Triggering Thoughts on Gun Control

     First, my heart goes out to all those hurt & killed in the theatre shooting last night in Aurora, CO.  They were there for the premier of Dark Knight Rises, sitting quietly inside, hurting no one, & a freaking lunatic destroyed what began as an innocent evening for some adults & kids!  Apparently they have the suspect in custody but now they’ve discovered he booby-trapped his apartment.  Jeesh!  They’re everywhere these days it seems.
     Just last week a shooting took place at a local mall in my town; fortunately in the parking lot so at least no innocents were involved.  It was reported as a drug & gun deal gone badly.  I’ve only lived here 3 years but apparently this is the norm in these parts due to increasingly high population & not enough police.  To worsen matters, Virginia just passed a law where its citizens can purchase guns in bulk as opposed to the one gun per month law previously.  (Who in heck even needed a gun/month??)  Now, this gives unscrupulous gun buyers a chance to buy/sell them in parking lots & resell them to other thugs across state lines. Ugh!!  I realize some would have us blame crime these days on the unemployment factor.  There are some cases I’ve seen in my area where folks stole food due to unemployment & they were not receiving public assistance.  But the way I see it, drug & gun crimes are not primarily due to unemployment.  We've all witnessed what havoc people with guns have wreaked in years of higher employment & prosperity, (Columbine for instance) so that argument is out the window.  If someone’s unemployed & strapped for cash, they shouldn’t have $$ for drugs & guns.  If they do, those items are not what they should be spending savings or unemployment on!  

     There’s an NRA slogan saying “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”  {Their point being guns usually don't fire without human intervention, and that the real solution to violence is not in making any certain potentially lethal device unavailable, but in changing basic human nature from violent to peaceful.}   Yeah, well good luck with THAT!  I’m sure we’ll all breathe a lot easier when the NRA comes up with that happy pill to turn the world around.  But ‘till then, what if we applied the NRA attitude & slogan towards cancer.  “Cancer doesn’t kill people, people kill people.”  That way folks can continue smoking, drinking, drugging, abusing their bodies & when they die it’ll be called a suicide!   After all, they were the ones putting the bad stuff in their own bodies, just like the shooters put the guns in their own hands, right??  But wait..  what about those who don’t deliberately abuse themselves and still get cancer due to issues beyond their control?  What about those who don’t pack a pistol & still get shot due to people with no self-control?  Which one of these scenario’s do you think could be cured the quickest, cancer or gun regulation?  It’s mind boggling isn’t it?  And yet I have to say I’ve never heard of anyone being robbed, raped, kidnapped or otherwise held up by someone threatening them with cancer.      
     Sadly, our government officials and political candidates often look the other way regarding the issues of gun control.  They make grand solemn speeches offering comfort to the families of shooting victims, but if that were your relative, would a “comfort speech” really ease your pain & make it “right?” The NRA complains that non-gun owners want to hold the gun manufacturers liable for crimes.  I think it’s the criminals who are allowed to continually purchase them who should be held accountable along with the legislators & gun lobbyists who support their right to do so!  Unfortunately, each time a criminal goes to jail for using a gun illegally, it’s the taxpayer who must pay for his/her daily keep in prison.  Prisons are overcrowded as it is now, and some inmates are paroled early to make room for others going in.  Those convicts paroled back on the streets, getting public assistance & returning to their life of crime, sneaking around public parking lots after dark to buy more guns & drugs either for personal use or resale are not the victims here!   Personally, I don’t want or plan to be a victim, but especially not a victim of “irony!”  I hope this never happens to you or me, but… we never know--  the gun that may be pulled on us in a theatre or mall by some thought depraved criminal may very well have been purchased by our own ‘tax dollars at work.’  

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http://www.kcautv.com/story/19074253/aurora-co-shooting-update-on-victims-and-investigation

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57476737-503544/gun-control-debate-returns-after-colorado-shooting/

Are You “Pretentious” or “Atypical?”

I can't "share" a link on this since I don't recall who I heard talking about it on TV or what show it was, but I thought it was interesting and probably quite true.  They were discussing “pretentious egotistical type thinkers”  versus “atypical original type thinkers” on social mediums like Facebook. 

They described the pretentious ones as those who 
misleadingly paint their lives as a Disney Movie, all sugar & spice, no worries, showing off their stuff to get attention.  They usually receive agreeable comments or 'likes' on their posts from their like minded followers. (The sheep or brownnose response.)  Rarely ever does a self-absorbed thinker comment or offer solace to anyone who posts something other than fun or likewise pretentious. 

The atypicals were described as those who also post enjoyable statuses, but will intermingle somewhat melancholic posts of a personal nature or life in general that don't always paint such a glamourous, exciting picture.  They’ll receive agreeable comments from others who identify or commiserate with the subject, but they catch negative comebacks as well.  Occasionally, if they respond to a pretentious thinkers post with a different slant or imply they don't agree, it throws the pretentious for a loop.  In some cases, the pretentious will either delete the atypical's comments or the person altogether because they don't fit in with the rest of the brownnose, fairy dust covered responders in their pack.   

