo-cubist brain, it has hit me hard for a variety of reasons, from a variety of angles.

Angle One: World War I was fought nearly one-hundred years ago. Last year, Turkey and Armenia signed an accord. The two countries have agreed that they would like to get along. Look, that's pretty big news. It made me happy, in fact. So, which of those two facts should we assign more weight? What happened one-hundred years in the past, or the events of one year back? Which event's intent is clearer to us, today?

Angle Two: My grandfather was there. He lost his entire family, except for one sister. In some cases, the loss was violent. In every case, it was tragic. I should make it clear at this point that we are not Turkish; my ancestors were on the other side of the conflict. Even now, my father struggles to talk about it.

Angle Three: The Turks who helped hide my grandfather. Beware broad strokes of the brush.

Angle Four: The accountability thing. (Oh, I knew that was going to come back to bite me.)

Angle Five: The fact that my father taught me to despise the action and not the man.

Angle Six: Who is being held accountable, if this resolution comes to be? Is anyone who was actually there still around?

Sometimes I envy people who can just pick a side on issues like this. And then I stop myself and think. (No, really?) Would I rather be like that? Would I rather be like the "Time to make the donuts" guy and just sort of plod my way through life, seeing everything in terms of black or white?

Well, no. No, that sounds awful. Even more awful than being the way I am.

But I tell you, it hurts to be this way. I swear to God it does.