Hopefully everyone is settling down after their last days of fussing about while buying last minute presents and groceries. I’ve actually been very good about not getting pulled into the drama of it all. As I mentioned before, I’m only gifting to those who’ve done selflessly good things this year along with those truly in need. I’m getting a better “feel” of Christmas while refining that delicate art gift giving. Too bad I’d not realized years ago there was a better way. I’m rapidly steering away from that un-pleasant form of giving which always leaves a very bad taste of beholding or what’s socially expected of me.
One of my well knowns called late this morning returning a call that I’d placed earlier in the week simply to ask how he’s weathering the Holidays. He and I are kindred spirits of sort when it comes to the whole Christmas experience. Sounds like he’s also getting thru it with less stress by keeping everything in perspective while dealing with those little episodes of Holiday “darkness” in a more pragmatic way.
Since he and I give back to our communities in varied musical forms. We had our giggles about some of our area musicians who consider themselves “prime talent”, and work very hard at making sure everyone knows it. We also talked about how different yet similar music and liturgies are in our area churches. This past year I’ve come to all the more realization who many hymns have been “re-skinned” by changing titles and words yet keeping with familiar melodies. I shared with him how these past months I’ve heard more songs and hymns being sung and played which I’ve never heard before. After listening to them, a great number need to remain obscure. It’s unfortunate that some beautiful religious thoughts have been put to really bad music. “Why aren’t religious communities of today remembering that the bulk of their congregations contain very few good singers who can read and follow syncopated music?” I exclaimed. He laughed and said, “Yeah. Even I have to go over some of them many times before reaching a level of comfort.”
Speaking of shopping. I had to make stops at two different grocery stores later today, and was in near shock seeing the number of people in their check-out lines. Every line in Fareway was full. Needing a dozen free-range eggs, I went to the case and found only one carton left and indeed knew why–one egg was cracked. When I finally got thru one of their long lines, the checker said, “Did you look at your eggs?” I smiled and said, “Yes, and there’s one that’s cracked but doesn’t matter because this was the last one on the shelf.” She excused the situation by saying, “I’m sorry for your inconvenience, but just so you know, there are no eggs left in our back storage area.” Not to worry about me, because it was all good.
According to predictions made by our National real estate market watchers, they said in an article I read today, it looks like we’re going to be encountering a “bump” in housing sales next year because our inventories are running on fumes. With the Millennials and Baby-boomers continuing to enter our market, there’ll be some pockets in our Nation that’ll be desperately short of available inventory. I’m hoping all those many young buyers will finally get over wanting everything perfect in a home, and step up to the plate and start developing home improvement skills. Perhaps my favorite old saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” will become fashionable again. Let’s start kick-starting some lazy renaissance minds into action. What do you think?
