A lesson learned, and one to give thanks for

My bi-monthly column for The Times Herald, November 25

AAs I’m writing this, my stomach is full of turkey, ham, corn, mashed potatoes, stuffing, yams, cranberry relish, mixed vegetables, pumpkin pie, homemade ice cream, shoo-fly pie and cracker pudding.

And this is only at 2:15 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.

Yes, it was a very traditional holiday for me in rural Lancaster County this year, something sorely needed after the month I’ve had, and my lack of a Thanksgiving last year.

A nap is soon in order as my family doesn’t exactly work with my biological clock: We sat down to lunch about the same time I start thinking about breakfast most days. So I woke up even earlier than I do for yoga to trek to the Amtrak train station and head west.

Food is a great motivator.

I generally don’t do holidays, and at jobs where it has paid off to work them, I usually do.

But Thanksgiving has always been the most important holiday of the year for half of my family, and I’ve managed it better because it’s far more low-key than the other major days.

Oh, and the other thing to its credit: Commercialization that is very much under control. The history behind it is a bit shoddy, but it’s far more accurate than the other big holiday quickly approaching, which is most likely in the wrong season. I think fixing that would spread out the holidays to one each season, with less hassle from being clumped together and a bit more appreciation of it all.

But what do I know?

And for some reason my sister has hopes that I will be at Park City, not long after 4:30 a.m., Friday (it didn’t happen), just to get a gift certificate for being among the first 500 crazy people to start off Black Friday. I’d like my Friday to be dark only because my eyes will be closed until late morning.

I’m not a last-minute shopper, but I’m also certainly not a first-minute one either, and why people would put themselves through the mayhem is beyond me. The whole meaning of the holidays and family kind of gets lost in it all. Let me have my one holiday unscathed.

But this request of absurd proportion from my sister shouldn’t come as a surprise to me, as the occasion would allow for our own mayhem to ensue. For as long as anyone can remember, the pairing of my sister and me quickly sheds years and maturity from our civility and etiquette.

This means we acted our age up until about the very early teenage years (perhaps even earlier), and we’ve been stuck there ever since. A marriage, a career, college and miles have done nothing to lessen it.

But now, this day after Black Friday (not even the biggest shopping day of the year anymore), family is going to start to get lost in the mayhem and marketing. And so I can begin my bah humbug mood until fireworks light up the last night of 2006.

To wrap up this meandering story …

Recent events have reinforced something I’ve known for awhile: That the people I have around me are really an amazing group of friends and family, and I’m thankful for them.

Through all the upheaval, they’ve remained solid. And it’s just the right number of them. I could be stretched too thin if it grew much more.

This would be quite the opposite of Fry from “Futurama,” who finds out his change in savings in 1999 is worth billions in the future where he lives because of a freak accident that is eventually investigated by Al Gore, among others. Fry decides things work best for him and happiness, to which his robot friend Bender replies, “I’m a thing.”

A lesson is learned, and many times over, where Fry definitely is reminded of the people he has around him.

I sort of wish I at least had a little bit of that billions of dollars, and I’m sure my friends do, too!

Happy Thanksgiving

I say that grudgingly. Yes, it it 7:21 a.m. as I'm writing this waiting for the shower water to get hot. I'm soon off to catch a train to Lancaster.

It'll be good, for sure, to see more family again this year. But oh that it were 9:30 a.m. instead!

ZZZZZs

That's how I feel this Sunday night at my job. I'm not usually on these day, but I sure hope they aren't always this pointless.

I guess that it was the day after the funeral the family gathering that really made me want to not do anything today.

I've had stuff to do up until an hour ago, so I'm ahead of deadline, but if I had it my way, I'd have not done squat yet.

I used squat the other day on my public access TV appearance. It was an exasperated response to a columnist's comment that the Democratic party is without morals. My exact words were: "That's horse squat!" I was clearly going to say something else. Look at how controlled I can be.

Now that's something you won't see that again, or at least not for awhile.

Funeral and Reunion

Today was the memorial service for my grandfather. He died more than a week ago in a freak accident in Virginia. That's hours from home.

I ended up being a pall bearer to close out the memorial service with the my cousin Chris, Jeff, my uncle Steve and Greg and my grandfather's brother.

So today, which was all about him, was also all about getting reacquainted with the half of the family I've fallen out of touch with because of a feud, so to speak, in the immediate family.

But today went quite well. Though my hermit nature was certainly tested, I'm pretty much beat after nearly 4 hours of meeting and greeting and smiling, etc. etc.

Perhaps the reacquaintance will be be more than that for a good many people. I have a feeling that regardless of what continues between Jeff and I, I certainly have ways to reach people not through him.

And so I'm taking the rest of the day easy laying low. The 8 a.m. wake-up was also not pleasant, but exceptions must be made.

Routine Returns

I had my best night of sleep in a week last night.
I had my first glass of orange juice since Thursday.
I had my first bowl of cereal since Thursday.

Next week I'll return to yoga.

Dust Settling

So it's been 4 days since living abruptly changed for me, and the dust is beginning to settle. I have some semblance of routine again and a roof over my head when I need it.

