Seasoned People of Age

Tomorrow begins a new decade, my third. Makes me feel young actually, whatever helps. A local lady just celebrated her 100th birthday. 10 decades. I can't even fathom how much wisdom a person like that has to share. I once heard an author say that the most valuable properties in the world are cemeteries because they contain acres of untapped potential. Damn that's depressing. His point was we should all live in such a way that we die empty having used up ourselves on others.

One of my favorite things to do that I never seem to do (why do we live like that) is sit and listen to seasoned people of age. Having lived through the Great Depression, The Final Solution, and the unpresedented development of mind blowing technology, these people have literally seen everything. Imagine their perspectives, commentary, stories....Why is it that we don't take the time to listen? Do we honestly believe they have nothing to say or are we so busy trying to construct our own stories we don't care to hear theirs?

A few weeks ago, Angie started her first job outside the home in over a decade. NND, is an award winning company that provides listening care to seasoned people of age (SPOA). A few days ago I, along with the kids, had the privelage of seeing Angie in action. We had accompanied her to give Christmas gifts to one of her SPOA's. This particular woman has a reputation for being particularly difficult (8 health care aids have already been chewed up and spit out by her before Angie came along). Seeing Angie interact with her client was a Masters course in human interaction, one that has not escaped the equally difficult son's attention. Last week, the son came to her and expressed through tears that Angie was a God sent, a literal answer to his prayers. He went on to say that in the 2 weeks Angie had cared and most of all listened to his mother, the transformation was incredible. He concluded by saying the family had been planning to switch his mother to government care (half the price) but after seeing how Angie has performed, she's worth the price.

Imagine the transformation that would take place if we all took time to really listen to a seasoned person of age? I think of my remarkable Roberts cousins Kris, Karl, Jeff, Lia and Lori and how even as young teenagers, they talked weekly with Roland Briggs, an elderly man living out his final years alone in a rest home. Such a small gesture, such a meaningful result.

Tomorrow launches a decade that will see more people become SPOA's then ever before in human history. We're talking 80-100 million people - many who have sacrificed their lives so we could enjoy ours. Who is your Roland Briggs? Lets find him/her together and keep human potential above ground. Die empty. Live full.

Happy New Year everyone!

John

P.S. I chose The Brothers Karamazov, JFK and the Unspeakable and God: A Biography for my Christmas books. Also, thanks for the Virgin Birth dialogue. Very interesting.

Christmas Books

My most excellent brother in law got me a $50 Amazon gift certificate for Christmas. Since then I've whittled away hours trying to decide which 3-4 books I'm going to order. The issue isn't that I don't like books it's I love them a bit too much so choosing just 3 is torture.

Here's my constantly evolving short list:

1. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Once called the greatest novel ever written (Freud) this philosophical classic explores themes of God, Free Will, Morality, Doubt, Faith all set against a backdrop of murder. This one is here to stay.

2. When the Game was Ours - Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. One of the greatest rivalries sports has ever known- in their own words. This magical book has been flying off the shelves. (giggle)

3. God: A Biography. Jack Miles. This important 1996 book exploring the nature of God won the Pulitzer prize for Non Fiction.

4. The First Paul. John Dominic Crossan/Marcus Borg. Crossan and Borg team up once again to rediscover what we think we already know. They did this previous in The Last Week and The First Christmas, two other excellent books. The subtitle of this book is "Rediscovering the Radical Visionary behind Christianity's Conservative Icon." How could I not?

5. JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters. James W. Douglass. I've always been interested in the truth behind the JFK assasination and this new book attempts to answer important questions as well as shed new light on these forgotten events.

These total $74 which means at least one must go. Oh the pain.

In the meantime I loved reading the free Bootstrappers Bible by my business Jesus Seth Godin. I am also just finishing Vonnegut's SlaughterHouse Five and am starting New York by Edward Rutherford, a handsome Christmas gift from my kids. I once read that if a person only read 1 book a week they would only read 3000 books in their lifetime. I was depressed for a week after. So much too read, but who has the time? I'm guessing this list will take me far too long, definitely longer then 1 a week.

John

Virgin Birth

In honor of Christmas I thought I'd pop the questions.....

