Korene's Blog

There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays is a phrase that stirs deep emotions. The very idea of spending the most precious time of the year in a warm safe place surrounded by friends and family is the very essence of the perfect Christmas.

People will travel half way around the world to be with the people who matter most to them.

That is what I wish for you and your family, and it tears at my heart that for one reason or another more than a few of us will not have a perfect Christmas. As we gather with our loved ones, let us keep those less fortunate in our thoughts and prayers.

With prolonged wars, the collapse of the faux economy, political and business corruption on too many fronts and too much scandal to keep track of, there’s plenty for us to be concerned about.

In looking for someone to blame, many people have been looked for scape goats while others are quick to believe that American families are responsible for their own problems, while in reality there is more than enough blame to go around.  To understand this better, see my blog at: http://www.klcsloanteam.com/blog  of August 7, 2009 "Who Should We Blame?"  and November 16, 2009  "When the Housing Bubble Burst Hits Home"

I mention how the blame has been deflected unto the middle class because so many of the comments to articles about loan modification and foreclosure I read are, shall we say, uncompassionate. Or, the guilty rantings of someone not yet touched by the looting of the economy. This isn’t just any Christmas; it is one following a year in which an extraordinary number of people had their hopes and dreams crushed.

And, it comes at a time when our communities’ resources to help the less fortunate are being slashed due to local and state budget shortfalls.

What can we do? Work on our gratitude and our charity.  It is amazing how much we have in storage that we do not need or use that IF we could donate it to a non-profit or charity or a family in need, we would help someone in need, pay it forward anonomously, and get rid of our stoarage problems.

Let’s remember our brave young men and women in the armed forces stationed around the world placing themselves in harms way in service to their homeland. May our gratitude and our prayers bring them safely home to raise their families in homes of their own. They are not immune to many of the statistics represent many families this year.

For the families of those who are away doing their duty, they will feel the absence of their loved ones like no other time of the year.Don't forget their families who must sacrifice so much for our benefit and comfort.

Remember to our emergency respondersm while able to spend part of the holidays with their families, will be at work just as though Christmas was any other Friday. Many other workers will be on duty including, but not limited to, lowly paid security guards who are the ground level eyes and ears of security, protection, and law enforcement; doctors, nurses and other hospital personnel; utilities and maintenance workers, and more. We should take a moment to respect and be grateful for what they do.

There are those who are altogether homeless. Some have chronic issues, but the majority are simply victims of the economy, an illness, or an accident. The average age of a homeless person is nine.

There was a time, not that long ago, when we helped each other. Neighbors may have been a significant distance away, and yet, we were closer as people than we are today. We have become conditioned, indifferent, and judgmental of each other in a way that is very un-Christmas.

A hundred years ago, America was feeling the hangover from the investment boom associated with the construction of a cross national railroad and the building of factories. The workers who came to the cities were no longer needed and the economy contracted.

William Sydney Porter was a short story writer of the era. Under the pen name “O. Henry”, he wrote a tale that demonstrates what the essence of real giving is.

The Gift of the Magi was written in 1906.

A young couple, Della and Jim, have been impacted by a downturn in the economy, (sound familiar?). With Christmas the next day, neither has money for a gift for the other.

Each, has a treasure that they prize above all else; Della, her knee length hair, and Jim, a pocket watch given to him by his father.

Jim returns home on Christmas Eve to a hairless Della holding a platinum chain for his watch. Surprise! Jim sold the watch to buy Della a set of tortoise shell combs for her now departed hair.

It isn’t what you get, it’s what you give. I’m not talking about fancy wrapped presents or money, I’m talking about really giving, starting with a grateful and charitable attitude. If you are home for the holidays, you have much for which to be grateful.