The Holidays...Sacrifices to the gods...

Admittedly, the e-mails have been few and far between this “holiday” season. Perhaps I’ve been to focused on shopping. Last weekend we had a good experience cooking a meal for some very hungry folks in Woodlawn. It was a great group of workers…including many of our kids on the front line. That had to be the best part of the whole thing. The other thing is, the people we cooked for aren’t that much different from you an me…not different at all… I think our kids just saw people coming to a meal. Thank God.

I know Jamie and Blair have sent around the lessons stuff. I will open up the blog to allow any comments/postings from anyone…so please post as we discuss things in class… www.rmcbuilders.blogspot.com.

To reflect on the tragic death of a security guard at Walmart on black Friday, I would like to share this commentary from an NPR commentator. As we are moving around this year, and every year, we should remember that people are more important than stuff…that love is really the best gift to others and to ourselves.

All Things Considered, December 3, 2008 · After Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush told us to go shopping.
Seven years later, Lehman Brothers went under.
In the aftermath, our panicked leaders prophesied doomsday if we didn't immediately go shopping to save America from recession.
And so we went shopping! We so went shopping, in rumbling herdlike elephant masses, we killed a guy who didn't get out of the way fast enough. It's a tragic incident, but by no means meaningless. Shopping is a religion, and some religions demand sacrifices.
The Wal-Mart employee died for us on Black Friday, but have we stopped to think what his sacrifice means? Not at all: We're stampeding right on through to the other side of Christmas. We aren't just shopping: We are saving America.
There were some voices that said on TV that maybe we should start saving instead of shopping. We heard those voices, too, especially when gas was $4, but we seem to have quickly forgotten them. Save what?
The business of America is business. And for you and me, Mr. and Mrs. Citizen Average, that means shopping.
I'm not going to make anything out of the fact that the killer mob stormed Wal-Mart, not Neiman Marcus, because the tragedy could have happened anywhere. Shopping mobs are unstoppable regardless of whether they are after diamond-encrusted slippers or Chinese lawn ornaments. The urge is the same: Get to it before they quit running the sale ads and America goes down.
And now that we are officially in a recession and too tired from shopping to figure anything out, they are making us feel guilty of murder, which we may well be. But we were just following orders.