Resolution and Tradition

It's that time again; it's New Year's Eve, that nostalgic moment poised on the brink of a new year that hovers ever-hopeful before us. It's often a time of introspection, evaluation, and resolve. Almost everyone seems to be turning over a new leaf, and not just on the calendar. (Yes, I still use paper calendars.)

New Year's resolutions are often broken quickly; "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak," as The Lord put it. I think part of the issue with abandoned resolutions is that sometimes they are either unrealistic, e.g. "lose 50 lbs. by Easter" or too numerous--"start running, stop drinking, read a book a month, take a cruise, organize the photos, clean the garage." As experience has taught me, if we ask too much of ourselves, we can become discouraged quickly. 

Last year I had five cross-country trips scheduled and one international journey. I made a single, double-sided resolution for 2022--to enjoy all my travels to the full and to not worry about Covid. I succeeded, and I managed to do so in continuing good health. I don't know if my resolution was fulfilled by positive thinking, a hearty constitution, providence, blind luck, or a combination of all. I'm just grateful that it worked out.

What's my resolution for 2023? I'm not sure yet, and I have another day to contemplate my decision. I do know that there will be just one resolution, and that it will be something I'm reasonably confident I can achieve.

In my ongoing determination to keep what's good from the past, I'll handwrite my 2023 goal on my kitchen's paper calendar. That calendar is a traditional gift from my adult children, compiled with dozens of photos of my grandkids throughout the outgoing year.

I'll never give up that wall calendar. Some resolutions are easy to keep.

Leaving 2022 behind

Not In the Cards

Christmas cards—that’s what I call them, please deal with it—used to be a prominent and fun part of this season. Beginning as early as Thanksgiving weekend, my mailbox would begin to deliver happy greetings from family and friends near and far. There were often several cards arriving each day, many in colorful envelopes festooned with holiday stickers. Sometimes there would be a newsy letter enclosed, recapping significant personal events in the year gone by. Often there would be handwritten notes on the inside or a photo print (remember those?) enclosed.

In those days, by Christmas Eve, dozens of Christmas cards would be taped all over my doorways. It was not so long ago, as recently as five years past. But those days, sadly, are vanishing like snow in the sunlight. Writing and sending Christmas cards takes a chunk of time, extra effort, and money—all items in short supply in most people’s lives today. Postage rate hikes have not been kind to the greeting card custom. It is considerably more expensive to mail cards today than it was in years past.

I suppose we should feel lucky to receive even a “holiday” text, at this point. At least, we know we are remembered. And there is always the occasional “e-card” in my email's Inbox. But for me, a text or e-card can never generate that small thrill of seeing a Christmas card peeking out from my mailbox. I would always save the daily cache of cards to open last, a special treat after all the other mundane mail was disposed of. Receiving cards was a part of the Christmas magic that today is devolving into yet another “once upon a time” tale for the grandkids.

It is less than four days before Christmas Eve, and I have received nine cards. I’m grateful for every one of them. But each year their numbers are fewer. The piano used to be where I started standing up the cards, moving them onto doorways by mid-December as their numbers grew. But there’s no more taping cards on doorways; all the Christmas cards now fit easily atop my piano.

I, for one, will not let the treasured tradition of sending Christmas cards go gently into that goodnight. I’ll keep writing my annual newsletter as long as I can, too. So, to all my Christmas correspondents, it’s in the cards that you’ll have at least one old-fashioned Christmas greeting in your mailbox. My hope for you is that my card will have lots of company.

Merry Christmas!

Fireside on Fire

A couple of years ago, I signed up as a supporting member of Prager U. I'd heard Dennis Prager on the radio sporadically over the years. His mid-day radio show time clashed with my working hours, so I was only able to catch him on off days or in the car on the way to appointments. He always held my attention.

Prager is a very intelligent man. He is also very logical, experienced, interesting, and well-informed. Prager is also a conservative. This combination of positive traits is a lethal witch's brew to his left-wing enemies, who have been on a multi-year mission to destroy him. Many of his videos have been maligned, censored, and banned. His 5-Minute Videos on the Ten Commandments were particularly repugnant to the Lefties. In fact, the video about the commandment not to murder was banned from YouTube because it "discussed murder." How's that for an example of the critical thinking skills of the media giants managing our lives right now?

I joined Prager U because I think the work Dennis is doing is not only important, but necessary to preserve our way of American life. Prager U doesn't charge its viewers. The Fireside Chat is posted every Thursday, and I look forward to watching each of these 30-minute philosophical discussions of life, love, and our current social predicaments. Dennis Prager is almost always a genial, phlegmatic speaker. He is very rarely ruffled. 

Tonight he was on fire. In a departure from the show's usual format, he had as his guest the CEO of Prager U, Marissa Streit. She discussed with him the continuous malevolent efforts of the left-wing "fact checker" organization NewsGuard to take down not only Prager U, but all of its donors and supporters. Dennis was justifiably angry. Upon hearing what was happening to Prager U from NewsGuard's totalitarian lowlifes, I was angry, too.

Just to decide for yourself--while that's still an option in the USA--you should check out Prager U's website. There's a wealth of content there besides the Fireside Chat. I'm especially gratified by the children's content Prager has added in recent years.

In a cultural and societal war such as ours, Dennis Prager says there are three kinds of people: those who do nothing, those who fight, and those who support the fighters. He is fighting hard to keep America free. I'll do what I can to support him by keeping my monthly membership and donating additionally as I can. I signed the Prager U petition against NewsGuard, too. And you'll now find Prager U in my sidebar links. 

It's not much, but it's a start.

Dennis Prager

Techno-TKO

I've been writing this blog for a long time. Since 2004, to be exact. Over the years, I've been able to roll with the occasional updates as they launched. Until now.

For months I've been receiving emails from Google, which owns Blogger, that I need to "install Google tag." There was some message about "sunsetting the current Google Analytics." Not only do I need to install a new tag; I need to "configure" it. And, because Blogger isn't one of the supported platforms that will automatically update by "scanning the new code," I need to manually "copy and paste" the code below into each section of my website:

<!-- Google tag (gtag.js) -->

<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-9ZZNZ0WP65"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-9ZZNZ0WP65'); </script>

Looks like fun, right? I'm instructed to insert this code "immediately after the <head> element," which can't be found--at least by me. Need some help? Google's got me covered. Their offered solution? Go ask the other users.

So I've dutifully been to the "community forum" and read dozens of the bewildered comments and questions of other exiled Bloggers who are all totally ignored by Google. Odd that Google doesn't support one of its own platforms, but who am I to question a mega-zillion dollar Big Tech giant? Certainly not a software engineer, I've come to find out.

So that's why I've been MIA for a while, and most likely will remain so for a while longer. I've been navigating the maze of instructions, diagrams, screen shots, pages of Q&As and articles. I'll keep hacking at it until I either figure it out or move to a different blog platform. Stay tuned, if you're patient. Unlike Google, I'll make it easy for you to find me.