A HealthCare bill passed the senate. It is a far cry from its ultimate form, no doubt, but it's a start. Hopefully some veto power might calm down the sneaky little things people put in at the last minute (or, if we are lucky, left out), selfishly for their own needs. However, there are many other reasons to rejoice today.
It's Christmas! That means the worst of the season is over. Solstice has come and gone. We are now moving towards longer days. People will stand in line to return all the gifts they, or someone, didn't want in the first place. What a silly tradition...give something even if you haven't the foggiest what they might need or want even if you haven't seen them for a long time and know little of their current lives. Some will return gifts just to find what you spent on them as though that satisfies their sense of worth to you. Others will keep the gift and pass it onto some other poor soul next year. Some will return the gift and take the cash which is what they really needed in the first place.
I've already stopped exchanging gifts with people I haven't seen for over a year...even family. Fortunately none of them are in need or I would send money, if asked and needed. Shopping has never been a passion and we now can rejoice in online shopping and gift cards. Ah, life is so much easier that way. I remember having to wrap 150 Leechee nuts separately, for my boss to give to his wife who shakes packages, the family custom being to guess the contents. Thank 'Whomever' that those days are over!!!
Regardless of our religious beliefs, we are all stuck with the merchandising that is now starting earlier and earlier. July seems not too early for stores to expect you to begin thinking AND SPENDING. Children don't know what it is all about other than it is a time that gifts are to be received and you can ask a fat old man in a red suit for what you want. Does any of this have to do with Christ? In fact, what has Hanukkah have to do with religion? Not anything, so I am told.
However, we rejoice because we are still believed to be the richest country in the world and have food, clothing, shelter, toilets that flush, lights that go on with a click, and heat in our insulated houses...unless we are the unlucky ones who are poor and homeless, starving in a land invisible to most politicians...at least the ones who most obstruct fixing it.
Dare we hope 2010 will be a world improvement?
No comments:
Post a Comment