Yes, another near 50 degree day happened again, and I’ve been loving each and every one of them. In spite of it being the eve of Christmas, for the most part it felt like a normal working day with the phone calls and appointments this morning.
The secretary of one of my clients was in need of something, and since her request had been set aside for more than a week, I decided to get packed up what she needed, and run it over to the Post Office to be weighed and mailed. Sometimes it’s those little things that continue to poke at me until I cave and get them done. I’m sure she was thinking I’d either forgotten about it, or didn’t believe it was important enough to immediately act upon.
One of my dear ones from out of State called to wish me a Merry Christmas, and while visiting with her, we ended up on the subject of unfortunate happenings that’ve taken place in both our lives. I did share with her the confrontation, and then subsequent letter I received from a guy who was pushing snow in my back parking lot. She was shocked to think that such things happen right here in Mason City. I reminded her that we are living in a much different class culture than she, and likely if she’d move somewhere out in the hinterland of her State, she’d find people of similar character.
She’s always insisted that a well-rounded education is the key to civility in society, but I also added that because of most North Iowan’s limited discretionary income, they’ve never had the opportunity to see the world, along with ever having worked in a thriving Metro area. I also mentioned that going on a cruise or taking in the beaches at at Mexican gated resort, is absolutely not what I consider worldly ventures.
What I believe to be our core problem, is the rarely talked about issue we have in communities like Mason City, which is the naivete of many of our elected officials who don’t possess the business acumen it takes to make sound, long-term judgement calls for their constituencies, which unfortunately result in a “blind leading the blind” scenario.
There was an old black and white movie I remember from many years ago which for the life of me, I can’t remember its name, but that particular movie centered around a flimflam man who suddenly appeared on the scene in a small town with one purpose only, and that being the duping of its residents out of their savings. He would’ve got the job done had he not fallen in love with one of that town’s residents. Do you remember the movie?
I speak about this because of how often I’ve found our community having been duped by out-of-town people and/or companies who made grand promises to deliver everything they bargained for, but in the end, they got what they wanted and drove away knowing they’d skinned yet another community of trusting believers. How many times have we heard the saying, “If it appears to be too good to be true, then you can be nearly certain it isn’t.”?
Even today I entered into conversation with someone about the dangerously fast direction our City is moving, but after I hung up, I know that I’d just as well been out whistling in the wind because once again, closed communities contain closed minds.
I did mention before hanging up, that in spite of my sometimes “dark” realistic views regarding the happenings in our community, I truthfully do want the best for Mason City and North Iowa as a whole, and if my suspicions come to pass, you’ll not hear me saying, “I told you so.”, because that’s nothing more than a childish wish for failure.
While doing some research today, I happened to run across a lake-front home in Clear Lake, and just for curiosity’s sake, I pull up its yearly real estate taxes. What a jaw drop! That “nothing special” shorefront home’s annual taxes are over $20,000! Considering how long that lake is frozen, and not being close to any metro areas, I’d say anyone who’s willing to pay those kind of taxes for a home in North Iowa, has more money than brains. I’m sure the owners of homes like that must get together for drinks and try to one-up each other on the amount of money they fork out annually just so to say, “I live in a lakeshore home.” Do you think they’re still clipping coupons?
Someone sent me a text today with a photo with the following caption, “Roses are red-ish, and violets are blue-ish, and if we didn’t have Christmas, we’d all be Jewish.” I did get a good chuckle out of it, but found it interesting having received it today, because not long ago I read a little history of the Ashkenazi Jews, and discovered that a large number of Nobel Peace Prize recipients were Ashkenazim, but unfortunately it appears all the many more in our world are embracing anti-semitism which I find exceptionally troubling. When are the humans ever going to realize that there are good people and bad people, irregardless of their convictions? Once again, it’s another example of ignorance due to a lack of education.
I’m hoping all of you are enjoying your Christmas Eve’s with your families and friends, as well as wishing you delightfully memorable dinner gatherings tomorrow.
Tonight’s one-liner is: When laboring to be concise, we sometimes become obscure.
