Foggy Morning

Sunrise on Christmas Eve, 2025.

According to local weather reports, the high temperature for Monday will be 64, while the high temperature on Tuesday will be 26. Welcome to central Ohio. We have already had significantly more snow and cold weather than typical for this time of year (although I swear it snowed starting around Thanksgiving when I was a kid growing up), but it is still warm enough I could mow the lawn if I wanted at the end of December.

Good thing climate change isn't real! And that we have so much clean, efficient coal to burn that the administration just ordered the halt of five already permitted and under construction east coast wind farms for national security reasons. I'm believe their concern must be that the wind farms will kill the carrier pigeons they use to communicate with Europe, since you know, windmills kill so many birds each year.

I guess I'm feeling a little chippy this morning. I have absolutely no reason to feel chippy. I have been blessed, beyond compare. It is a little weird to walk around knowing that any success that I have had in this life really belongs to God and the people around me who, knowingly and unknowingly, have lifted me up. I don't believe in the myth of the self-made man (or woman.) None of us accomplishes anything alone. That does not mean we don't sometimes feel like we are working alone, or pulling others along with us, but that is simply a misperception.

I got to spend a few hours with Silas, one of our grandsons, yesterday. Silas has just started walking and explores everything. He was especially interested in how the front door opens to reveal a whole new world outside. He hoped every car that drove by the house was his parents coming back to pick him up, but when they drove on by, he was happy to wave and tell them 'Bye, bye.'

Next week, we will have the other four grandsons visiting, and on New Year's Day all five of them (ages 7, 4, 3 1 and 1) will be together. Talk about joyful energy. Joyful, LOUD energy. That is a blessing beyond compare.

For me, the holidays become a time of reflection. It's hard not to spend time thinking about all the family and friends who are no longer here to celebrate with us. I'm old enough to have some age-related perspective now, able to see folks honestly, and not let only their good parts or their bad parts represent the whole of them. People are complicated and we spend our lives trying to make peace with that, for ourselves and others. I'll be the first to admit that it helps when people show some signs of self-awareness and try to limit how deeply they hurt other people.

This moment is a time that feels like some people want to celebrate how much they can hurt other people. That truly makes me sad. How empty is your soul to want to celebrate your ability to cause pain and trauma? I'll never understand. My only hope is that this is a moment we must pass through, as a nation, to reclaim a commitment to serving others, to serving the common good, and to remember, but for the grace of God, there go I.

We cannot abide cruelty. Offer someone you don't know your love and support.

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