Minnesota, often celebrated for its lakes and “Minnesota Nice,” has, in recent years, taken a wild detour into the bizarre. 

Are we a laughingstock in the eyes of the nation? Do we compare to the disgrace associated with the likes of Chicago’s crime and California’s homelessness?

Maybe, maybe not but for sure our state is associated with some quirky, contradictory, and unusually dramatic circumstances.

Minnesota is a place where biting winters freeze your eyelashes shut, yet its easy to find some residents still opting for shorts in subzero temperatures. Politically, the state is a high-speed pendulum—flipping between progressive policies and libertarian experiments faster than fish houses popping up on a frozen, Midwestern lake. Minneapolis, a cultural and economic hub, now juggles ambitious public safety reforms, raging housing battles, and sports teams that break hearts like clockwork. 

Meanwhile, local debates rage over gun control, TDS, immigration, DEI and whether daylight saving time should even be a thing. The people? Well that’s a paradox. We are stoic yet passionate. Friendly but stubborn. Weather-obsessed (OMG) yet proud of surviving it. Minnesota is a state where Paul Bunyan, Bud Grant and Jerry Lundegard might still win write-in votes. You’re just as likely to find a corn dog booth in someone’s backyard as you are a live Prince or Bob Dylan tribute show in a bar basement. 

Call it eccentric, call it intense, but Minnesota exists in its own weather-beaten, snow-drifted, emotionally charged universe. 

So why do I live here? Why not get the hell out and get away from the dysfunctional and embarrassing puffery? Because for all the abnormality or impairment, this state has qualities worth not abandoning, we just need to look at the qualities that make up this state’s character. The lakes, the cabin culture — the cliffs, waterfalls, and scenic drives of the North Shore all make Minnesota a treasure if we look at it objectively. We have cultural hubs for art, music, and theater, a huge mall in Bloomington, Juicy Lucy’s, Tater-Tot Hot-dish, lefse, lutefisk and fishing holes for walleye.

Now, if we could just get a couple of our sports teams to bring the magic of a world championship, we’d be a perfect place to live.

Oh and mountains. If only we had mountains this state would be a jewel. 

So my advice is to look past the lunacy associated with outsider’s perception of us and keep the treasures of this state close to heart. I, personally wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. That’s just part of the lunatic charm of the Land of 10,000 idiosyncrasies.