After thinking about it, I seriously hope I’m mainly an atypical! While I do like it when others agree with me, or share a post or status update of mine, I also appreciate a different viewpoint.   Besides, I’m a bit like a dog when another dog sticks his nose to his backside--  it’s best you keep your cold brown nose to yourself, ha-ha!   I’ve received lots of different feedback on subjects I’ve written about over the years, and I've often learned and expanded my horizons from them.   I’ve rarely deleted anyone or their comments unless they were foul in language or their arguments were off-subject or personally attacking.  (Like calling me or another commenter names, etc.  Unfortunately that HAS happened before!)  Sometimes I've posted comments to others indicating I didn’t quite agree, or I’ve shared my own similar thoughts/feelings regarding their subject.  For the most part my comments have been accepted and either further discussed or just left at that.  But yes, I’ve also been deleted by some of those pretentious kinds for my non- “baaa” response.    How truly boring their lives must be, ya think?!  ;-)

THOSE LITTLE THINGS

Do you often find yourself feeling happiest during the grander times in your lives (such as weddings, births, falling in love, job promotions or other happy occurrences that leave a lasting impression; feelings of pride, excitement, glory…) ?   That’s certainly not a bad thing, but how do you feel when those times are over and the euphoria just isn’t quite the same as it was before? Do you find yourself feeling low, blue, bored with life and perhaps somewhat depressed?   I think all of us go through that.  It’s natural to want to hold onto the good feelings we experienced during positive times in our lives because not only were those times the more memorable ones, the ways we reflected that positivity (through feeling genuinely happy, feeling the love, excited to wake up that day…) gave our bodies a healthy boost of energy, a stronger healing power, and an overall feeling of well-being.  But life isn’t one big continual party, and most of our grander times are interspersed between, by comparison, more mundane daily living.  So how can we keep our spirits up to par? 

Take notice of the ordinary moments.  You may discover the smaller picture of your life has a lot to offer in regards to keeping you upbeat and happy.  I find that paying close attention to little “pleasure treasures” as I call them, often lift my mood and elevate my sense of well-being.  For me, there are many, but here's a few that give me a personal high:  Singing along with a favorite song; a resonating choir of tadpoles in early Spring; waking up to someone serving me breakfast;  the smell of fresh cut grass; rainbows after a warm summer rain; having my feet massaged; arrays of beautiful flowers; colorful Fall leaves; Sunday afternoon naps during football season; the lull of rippling streams & gently rolling ocean waves; playing hide & seek with my dogs; knowing everyone’s inside safe & cozy; the yummy smell of stuffed turkey and other favorite foods cooking in my kitchen; the first blanket of sparkly snow; Christmas carols; …     

Just recently my husband & I were driving along a country road when we came upon a farmer mowing a field of grass.  I made him slow down to a crawl as I immediately lowered my window, allowing the fresh grass bouquet to seep into my senses.  As it did so, I was momentarily whisked back to when I was around 10 years old, playing with Nibbles, a black & white spotted rabbit we’d adopted from a local Fair.  Nibbles lived in a rabbit hutch in the back yard.  Each day throughout the summer I’d take him out of the hutch to the clover field farther back of the house so he could snack on his favorite 3-leafed treat and get his exercise.  I would lie down amidst the clovers and watch the clouds drift along the pale blue sky, reshaping themselves into whatever my imagination’s eye willed them to be.  Although my attention was on being a cloud artist, my subconscious apparently picked up the smell of fresh clover and the rustling sounds Nibbles made as he hopped around through the bright green grass.  I felt happy and at peace there.  Now, when I smell fresh cut grass, I’m reminded of those days in that field with my little rabbit friend.  And I feel good. 

The same thing happens in the Fall while driving along and allowing myself to become immersed in the colored beauty of changing leaves.  The colors themselves are considerably enough to lift my spirits!  Sometimes, if I’m lucky, I’ll be on a long drive where my senses are attuned to a mixture of mood elevators.  Example:  I love the Smokey Mountains during the Fall; soaking up the colors as they hug me at every bend in the road or path; marveling at how easy the vibrant hues poke through the early morning fog stretching across the purple mountaintops; the smell of wood smoke curling up from a chimney mingled with the crisp clean air, even the raucous sound of a crow flying off in the distance…  It all intoxicates me in a happy way.

These things are not of a personal congratulatory nature, nor do they focus on any achievement, status, or major occurrence in my life which gives the kind of ‘high’ mentioned above.   Nevertheless, the good feelings they do impart, when combined with other little things that may occur on any mundane day, can, if I open my mind and senses to them, keep me in a pretty good mood J

What are some ‘little things’ that work for you?