1. Do you believe Jesus was born of a virgin? Why or Why not?

2. How has this belief changed the way you live?

John

my life.

i am exsitid for christmas! we have lots of presents. its going to be fun. we didint have a angel for our christmas tree but i made one at school.our christmas tree is about the si ze of my dad my dad is probly 6 feet hes relly tall for me i am only like 3 and a half.by the way i have a brother and sister there names are maddie and ethan my name is alexa .i am 7 my last name is close. each year we get a new decoration this year i got a bird. last year i got a snowman in a snowflake.last year my sister got a girl in a stocking this year my sister got poler bear.i dont no what my brother got last year becouse it broke this year got a ball with mooses on it.each new year we get a new dickens house this year we got a charch.i have a dog named hugo and a cat named clover.

Alexa

Christmas

Christmas is awsome! i cant wait to open all the presents. it will be so exciting! it might even snow on Christmas! my mom is at work she left at 9:am she will be back at 2:pm. Then we will play yahtzee. My dad or my little sister will probably win.

Ethan

GUEST WRITER

6 more days until christmas! I am so exited! We are going to have so much fun. My dad played hockey last night. He didn't score a goal but we thought he did.It was suprising when he told us he didn't. My grandma and grandpa came but had to leave early.It was very cold at the rink and we forgot are blanket in the car. Even when my mom wanted to buy coffee from a machine there was no cup so it all poured out into the vent. But otherwise we had really fun!actually we thought that was pretty funny! the game was interesting there was a lot of fighting and there was this one guy on the other team that was yelling at everybody for no reason so he was out for the whole game. But in the end my dad's team ended up winning there team is called the believers. It was funny because last game they were playing talons verse believers so it sounded sort of funny. Last game which was in nanaimo the rink wasn't as good because this rink had CANDY we bought lots of candy and shared it with everyone. It was awesome. I like going to hockey games. today my mom is at work at her nurses next door that is cool to. Goodbye for now!

Maddie

Winter Lawn Care

Like your lawn? Don't park on it this winter. Soil compaction is the number one result and weeds are the number one result of soil compaction which means next Spring you'll be unimpressed when your lawn has uninvited guests. Btw - when the weeds do spring up, please don't spray roundup or any other herbicide on it. Besides polluting the underground waterways and endangering the livelihood of your family it actually destroys the micro-organisms and worms in your soil, without whom nothing would grow. Once these unpaid farmers are gone, your infertile soil will be an even larger breeding ground for weeds creating a vicious chemical cycle all the folks at roundup are banking on. I say make your soil rich instead. Unless of course you have shares in Roundup.

Ecoguy

The Pinch

The inevitability is now here. The first winter of the first year of our first seasonal business. The sensitive experts remind us that half of all small businesses don't make it to year 3, and over 80% don't make it to year 5. In fact, only 2% of small businesses ever go the distance which means the day we went public we made a choice to probably fail or be one of the blessed 2%. Ours is a pressure packed choice and right now we're definitely feeling the pinch. We've decided to focus our present efforts on networking, education and getting things ready for the crazy Spring but there's still days when we wouldn't mind work now. Bottom line, we trust our plan and are confident in it's execution. We just have to be patient and eat lots of peanut butter.

We had the pleasure of watching our kids perform in their school's winter concert. There was nothing Christmassy about it but it was cute and I was a proud parent none the less. I understand the importance of not using Christmas as a time to Christianize the world but Christmas is Christmas and should either stay as it is or be replaced by something else entirely. Perhaps the replacement has already begun and will take decades longer to reach completion but I have a feeling the completion won't ever occur unless businesses can find a new way to make money. It's interesting how money determines how relevant something is.

As far as I, the writer of this blog goes, I've been loving my Oilers play as of late, even loving my own play as of late scoring on a breakaway last night in front of my cheering wife and kids. Believe me, that doesn't happen every night. Or ever come to think of it. Besides hockey, I'm reading a lot these days, most on Soil Chemistry(I know, yawn but I actually find it fascinating) and the Origin of the Species (Darwin is incredibly misunderstood, its shocking actually) and I'm loving the 5th season of Lost, 7th season of Curb Your Enthusiasm and all our traditional Christmas shows. On top of all this, I'm loving the connections I've been making in my new business and church community.

Life in the pinch can still be good, especially when you're confident of what's coming next.

