Oh am I so glad to be back! I have really missed writing. We were on a family vacation for 2 weeks and it was wonderful and relaxing but, I had very limited access to a computer and the computer I had, couldn't recognize any of my blogs formats so, I was stuck without my normal writing outlet.

I had many good subjects while I was gone which bums me out since I am a writer who writes when something is 'hot' or I am passionate about it and my old blog subjects well, they are just plain old and boring now. For example the blog I tried many times to get my computer to let me write about the Canadian Women's Hockey team and how I thought they were class-less in their partying on the ice for hours after their win and their even more class-less smoking of cigars and drinking of beer and champagne. So many ways I could have written about that one!!

Today I am writing in response to some things I have heard, read or talked about in the past few days of being back in 'the real world'. Trying to find the way to tie them together but, they are related, I promise. I am not sure if this it is society today in general, or just a Minnesota thing or is it even something as small as based on a certain neighborhood/city? What am I talking about? Our seemingly inability to be able to take criticism, decipher the truth from fiction, or frankly our just plain disregard for fact.

To me it seems more often than not people find great joy in other people's misery and are quick to judge and slow to forgive. We jump at headlines in papers with words like, "Ponzi Scheme", "Embezzlement", "Defense Attorney's resign" and on and on. It seems like sometimes we like to see the rich fall, the popular people who seem to have it all sit in jail, we like it when big companies screw up and we can't wait to gawk at or own a piece of a fallen business person's alleged loot even if it is a set of used golf clubs that have no value or an old car with a lot of miles on it or a home that someone once lived in.

We turn into know it alls it seems sometimes, we 'knew' they were guilty when a guilty verdict comes in, we question friends/family who stick by a person, we automatically believe those people are guilty too, even though their friend or family member hasn't even been found guilty or innocent yet. We rejoice when the courts seize assets and bank accounts, we find ourselves reading every article in the newspaper and we believe people are guilty before we would ever consider them being innocent and if they are found innocent, we still believe they are guilty.

When did it become our job, even our interest in being judge and jury? We are quick to judge yet, when we are judged ourselves, we are so taken aback we often lose friendships over it. We are quick to gossip about others, quick to condemn yet, we struggle at taking a small suggestion of constructive criticism in our own lives.

What is the truth with people such as Hecker or Petter's? Will we ever know and if we do find out, unless we were directly connected or affected, is it really important we know? Do we want to know to protect ourselves or loved ones from such 'predators' in the future or just to curb our own curiosity? Do we really care who bought who's house, who might be putting a bid on who's mansion, who bought a fancy car or snowmobile? Is this really relevant in our own lives or are we just falling victim to what I like to call 'Reality TV complex'. Where we all secretly want to be famous, we all want a piece of history to make ourselves feel immortal and like we might just live forever if our name or our things are some how associated with a fallen company or fallen person?

Hey, I am so not perfect, I find myself fighting the urges to gossip about the misfortunes of others too, I also am not the greatest at taking criticism from others. I many times have found myself thinking many of you are frankly, pardon my French but, 'idiots' because of some comment you left for me on one of my posts that may or may not have been a good comment but, because I didn't agree with it, I shunned you. I fight daily the urge to gossip, to talk negatively about others and to do anything that could be hurtful or jump to conclusions.

I write about MY beliefs, MY theories, and MY stories in life in OUR community. It is news worthy sometimes to know about business men who don't seem to be making good choices however, until it directly affects me or there is a guilty verdict or in some cases, even charges brought up, I am trying to keep the judging to the jury and the judge.

Blessings to you all and it is good to be back!