Normal times with the weather meant we'd have to say "goodbye" to the biking/walking trail as winter set in. Such unusual times at present. We might expect only a portion of the trail to be accessible now. Then we'd wonder at what point in spring we could get back to the full route if we sought it.
There was a "rumor" a few years back that a private party had gotten out there with the proper equipment for attacking snow and cleared a portion of it. Also, I have noticed in some years that certain hardy, undaunted people were accessing the trail even with a fair amount of snow buildup. So keep in mind, City of Morris officials, how popular this asset is for so many people. The intrepid folks leave behind their footprints in the snow!
I have never been one to be so committed. I figure that in March sometime, the opportunity will open up again. But not last March! We had the incredibly persistent winter last year. Nothing we can do about it of course. In Minnesota we just cope. Will talk about it like it's a pretty big issue sometimes. But we know we must take certain steps to just get by, survive, prevail even.
We are in between Christmas and New Year's. Nothing short of incredible that the biking/walking trail is totally open, not an issue anywhere. We might want to pinch ourselves. So the conditions are so accommodative by the standards of our typical winter. Still, it's mid-winter, shortly after Solstice, and most people would find the outdoor conditions still not really accommodative. We feel the cold. We're coming out of the Solstice which spells lots of darkness.
We can turn on our holiday lights early in the evening. This reminds of an old prank. Of course pranks are not what they used to be, not in our litigious society of today. Truly it's rare to learn of such a thing. We teach our kids to take life more seriously, for one thing. I am a "boomer" and believe me, we could be shockingly unserious about life. Your average boomer would not want to admit how foolish or reckless we could be. I will admit it because the truth shall set us free. Denial is counterproductive.
The current time of year prompts me to think of a prank that I think is pretty harmless: send an email to a neighbor advising them that there's a city law against having your Christmas lights on after a certain date. Hah!
Does there seem to be fewer Christmas light decorations these days? That's what I seem to observe. For a couple weeks I had a fair amount of lights out on my property along Northridge Drive. I noticed the neighbors were not getting on board with this - it was minimal. That's fine. But what prompted me to take my lights down early was the morning when we got the news reports about Donald Trump starting to use full-on Nazi/Hitler rhetoric in his speeches. And I realize: this is the guy who has come to represent Christianity in America almost more than Jesus Christ himself.
Hyperbole? Pastors these days know they can be criticized for quoting Jesus Christ from his Sermon on the Mount. Christ could be "progressive" in his attitude at times. But I guess a lot of the parishioners around rural America think they know better. Know better than Christ himself. And they do not want to sound "woke."
Of course they have been influenced by the "conservative entertainment complex" within the media today. It dominates AM radio. So much absolute mendacity out there, but the practitioners find that it "sells." So remember that these people like Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin have professional monetary incentive.
Now these guys are railing about efforts to keep Trump off the ballot in various states. Maine made the news yesterday. Lawyers can slice and dice this topic as they can most any topic. But isn't it totally reasonable to conclude that Trump did in fact push for a full-in insurrection? And he got pathetically gullible people like our congressperson out here in the rural Minnesota hinterlands, Michelle Fischbach, to go along with it, to eat out of his hand. And now she wishes to avoid the topic.
And what do we hear on AM radio? We hear sheep dip that suggests total absence of a cognitive grip on things. But the hosts who spew this find that it sells. What does that say about rural Minnesota residents?
The AM radio personalities are now saying this for example: "Biden sympathized with the BLM protests so maybe he should be kept off the ballots too." As if there was anything truly analogous.
Supporting protest? It's a good thing that Americans were in the end receptive to the Vietnam war protests. That matter was a distraction for so long. Seriously, I think it instilled a type of cynicism that led to a lot of the irresponsible behavior by the boomer youth. I'm thinking of the late '60s and early '70s. Your average boomer is not going to want to remember much about that today.
Booze, drugs, partying, staying up late, rock music so loud you endangered your hearing.
Indeed, God created us as flawed human beings. It manifests itself in a variety of ways. The current Trump phenomenon may lead to the literal destruction of the United States of America. So give thanks for every remaining normal day we have left. We are becoming a house of cards.
Trump will seize control of the Federal Reserve and make sure interest rates are set at dead zero permanently. Low interest rates have become like heroin for so many in our financial system, for so many in the "financial media." They utterly fail to see the long-term consequences, even though in their subconscious they must know, just like they must know deep down that Trump is a dangerous sociopath.
We are experiencing folly once again, this nation of ours, just like when we sat on our hands as the Vietnam war escalated, took the lives of close to 60,000 young American men. In a war that we ended up losing. And which almost wrecked the economy.
Somehow we got normal life jump-started in this country. But I am not sure about the present. When you have to be ashamed to attend church because of the U.S. Christian Church's association with Trump and MAGA, it is a greatly concerning thing. I think about that when I'm out along the biking/walking trail east of town. I am merely an observer.
Addendum: We learn now that Trump has an issue with body odor and he wears diapers. Add this to his proclivity to show such a foul mouth, even on Christmas Day as he wishes for certain people like Jack Smith to "rot in hell." What would the angel say from "It's a Wonderful Life?"
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment