Early December Mish-Mash

The other night my daughter had a church youth group event she attended.  It started at 6 pm, and so I made sure she ate dinner and was there on time.  It got to be about 8 pm and I said to my husband, "So this is what it's going to be like waiting for our kids to come home once they're old enough to date?"  He nodded ruefully and said, "Yep. Guess we'd better get used to it."

It was a strange thing waiting for 10 pm to roll around so I could go and get my pre-teen daughter and bring her home again.  I'm not sure I'm ready for this increase of outside activity and the whole growing up business!



A relative of mine says she is tired of the ridiculous clamoring of "I want, I want, I want" for Christmas.  Isn't Christmas, she says, supposed to be less about what you want than about what you give?  And she wasn't talking about "giving" in the sense that you'd be satisfying someone else's desire for that latest technological advance in video gaming, i-pods, etc.   I would, she says, rather give things that satisfy basic needs.  Given that people are feeling more of a crunch than ever this year with job losses and the loss of household income, you'd think the clamoring for largely unnecessary things would slow down. 


On a somewhat related note to the post above, earlier this week I was headed to the mall to pick up a Christmas present.  On the corner of the busy intersection where the mall stands, was an anemic-looking woman holding a sign that read, "Will work for food or diapers."  She looked like she meant it.  She didn't wear a fierce expression on her face, one of those, "I dare you to stop and insult me/hire me" looks.  Instead, she looked pinched - as though she were trying not to cry, as though she wished she could be invisible but still that some kind of magic would occur and she would be able to meet some basic needs of her own family.  I did see that there were many people who stopped in the parking lot near where the woman stood and it appears that they gave her money.  I sincerely hope that those gifts were a help to this woman.


Being easy prey for such things myself, and having been bilked in the mall parking lot this summer of a few dollars (ok, I gave it willingly) to a person professing to be in need of gas money to get from that location to points much farther north where public transportation doesn't go, I'm always a little leery of signs that read, "Will work for food."  I have stopped with a bag of groceries, though.  Is it easier to meet face-to-face the people you help, or is it better (read: easier for us) to give anonymously?  Does it make it easier for the recipients to not be judged, and for us not to judge?


We had our first light snowfall of the season this week.  My son was rather dismayed that low temperatures and snow meant snowpants for him.  "I'll be the only kid wearing them," he moaned.  Well, he certainly wasn't the only one, though I'm sure he felt like it.  It still amazes me the number of parents who send their children to school unprepared for an outdoor recess during cold weather.  Our school has a stockpile of snowpants and jackets - and I'm thinking that maybe this week I may personally go room to room and discreetly ask who needs what.  It's time some of those things were distributed, I think, if there are far too many shivering kids because someone can't afford to purchase a winter coat or snowpants.  Of course, there's always the battle with the kids who truly believe they'll be warm enough in just a sweatshirt, but I guess I'll have to see who I can enlist to help fight that little war.


One Facebook friend asked, "What is your Christmas gift to the world?"  Many of us might think we can't give something on such a scale, because we aren't made of money, etc.  But can't gifts be about more than just monetary philanthropy?  How about starting small, like dropping some change in every Salvation Army bucket you see? 

Or, making more of an attempt to make eye contact with those we interact with - like clerks, public service people, co-workers, family? Instead of completing our transactions at places of business by saying, "Oh just a minute," into the cellphone as we grab out change or credit card slips, we end our cellphone calls and direct our attention to the person who is serving us.  It's common courtesy, I think.  Look that person in the eye, smile back, and say, "Thanks - you too," when they say, "Have a nice day."  When you respond, say it like you mean it. 

Hold a door for someone.

Offer to help someone with their groceries.

This sort of thing is contagious.  It does spread, and while it might take a while to reach global proportions, it's a gift to the part of the world you reach.