Kids at Marshall Fields on State Street Chicago

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Who's afraid of Christmas? (Part 1)

Like many thinking Christians, I have decried the systematic banishment of the word "Christmas" from public parlance. I have seen stores selling "Holiday trees" as if there was any other holiday in any religion that involved a evergreen tree adorned with lights. By now we are all being wished "happy holidays" by merchants, co-workers, and anyone else whith whom we come in contact. I used to think that "happy holidays" was just a shorthand way of including Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's day into one compact phrase, and maybe it used to be--before the first ad for a "holiday tree".

While I'm on "Holiday Trees" let me ask this: if the goal of using this generic term is an Oh-so-American attempt to neuter the term so as not to offend anyone, who are the people who are buying these trees in the first place? The only people buying them are people who are at least nominal enough Christians to have a gree in the first place! I'm not for a second implying that anyone with a Christmas tree is automatically a Christian, but I do feel that if you are going to celebrate the Holiday of Christmas, with all the warm emotionals and joy that go with it (more on this later) that at a bare minimum, you should be willing to pronounce the word out loud and--gasp--even be willing to write it!

I cannot for the life of me understand the cognitive dissonance of celebrating Christmas, but refusing to say the word. I can understand and respect those who--for any reason--chose not to celebrate Christmas, whether they are an honest atheist or whether they adhere to another religion. The interesting thing is that in my small, unscientific personal survey, these people are actually more likely to wish me a "Merry Christmas" than the christian (use of lower case deliverate to reflect the nominal nature of that label) who go home to a Holiday Tree.

Remberber folks, in this country the only group that is allowed to be offended is Christians, even though a large majority of Americans are at least Christian enough to have a Christmas tree in thier home and gladly take the day off from work.

View from our table at dinner tonight

Big dinner after big day in Rome.
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Kids at St. Peters in the Vatican

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Thanksgiving feast

Turkish in Rome for Thanksgiving
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Thanksgiving at Trevi fountain

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Colleseum

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On the way to FCO!

some in business some in economy plus. We're all going to Rome!

Best regards,
Gordon

Sent from my wireless device.

Destination:FCO

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There's a reason for that

Interesting article about the growing trend for musicians to "sell out" and pursue alternate revenue streams.
http://2010.newsweek.com/essay/the-end-of-selling-out.html#comments

It seems pretty obvious to me that (artistic issues aside) that one of the things driving recording artist to corporate deals is the loss of revenue due to illegal downloading of their primary product and revenue source. I actually find myself on the side of the artists in this one. Imagine having a significant portion of your income lost because people feel that it is acceptable for them to steal your product via illegal downloading.

Why do we act surprised by this?

Is it sophisticated or sad to be one of these downtown workers who just walks blindly to the office without admiring this city?

No good deed.....

When faced with an opportunity to help a fellow human being, many of us try to do what we can. Yet sometimes, despite our best intentions, we find ourselves facing something that we can only conclude is some kind of punishment. Why is it that the very perople or groups that we might be helping are the ones that turn on us and make us regret the effort?
Will I be the one to become cynical and refuse to help people? Will I merely become guarded? Will I shrug it off and get on with being my old self?
Will people the people that I helped ever realize the effect their punishment had on others that I migh have helped, but decided not to because I didn't want to feel their wrath again?

What will it do to me?

My office is in the suburbs. Our company headquarters is downtown in the Loop. I've always liked big cities and have enjoyed being in the hustle and bustle of New York, London, Chicago, Washington (ok, maybe a different kind of hustle in DC), and San Francisco. Every couple of weeks or so I have a meeting downtown and I've rather enjoyed that trip as well. We bought our house partially because it was close to the train station so we could either visit downtown or, if my job chainged, I could easily commute downtown.
There are now rumors swirling that my office may move downtown, and as I walked from the train station to the office, I started to wonder how I would be affected by having an office downtown. Would I become a 'regular' in 'my' seat on 'my' train inbound and outbound? Will I become a commuting zombie with earphones in and the world tuned out? Will I become city-weary after the thrill wears off? Will I get pulled into the after-work cocktail hour that stretches until after the kids go to bed? Will I get pulled into the "just one more e-mail" mentality that will keep me at the office that long? Will I always be the suburbanite at heart who is always like a fish out of water? Will I change and become an urbanite who is out of place back at home in the 'burbs?

I never thought I'd be doing this....

I have always had a lot of thoughts and anyone who knows me knows I seldom keep them to myself. So I figured that I shouldn't just restrict myself to the people within earshot when we have this whole big internet thing to help.

I want to help people think, so I will share my ideas and thoughts and encourage you to respond with thinking.

More to follow.