“It’s a jump. . . to conclusions mat!”
Minnesota is in an uproar. Minnesota is on the brink of chaos and its residents are ready to throw all their Minnesota-nice out the window and trade it in for a handgun.
Yesterday, legislation passed that allowed law-abiding Minnesotans -- with the help of instruction and interview -- to conceal and carry handguns as they please. The papers are littered with articles about it, calling it some of the ‘loosest’ legislation on hand guns in the country; even more so than such gun slinging states as Texas and Wyoming.
Morning talk shows are suddenly booking any local legislator they can find, chatting up a storm and making jokes about highway violence and vigilantism. The workplace water cooler buzz is about how people don’t feel safe and don’t want to ‘confront’ potentially violent co-workers because they could come into work and open fire; as if thousands of disgruntled cubicle dwellers are just thanking their lucky stars that they can now go postal on their cube mates because they can finally carry a handgun into the workplace legally.* Today I came into work to find a large, shoddily made sign on the front door stating that “This corporation bans guns in these premises”** because the new legislation states that if private organizations wish their patrons not to carry guns on the establishment, they must notify them. Churches are in an uproar that the state is now governing their establishments. Corporations are running scared for liability reasons and the last nail hasn’t even been driven into the coffin of this issue yet.

I realize my tone seems a bit cavalier. Perhaps I’m too lackadaisical about the whole thing. But what I’ve realized was that before the new handgun laws, the horrible road construction season that is summer in Minnesota had everyone in a tizzy; planning new routes and worrying about commute times. Before that it was possibility of huge snow storms and the fear that governor’s no-new-tax promise would cut government jobs everywhere.

If there’s one thing that September 11th taught me, it’s that there are some things that are beyond our control and some things that happen for reasons unknown. While everyone agrees that preventative care should be taken to deter the unfortunate instances, once they happen there’s little we can do to undo them. And in a society that just lowered the medical definition for hypertension, worrying about it doesn’t seem like a viable solution.

What ever happened to taking things with a grain of salt? What happened to changing the things we could change and avoiding reactive behavior that spirals our mental (and eventual physical health) down the tubes? Have we lost all ability to consciously evaluate situations according to their importance or have we just become a society that just jumps to conclusions?


*And more importantly, don’t they usually use semi-automatic rifles for those things?
** Please folks: If you are responsible for creating signage that will be seen by hundreds of people, make sure you use correct grammar.

posted by paula 8:06 AM

2 weeks and then some
So I’ve neglected the blog. And while under normal circumstances, the Catholic upbringing that I have might invade my conscience, making me feel guilty about the whole ordeal at this point, guilt is merely a forgotten side note to what is the daily hectic scramble of our lives. Somewhere between getting engaged, planning a wedding, contemplating the purchase of a new car and buying a house, we’ve even become ‘passing ships’ to each other as we’re getting ready in the bathroom or stuffing breakfast in our faces as we lurch out the door, half asleep. And so it wasn’t until this weekend – later this weekend – that we finally got a chance to sit back and relax. And because of that, I owe a world of gratitude to Lyns and Roger and the Irish Friend and his wife, for pulling us away from the hectic and making us spend a little time watching the leaves blow in the trees or staring into a blazing campfire (not to mention, enduring hours of endless banter about house and wedding details). So to sum up the 2+ weeks we’ve been gone, here’s a few revelations, snip its and random thoughts:

1. Somehow, somewhere we have suddenly become the poorest people we know. Obviously, for obvious reasons.
2. We are becoming much too familiar with the folks at our gym and not quite familiar enough with those individuals that are our friends. While there’s an ebb and flow to relationships, I suspect our friends find it creepy when we talk about such people as Steve-the-guy-who-works-the-front-desk, Weight-slammer, Martin, and Little-Buff-Asian-Dude.
3. Planning weddings is not as difficult as people think. That is, unless you’re not associated with a religion, want to get married in a smaller, more conservative town and refuse to get married by a justice of the peace. Once you get past all of that, it’s a piece of cake.
4. No matter how you prepare yourself for it, the thought of being financially independent and debt-free only to turn around and take out a mortgage for hundreds of thousands of dollars is nerve racking, even if the interest rate is the best it’s been in decades.
5. “The Matrix: Reloaded” and it’s predecessor, although admirable in their plot, action and special effects is still, by far a horrible movie, only thanks to Keanu Reeves and his shameful attempts at acting. However, his gratuitous nudity in the second film makes up for any ‘shortcomings’ the films may have.

posted by paula 1:24 PM