Thoughts on a Holiday Season Impacted by COVID-19

A referral is the best compliment!

November 30, 2020

The LAST day of this month if you’ve been counting; nine months of the COVIDs completed.Good morning! Were (Was) The Beatles the first boy band? To light or not to light, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the darkness…Or to take action against the night…And by opposing it, end it, perchance make it more glorious than the day…  (With apologies to Bill) One thing is for sure, a little bit of snow falling — not a lot — makes the onerous task of untangling and hanging strings of lights more tolerable.

Cast Your Vote

• If you are able to enjoy just one small slice of pie, which is your choice?  (Register your vote, don’t let this election be stolen.)

1. Punkin
2. Apfel
3. Pecan (Lots of different ways to say this one!)
4. Williamsburg
5. French Silk

• It’s time for the federal government of The United States to have a cabinet-level Secretary of Technology.
  • Not more government, just smarter government.

Hanging Christmas Lights

• I’ve been hanging outdoor lights at this time of year since I was a small child.
  • Some of my strands of lights haven’t worked for decades, but each year I make a valiant if frustrated effort to repair them, to no avail.
  • I finally gave up and placed dozens of old strands — thousands of non functioning lights — out on the curb.
  • The man in the neighborhood, Frank, who often stops to chat and who once told me not to worry about money, but to get an aluminum can route like his, was the winner.
  • “What’s wrong with them?” he asked.
  • “They don’t work,” I said.
  • “Oh, perfect, I need something to do.”
  • Off he went, happy, fulfilled, meaning brought to his life… me happy, too.
• Here is a short and poignant story worth your time:  One Small Boat

Get a Free Wall Calendar

• Do you use a wall calendar?  I do because I enjoy the macro view as well as the more immediate micro view.
  • This one for 2021 features gorgeous photographs of iconic scenic locales and it has space to write reminders to yourself.
  • I have a limited number of these calendars and will mail one to you as long as the inventory lasts.
  • Send me the address to which you want it mailed… I’ll even autograph it.

Thoughts on a Holiday Season Impacted by COVID-19

• What follows is not to minimize or invalidate your feelings in any way, I happily hold cavernous space for you… these are just musings…
  • Here is a partial list of those who have probably suffered greater sadness, loss, longing, and grief than those of us who weren’t able to gather for Thanksgiving, nor will we be able to assemble for the holiday season which is now before us:
    • Any non-fascist living in Europe from about 1935-1945;
    • Any so-called sodbuster family working to survive in South Dakotah or Nebraska a century ago;
    • Those who rode the rails and tried to survive in Hoovervilles during the 1930s;
    • Those who participated in the so-called Trail of Tears in 1838;
    • Chuck Noland
    • Any single go-it-alone Mom anywhere in the world;
    • Anyone fired from a job;
    • Any human being trafficked;
    • Any parent who has lost a child;
    • Anyone wrongly convicted of a crime;
    • Many people in a long-term care facility;
    • Anyone recently displaced, especially orphans;
    • Anyone experiencing clinical depression;
    • Many immigrants;
    • Youth experiencing homelessness;
    • Anyone suffering the unravelling of a primary relationship;
    • Anyone lost and all alone in a vast wilderness — metaphorical or for real.
• I was first taught about and started practicing leadership more than sixty years ago… do you think anything has changed?
  • We didn’t get any of this stuff, that’s for sure, and it’s so important.
    • “Connect, then lead…
    • …Leaders who project strength before warmth run the risk of eliciting fear…
    • …before people decide what they think of your message, they decide what they think of you.”  (Vora)