Letters
I can’t shop early. I can’t stand buying Christmas gifts until the air is cold, and there’s either rain or show falling. No holiday lights means no Christmas shopping in my world. I don’t shop early. I don’t shop late. I shop very, very, very late. I’ve been seen doing my Christmas shopping on Dec. 24, Christmas Eve. In fact, very, very late on Christmas Eve.
It’s not that I don’t know what to get. I usually know that, for my wife at least, a couple of months before December. Gifts for others, not so much. But actually getting out and doing it is another thing. I can’t buy Christmas presents while wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, when the air is still matching my body temperature. It’s just wrong.
Same with buy Christmas presents while the Halloween costumes are still on the racks, or the stores are advertising pumpkin pies with yams and turkey stuffing ingredients. It has to wait until the other holidays are passed, and the focus is entirely on Christmas, and only Christmas.
Who wants to think about warm woolen mittens while watching the All-Star game in July? Or even while watching the World Series (which may be in late October, and yes, cold but still before Halloween)? And can you honestly consider holiday presents and hum “White Christmas” while walking around in a T-shirt when the temperature is still in the 80s? It’s just wrong, on so many levels.
I have a problem even shopping for Christmas presents during daylight hours. It’s supposed to be a winter event. Cold, or at least cool. Dark, as in the dead of winter. The only illumination should be the stars, or the bright lights, even stop lights, blinking a bright red and green, as the shoppers rush home with their presents. (Apologies to the composer of “Silver Bells.”)
So this year, like every year past, I have one or two gifts already laid away in the closet at home. But until the air freezes, the light in the sky dims at 4:30 p.m. and the store lights guide my way, I’ll wait.
Then the Chamber of Commerce, together with the wreaths on the street lamps, the music in the stores and on the radio, the stars in the sky as they approach (or pass) the Winter’s Solstice, will beckon me onward. Come, celebrate the season with your cash, your card, and spirit on this last night. Urgency requires you shop now. You have not another day to wait, for tomorrow is Christmas.
So if you’re like me, I will see you, list in hand, on a cold winter’s night. It will be Christmas Eve. Again.
Doug Rhoades lives in Kelseyville, Calif.
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
A few years ago, I read the book “The Three Trillion Dollar War” by Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz. By now, the War in Iraq has probably cost another $1 trillion. And, I heard on the radio this week that the cost of the war in Afghanistan is over $1 trillion. That is $5 trillion! That equals the cost of the entire Cold War (and counting).
What is truly ironic is that the purpose of this “resource war” is to secure fossil fuel, which is contributing to global warming, and, according to MIT, global warming will be disastrous before the end of the century, and depending on some models yet to be worked out, even sooner.
As I recently emailed Congressman Mike Thompson, with $5 trillion, we probably could have come up with a viable, cost efficient, environmentally friendly alternative to burning fossil fuel.
Meanwhile, we are discussing tax cuts. Not that a tax cut is not an important topic, but it is akin to discussing what color rug you want to install while the house is burning down.
There was a Pogo comic strip that I read, many years ago. The caption was: “We have met the enemy, and they is us.” And, we are.
Nelson Strasser lives in Kelseyville, Calif.
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- Written by: Nelson Strasser
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