BOB’S 2014 LETTER AT CHRISTMAS Well, here it is, the end of another year and time to communicate with my annual missive. I’ve had some difficulty deciding the format for it; nominally it has been in a letter format, usually a little longer than one page. That is an obsolete format in this day of attention deficit. And, while my letters have sometimes included pictures, they have never included the massive files I now receive electronically. And I have practically abandoned the Christmas card as a form of transmittal, although I do appreciate receiving them from those of you who can’t break the habit. Now, how do I handle this situation? • Write the usual letter, put copies in envelopes (or Christmas cards) and consign to the post office. • Send the letter by e-mail from my AOL, Gmail, or Yahoo account to the multiple addresses I have on file. • Post the letter on my facebook page (most likely it would be too long). • Send a shorter version by instant mail (what’s that?) • Text the letter from my Amazon Fire Phone which doesn’t work because I live in a valley and don’t text. I may have the only “smart” phone that only works on WIFI). • Set up a free web site and display it there. • Shorten the letter (emasculate it) and tweet it (don’t know hashtags?) • Give up and call people on the telephone (difficult because I can’t hear and no directory assistance is available for the majority of people who have given up the wired world and rely on iphones) • Just let people wonder what happened to me. I’ve decided to dabble in a variety of the above options. So here goes: Dear Friends, Christmas is almost here, another year has passed, and I know most of you are still out there. This the time I try to renew contact with many of you and lose contact with some (not you). While I have regaled you, in the past, with tales of my (our) travels and accomplishments, 2014 has been quite slow – at least I have been. As the song says, Don’t Get Around Much, Anymore. I’m still rolling around and sometimes go for an outing with my electric cart (the Doctors don’t want to come here), I spend most of the time studying in my cave (two or three newspapers daily and the internet – no TV). Being the patriarch of an enlarging clan, I feel a responsibility for reporting on it and trying to keep it intact. It is, almost. We lost my good friend and Rob’s best friend, Annie, who ended her long fight with breast cancer and left for, what she and I feel, is a better place. We are otherwise all surviving nicely and I’ll try not to get medical about that. Starting with the youngest, Amazing Grace and Little Audrey are equally precocious (what else dare I say about my GGDaughters?) and are reaching maturity rapidly, right in front of their parents eyes. Gracie travels everywhere with Mel and Sean and has been in more states than I had when I joined the Army. Audrey is expecting to take care of a new sister any day now, and, I expect, will be a lot of help to Elisabeth and Dave. If you care to look in on the little darlings, Gracie is featured on her parent’s Facebook pages and Audrey is prominent on Grandma Kathie’s iPhone. Both of the girls are overdoted upon by their grandmothers, of course. Youngest Grandson, William, did his thing at Penn State for a year and is back on Sweet Hollow with Jackie and Lee, attending school and not going into massive student debt, which seems to be stylish today. Lee has become an expert on antique furniture and other restorable artifacts. Jackie is working hard and is also about halfway through her MBA from Penn State. Alicen did her internship at Disneyworld earlier in the year and is back at home taking care of her Daddy and going to school locally. Robert is down in Northern Virginia trying appliance sales as a means of financing his education and Rob opened his latest school on schedule this Fall. Thomas is the only Rigolage still going to college, currently at Maryland in Biochemistry (having three Grandson chemists is great, as Chemistry is the only course I failed other than Calculus). As mentioned above, Elizabeth and Dave are expecting a new daughter early next year. Dave is up to about five plumbing crews now and learning more about business than he wants to know. Adrien and Julia have a new home and, hopefully, a baby next year. After difficulties ended two pregnancies, they are trying the scientific method this time – pray that it works! Kathie is still doing her DC French Restaurant thing when she is not grandmothering. And, even though they have a nice apartment in Alsace, Jacques keeps his feet firmly planted in the AFP office in Washington. And Denise – my almost full-time watchbird and chauffeur (she gets somewhat nervous when I drive), reached a milestone this year – I won’t tell you her age, but it is larger than she ever expected. We, with our dog, Winston and cat, Mouser are happily living out our years in Boonsboro’s environs. Winston seems to have passed me in aging – while he is still spry, he is much deafer and blinder than I am. Sean and Melody have made a showplace (?) out of the old house they bought in Riverdale (NW of DC), Grandma Denise tries to spend at least one day a week there with the Amazing One. Mel is using her melodic talent in a choral group while advancing in the Census Bureau, and he is doing well in the home inspection business for which he seems to have a natural talent. Who’s left? Devon and Alec are toying with the idea of buying a house as he continues to work on pipeline controls – he is schedule for three months in Russia early next year and she hold down parts of the organic market (MOM’s) where she has been working for several years. Time for some philosophy and meditation (careful with that; it puts one to sleep!). I don’t see a lot of positive thinking out there in the big, cold world. I see a great clash in beliefs, an attitude that each person is entitled to his/her/its own beliefs and that the strength of these beliefs, when marshaled behind some kind of leader or in a mob, are only valuable to defeat other person’s or group’s beliefs. I got that all in one sentence. Any spirit of cooperation seems to be surrender, or compromise in its darker sense. Why vote, when one is not willing to accept the result? It doesn’t seem possible to PROVE anything; if the proof is not believed, it is no proof. This prevailing ethos is not getting us anywhere. And then, there is Christmas. The celebration of Jesus’ birth seems to have become the high point in the year of commerce. You don’t have to be Christian to spend money on end-of-year gifts, and most people in the world have little use for the Christian connotations associated with the event. Is there some way to separate the two and let the Christians have their celebration while everybody goes out and spends big? Non-Christians could have any kind of religious (or non-) rite they wish, with the only common goal being provision of gifts to keep the economy rolling. Finally, there is that overwhelming problem of greed. Or selfishness. Is having more than someone else the goal of life? If we do have more, is it because we deserve it, or we earned it, or we stole it, or, maybe we were lucky? When we do have more, do we use it to get even more, to help others, or merely to be self-satisfied? Is the Renoir in the office of the hedge fund billionaire really worth more than the bread and peanut butter a homeless person checks out of a food bank two miles away? These are troubling questions we like to avoid when we are comfortable – should we be comfortable? Christmas is a good time for Christians to think about these questions in light of some of the parables found in its tenets. I have looked at most the brands of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and the “Asian” religions, and it appears that they have much in common in regard to the questions I pose above. We could (and quite a few do) use these similarities to find common ground rather than to fine tune them for conflict. Well, that’s all the news and commentary from the Boondocks. Perhaps old age gives one too much time to think (which seems to be in short supply, generally) and not enough energy to do anything about the thoughts. So I will toss them to you and see what you can do with them. Everyone mentioned above (even the dog) has a positive approach to life and love and I encourage them (and you all) to exalt in it. Love you all, and yes, Merry Christmas Bob
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 07:14:48 +0000
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