2011 - What I Think I've Learned

This an idea I borrowed from a friend last year, and it is time put together a list of what I think I have learned this year.  The list is not all inclusive and will be compiled over several sittings, so check back between now and the end of the year.

• It really sucks for kids when they are drug from pillar to post because the adults in their lives can't get the mess together.  (Thanks Susan for this one.)
• As I get older, the more comfort I take in routines.  Even having to get up just a half hour earlier can throw my whole day off kilter.
• That you can make a deal with your boss that can become null and void by factors beyond either persons control.
• Finding ways to encourage more kids to read is quite a challenge, but can pay huge dividends.
• The only way I can tolerate a college basketball game being called by Dick Vitale is to turn the sound off completely.
• That I am now at the age where buying a snow blower is more important than a flat screen TV.
• That American political parties are more concerned about being in power and "right" than doing what is necessary for the country.  "Right = Whatever the Leadership Tells them."
• Codicil to the previous comment, this blind loyalty to party over state is similar to what we have seen in one party nations.
• No matter how crazy and strange we think our families are, there is always someone whose family makes yours look normal.
• I am happy that I don't live in the America that is obsessed by superficiality.  Substance is always more interesting.
• I am so happy that Donald Trump is now talking running for President as an Independent.  He will provide us all with comic gold throughout 2012.
• The BCS is a racket. BCS Bowl games require each school to buy a set number of tickets at face value which guarantees them a tidy income stream. (In the case of the Sugar Bowl, Michigan and VT will provide a minimum of $5,250,000.)  These tickets are at a minimum price of $120.  While the Universities were asking their alums and booster to pay that price, tickets were available on StubHub at $51.  The cheapest tickets as of 12-27 could be gotten for $18.
  

So This is Christmas

Here we are again at the holidays and again we hear the hue and cry from some camps about the war on Christmas.  To my way of thinking, that war was long ago lost.  Now Christmas consumerism runs amok, with ostentatious displays and needless focus.

We have come to the point in this country that Christmas purchases are what make or break many businesses.  In short, that translates to "your excessive purchases of stuff that may not be needed is what keeps our economy afloat."  My question is why.  To what end does this serve us.

To hear those who decry the war on Christmas, you would think people were being persecuted for celebrating the holiday.  Now I have not seen anything of the sort.  In the last decade, I have seen more Christmas commercials, more decorations and less of Christ.

We seem to have lost in our haste to spend and decorate and party the importance of Christ's birth.  It is the fact that God became flesh for us and was willing to sacrifice his life for us that is the greatest gift we could have been given.  Instead of worrying about what what we are going to buy for Uncle Fudd and Aunt Pootie, or hoping that we get that big screen TV, we should be following the practice of our Lord and Savior.  We should focus on sacrificing and living the way he has taught us to live; humbly and simply.