I guess some of the process seems to be moving fast, but given the situation I haven't had time to let everything hit me at once. I'm expecting to come to me in waves over time until I've dealt with it all.

But today I woke somewhat refreshed for the first time since Wednesday morning and, wow, it certainly changes one's outlook to wake up feeling ready to take on what's coming.

I'll be in Lancaster Saturday for a funeral. I think some waves of emotion will certainly hit me then.

I think the first real feeling of relief came knowing that what Chris and Michael had before is still there, and so everything was not ruined.

Tune Up

That's why my bike needs. The chains are getting a bit rusty looking, and the bike has had a hard summer of use.

But I also need a tune up.

I'm single, homeless and living out of a bag for another day or two, yet I carry with me a laptop, cell phone, passport, keys, three rocks, some cash and a change of clothes.

Homeless nowadays isn't like what it used to be!

But, I'm moving to Manayunk for a few months this week, all while adjusting my lifestyle, goals, outlook, social life, etc. etc.

I guess it could be kind of hard on a person, but I'm still standing.

And my grandfather was killed this week, too.

But, I'm looking forward to the temporary living as I have a new motivation to leave the East Coast for awhile. My eyes are set on Chicago. Now I just have to find a job there.

The ending of the relationship was rough as hell, but an end it was. My previous relationship dragged on through multiple break ups, which absolutely did not work. This one continued through one break up.

The single life I don't mind, but the adjustment, the sudden separation, let's me know I'm human, because the silence is such a wake up call for far longer than the day that it all ended, and I feel it.

A new mandate from the masses, for real this time

My bi-monthly column for The Times Herald, November 11

Mandate.

It’s a funny word. Rather powerful, yes, yet as I begin writing this I can only think of three instances in my life where it left an impression.

Of course with just 27 short years under my belt, it’s quite possible that there are only three real memories of it.

I’m certain the word was used in my U.S. history class, something about taking this continent for this great country at the expense of a good many people. But the exact wording escaped me. Perhaps because the mandate was not used for this crazy idea of which I think.

(Upon taking this column, written on paper, to the computer at work, I manged to get the correct phrase “manifest destiny,” which uses the same beginning letters, but with a different meaning, according to the etymology of each in the dictionary.)
But my first memory of mandate dates back to centuries prior to the much publicized and very fictitious discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and the manifest destiny that followed.

(I’ve seen the less-than-amazing tribute to the man of questionable origins when in Barcelona this past September. Barcelona itself is quite amazing, though. It is very conducive to a social life for third-shift workers like myself.)

No so coincidentally, the first memory of mandate is simultaneously fictitious and real, and you’ll find it in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”

“… Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. …”

This line ends in the repression of the peasant speaker by King Arthur, who continues on his quest, undaunted by politics.

This memory leads me to the farcical use of “mandate” by the Penguin — more or less commonly known as Vice President Dick Cheney — made following the slim win by President George W. Bush over Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election.

Again, someone undaunted by politics. There are many patterns in this column …
Fifty-one percent of just 60 percent of the eligible voters as a mandate is quite a miscalculation. But I suppose that a miscalculation by a man who accidentally shot someone while quail hunting isn’t hard to comprehend.

It would seem that the change in fortunes for the two political monopolies on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday is a truer mandate, one by more of the masses, for real!

Sure, just 40 percent of the eligible voters turned out (more than 50 percent here in Montgomery County, but the Grand Old Party lost majorities in the U.S. House and Senate and state governors.

So the mandate has been delivered and should reap returns for more Americans — as long as those with their newly attained powers act accordingly.

The agenda-less will present their response before long, and how well they do will show when election times comes around again.

I shudder to think such thoughts as TV and radio have so recently been returned to listenable and watchable, let go from the clutches of twisted truths and sometimes far worse.

(Note to the newly politically powerful: Do something about this!)

Could the $2.6 billion in donations to the political monopolies, candidates and the like have been used any more inefficiently?

Sit back and imagine the possibilities the $2.6 billion could have done for far more? That price tag is about twice what Congress tends to give Amtrak to run, barely, throughout the United States each year.

With double that, one could improve Amtrak, or other public transit infrastructure, and suddenly we have a decent fix for the traffic jams in many of the major metropolitan areas from coast to coast.

Sure, the optimist could say the political donations will indirectly benefit all Americans by changing the government, was it the $2.6 billion in donations or did built-in voter discontent lead to this change?

In the Words of Our Elected President and Vice President in 2004 ...

America has delivered a mandate, but this time, it would seem that the mandate is at least half real and guess what it says: Republicans are off base.

On a more local level, thanks to all responsible for the defeat for Sen. Rick Santorum.

Being a Citizen

I voted today. It was after 1 p.m., I don't recall for sure because I've been lazy as anything today. Coming down with something, perhaps ... stuffy head, runny nose and completely wiped out.

Still I managed to walk 2 blocks to the voting place. I was No. 259, which is far higher number than in the spring, but I also voted earlier then, perhaps before yoga.

What will come of this election? I'll know when I close out the paper tonight and begin my weary, yet with the possibility of more bounce in my step, way home at 2 a.m.