John

hahaha.

Nail gun. | Funniest Video of the Day

cutting down our tree.

Today we went to mount sicker to cut down are Christmas tree. Mount sicker isn't the best place to cut down trees so it was hard to find one. most of them were Douglas fir and we were cold. we were just about to freeze [especially Alexa who just worn a dress] and finally we found one it was not like trees you buy at tree farms all perfect but it was still nice. we brought Hugo our dog with us and he was squished at the back once the tree was put in. but Hugo never complains unless mom and dad are gone. the tree is up to my dads forehead and is a pine tree. we decorated it and then watched small one which is pretty good and Pluto's Christmas and the best one mickeys Christmas carol we had lots of yummy snacks to. Hugo has been sleeping ever since we got home. and clover is exploring the tree. I am happy that we didn't go to a tree farm it is more fun finding your own. It was a really good day.

Maddie

Oh Christmas Tree

Today we will embark yet again on our annual tradition of cutting down our Christmas tree. People look at us strange when we utter such things but we've never been the practical type. Yes people, we're aware that real trees are messier but needles all over the living room and tracked up the stairs are beautiful because each one reminds us to enjoy this season of good tidings and joy. And that's all I'm gonna say about that (Insert Forrest Gump voice)

We're relatively new to the Island so we don't exactly know where to go to cut down said tree. In Calgary we always took the Hwy 20 express, past the Zorns house and on until we passed others coming from the opposite direction with smiles and trees strapped to their Toyota. I did some research last night and there are Christmas tree farms that let you cut down your own tree but they're ridiculously expensive even with promises of hot chocolate. So....I think we're just gonna wing it. One thing we do have a lot around here is mountain roads so I figure if we take our trusted 4x4 up one of these we'll eventually land upon our Charlie Brown and all will be well yet again.

Ethan is of age which means he'll get a chance to use our shockingly sharp saw. I haven't told him yet because we still have a church service to get through and his thoughts should be heavenward and not on cutting..stuff. Speaking of firsts, this will also be the first year we've had a truck to transport the thing. In past years we've used, believe it or not, our car - which of course meant poking branches on the kids and pine needles in the seats for months. All was forgiven though because Bing Crosby and Company would ring out and Mom's home-made hot chocolate warmed even the most pine filled heart.

Arriving home, Angie begins making up the endless supply of snacks that will frame the rest of the evening while I put the tree in its proper place and the kids begin to dress it with home-made decorations and glee. After the tree glows we all settle down for our traditional Christmas shows in this order - Small One, Pluto's Christmas Tree and my favorite Mickey's Christmas Carol. Once the kids are in bed we pull out the real snacks (shh)and drinks (shh shh) and party it up with our favorite Griswald family. "Seriously Clark?" aha ha.

And there you have it, our Christmas tree day. One of the most look forwarded to all year.

John

Sample ladies

Why do we feel the need to offer hope to the sample ladies at Costco? Is it because their outfits are so pretty and their hairnets so sexy? Or are we actually planning to purchase the free food we just scarfed down not a minute earlier. Maybe we would have considered purchasing the spinach mozarella noodle thing but now that we've just had one, we're kinda good. Still, we feel like a giant dummy if we stuff our face and then just walk away, which is why we engage in the following polite behavior....

1. Wave and point. We wave and point and say things like "wow, these are delicious" followed by a brilliant question concerning the name of the product or its price even though both are clearly displayed. All this is done of course while kinda walking away.

2. Munch and Nod. We do both while looking around at everyone as if to say "you really should buy some of these" (even though we clearly aren't going to)

3. Walk and mutter. After finishing our sample we exit the danger zone while saying just loud enough for the host to hear"we should pick up a couple packs of those."

4. Lie and release. We actually ask for a box of the product then turn down the next aisle and release it into the freezer and/or shelf space.

5. Second swoop. This last thing isn't actually all that polite. In this case we love the product but are too cheap to buy it so we actually return to the host asking for a second sample "for my brother." (who lives in South Carolina, shhh)

As much polite fun as the above is, I say lets throw caution to the wind this holiday season and reward these beautiful hosts with a purchase. If you're brave you can even say something like "To be honest, I'm usually a freeloading pig when it comes to these things but what the heck, its Christmas, I'll take 2."

John