Column subjects don’t come easy

A friend asked me how I decide what to write.

I hesitated as I tried to figure out how to answer her. The short answer is I write about whatever is on my mind at the time. I begin typing until something starts to come together then I delete the nonsense and write the real column.  I try not to be too morbid as I want this space to be a counterpoint to whatever bad news is in the rest of the paper. Sometimes I want to make you laugh, sometimes I want to share a bit of trivia, sometimes I want you to think.

I want you to know the world is a beautiful place even when it seems otherwise.

That line was supposed to be the beginning of this column. Then I came to a full stop. Now what? My mind bounces around, searching for something to say.

I read about school shootings, postal shootings, shootings everywhere. Little kids are shooting people because they found a loaded gun and thought it was a play toy. Yet, we don’t require people to keep loaded weapons where children can’t find them.

It seems to me that many, if not most, mass murders are committed by young, white boys who were born in this country. Should we take all young, white boys and sequester them until they become responsible adults just in case? We seem to make bogeymen out of Muslims, Mexicans or other non-white people. It is far easier to blame everything on anyone but ourselves, even though we were the ones who raised the violent ones. I’m not saying that Muslims and Mexicans are not capable of murder, just that they aren’t the only ones.

If I were to continue with this I would have to look up specifics such as how many murders there were last year, how many school or church shootings and how many of the perpetrators were of what ethnic or racial group.

That sounds like too much work, thus another column idea waiting to be deleted.

Or maybe I should write about why we think boys and men are portrayed as being unable to do anything if a girl dresses in a certain way. If a boy sees a belly button, or a shoulder, or a girl dressed in leggings they are instantly overcome with lust. Do we really believe boys are that weak?

In past times the male of the species was expected to swoon with desire if a woman showed her ankles. Give the guys some credit. Most guys are stronger than that. Not every male of the species is ruled by the desire to mate with each and every female they meet.

Oops. That is turning into a rant, better try a different subject.

Flowers. Flowers are always safe. The peonies are blooming right on schedule. They are always flowering on Memorial Day. The fat, fluffy blossoms are not the poppies of Flanders Fields in Belgium. Canadian John McCrae wrote the poem that begins, “In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row” after the death of his friend. So even though poppies are forever associated with war and the loss of loved ones, in my mind it is not poppies, but peonies that mark the day set aside to honor our loved ones who died while serving our country.

It is also race day. Expensive cars will drive around in circles for hours in order to determine a winner. I have no idea what cars have to do with honoring the dead. Picnics, cookouts and such are optional but encouraged. Some of us will visit the cemetery to lay flowers on the graves of our loved ones. They are always in our hearts. We never forget.

In a normal column, I would choose one of the above subjects and develop it into something coherent. But today I decided to share with you a bit of how I go about choosing a subject.