Today is one of those days when I should not blog. However, I think back to an afternoon many... many... years ago when I went to the YMCA and there were two young ladies on the piece of torture equipment next to me that said, "Going to the gym is like going to church. You don't feel like going but once you get there, you're glad you went." (Not that I was creeping on their conversation... no, not at all.)
I agree with what was said. Very similarly I would also say that church and diet/exercise are something easy to fall away from if you fall out of habit. Miss one Sunday, miss two. Skip your walk one night, turn week, turn month. I think this universal truth applies to blogging too. (Obviously as my seven years of intermittent blogging would show.)
So tonight, I blog.
Today, my only creative efforts involved Pinning ideas for future creative efforts. My only culinary adventures involved chocolate pudding in a pretty glass with a dollop of Cool Whip on top (although, don't pretty glasses just make everything fancier? I have a whole cabinet of them I need to use far more often. Would you like some popcorn... in a pretty glass?) Alas, the crux of productivity today was posting items on the local FaceBook sales page (and selling several, shoulder self-patting commencing).
I guess what's on my mind today is mainly the news. I unashamedly admit my conscious effort to stay unaware of current events.
I like to stick my fingers in my ears, sing "lalala" and bury my head in the sand.
For my husband, future history teacher that he is, who reads the paper, watches the news, and even listens to talk radio (gag!)... all that responsible citizen stuff, I am sure this is quite frustrating. Here is the gist of a near-daily conversation in out house:
He says: "Did you hear about____?" (fill in any current news event)
She says: "Nope"
Occasionally there are news stories that are so devastating that they can't be avoided... even if I don't log onto Facebook for the day. The latest of this type of story is, of course, the Colorado shooting at the Batman premier. Events like this disturb me on so many levels. It's stomach-churning to think that things like this can happen in our world, or society, our backyard.
I find the aftermath of these events just as disturbing though. Now, lawyers, and psychologists, and journalists will all clamor to create the most sensationalized explanation for WHY he did this. We have such a hard time accepting the fact that by the very definition of a "senseless act" of violence, there is NO way to make sense of it. Well-educated and highly reputable citizens with a childhood enveloped in love and reassurance can just as easily perpetuate a horrific crime as the jobless guy that flinches at the idea of even being hugged after such an abusive childhood. We want to create a logical explanation for illogical behavior... because it make us feel safe. It makes "that" person an "other"- not our family, our neighbor, our cashier at the grocery store. I have never watched the show "Snapped," but I think it is likely to be the only scenario of these kind of stories that speaks the truth.
The District Attorney has already announced that she is "considering pursuing the death penalty against Holmes"... before the investigation is finished, before any psychological testing has been done. That too just causes me to be more disturbed. I do not believe in the death penalty. In any case. Under any circumstance. Trust me, I know that is not a popular opinion and I am okay with that. It is what I believe. I believe in the sanctity of human life, from conception to death. I do not believe that any human should be given the god-like power to end human life. I think it creates a scary society when man is given this power to deem who deserves life and who deserves death. I don't want that power, and I don't want another human to have that power either. I can empathize with those who believe in retaliatory punishment, meaning killing he who kills. What's the result? Does extreme punishment deter others from similar behaviors? Apparently not. It does achieve removing that cancer from our society... but so does prison. I'm not going to diverge into the topics of prison reforms and costs here, for now. We do not live in a classless society. Equal justice for all is a Utopian concept, and allowing man to "legally murder" has led societies down some dark tunnels in history.
To those of you checking into my little chaotic world, I half-hearted apologize for the heaviness tonight. I am not promising that I won't go back in the upcoming days and delete half this post as I have been prone to do with Facebook conversations that leave me saying, "Maybe I shouldn't have said that." It's definitely not the fodder of Mommy Blogs or Crafting Blogs, but I'm just not willing to pigeon-hole myself in that kind of niche right now... and this is what's heavy on my mind tonight.
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