AUSTIN, Texas, August 1, 2006— Some days you just feel down. Any little thing seems monumental. Things not going according to plan or coming out the way you'd like. The oppressive heat. Your inability to get anything done.

Then you think about the really BIG things that happen to people. Like getting shot by a sniper. Being in a war zone. Having a horrible accident.

Forty years ago, Forrest would have usually found himself on the main mall at UT at 11:48. He had lingered over his hamburger and coke at Renfro's Drug on the drag. Thus he was able to retreat into the store when he realized reports of sniper fire were true...as a shot rang out and killed a man near him as he stood in front.

Most things I'm worrying about aren't cosmic.

Live or die. Suffer or feel good. The rest is fluff.