Running Rings Around Us

The other day, just as school was getting underway again for the year, we were, and were not, shocked at yet another school shooting. Minneapolis, this time. In a church school during a Catholic mass, of all things. Two children, ages 8 and 10, dead. Seventeen other people injured by gunfire: 14 children ages 6 to 15, and three adults in their 80s who were parishioners in the church.

I went online to get more information. There was the usual partisan finger-pointing. "She's a transgender!" "The rifle contained various inflammatory remarks about the president!" "It's those _______ again."  You fill in the blank: Republicans, Democrats, gun "enthusiasts," trans-rights advocates, trans-rights adversaries.

We Americans tend not to wish to discuss the hard topics in a meaningful way, preferring to shout invectives on radio call-in shows or type them on Facebook. We're dazed and confused and it's easier to to turn away.

So, no one seemed willing to delve into the matter of how it is that someone clearly mentally clouded can have access to murder weapons. That entire issue got the shunt, off to the side, while the national zeitgeist turned to the important matter of Taylor Swift's engagement ring, placed on her third-finger-left-hand by America's Big Bother, Travis Kelce.

These are the words of a person who makes it her business to follow Ms Swift.

"This ring deserves our attention for a moment. The symmetry and the choice of a diamond definitely put it in the classically elegant category, and it’s certainly on the old-timey side (look at Taylor, reaching for the eternally chic, Olsen twin-beloved old mine cut).... Calling it now: This is the inflection point at which bezel settings become the official hottest trend in engagement jewelry.

I didn't know the Olsen Twins were involved in all this, but, anyway, I don't see anything so bad about the ring. Lots of people spent their afternoons weighing in on it.  As Alex Holley from FOX29 Philadelphia put it, if you're giving Taylor Swift an engagement ring, you'd better spend a million on it. She is used to the big and elaborate, and I think this ring is just her style.  And she is the one who will wear it, so be happy for her.

And I'm being told I misspelled "brother," as in "Big Brother," above, but it's too late. I already hit "enter."