Use what you have, get what you want

I am often puzzled when personification is used to justify policy. For example, guns are "evil," and therefore they must be banned or restricted, right? Wrong.

Now I am not saying there shouldn't be any restrictions on gun use, in fact I am not even concerned with that debate. What I will say is that guns don't have the ability to be evil or good. In fact they aren't capable of thinking, killing, jumping rope, eating candy, or giving a good hug. A decent, cold, uncomfortable hug, maybe, but certainly not a good hug. The fact is that humans run the show. We can use tools for good or evil, to protect or attack, to create or destroy. When discussing outcomes and consequences I believe the main discussion should be centered on human behavior and not on the tools humans use. 

Now let us use that concept to go a step further. We all possess amazing, powerful tools. How we use these tools, I believe, is more pivotal in shaping our lives than the composition of the tools themselves. Many different resources and tools can produce similar results and many different results can be produced by identical resources and tools. For example, people provide shelter for themselves with many different materials and building techniques. Sally may keep warm in a brick home, while Sarah is protected inside a structure of wood. In this case, similar, desirable results are reached through different means. We can also observe that similar raw materials can be manipulated to produce drastically different results. Metal can build and tear down homes, energy can run and destroy a city, and politics can uplift or burden a nation. 

Let us walk just beyond that thought to the heart of the matter. Inside each one of us is a large sum of characteristics, talents, emotions, and dreams. Let us use what we have to get what we want, and stop thinking about what we have as being what we don't want. Our inherited capabilities and desires are not to define us, but to give us mobility to define ourselves. The true beauty of the human condition is not in the inheritance, but in the expression that that inheritance facilitates. For example, a skier is not defined by his skis, but rather by what he does with the freedom that his skis provide. So don't think that beauty and joy is given, but believe that it is a result of the proper application of what is given. 

As a byword, things that appear to be "bad" can often be manipulated to be good. I have an extremely stubborn brother. Stubbornness just so happens to be one of his possessions. Is it evil? No. Can it be used for evil? Sure. However, it can also be tremendously beneficial when properly applied. For example, he is stubbornly committed to his wife, and I am certain that they will be together regardless of how hard it gets. It's refreshing that he is able to make a decision and stick with it in a world where commitment seems old fashioned.  

Now, it is story time. One day I was in my backyard holding a bouncy ball. My brother was jumping on the trampoline. Acting without thinking, I chucked the ball and it smashed my brother right in the head. I've been thinking a lot about it, and I am sure that the bouncy ball feels terrible about the whole thing.