It’s always been hard, it seems, to get “back in the swing” once I’ve been away for a while, and the week just past has been no exception. It’s hard enough returning to work, but it’s especially hard when that work is writing and one’s office is in his own home, as mine is. I also ate too much, and lot of what I ate was the wrong things. There was the traditional turkey and cranberry sauce, Daddy’s hot sausage dressing (I guess the Yankees call it “stuffing,” but it never was

But before we hastily condemn those nine ungrateful former lepers, we should take a good look in the mirror. Don’t we, too, take an awful lot for granted? We live in the greatest, richest country in the world, enjoy the blessings of liberty, plenty, and other of God’s blessings but seldom pause to thank Him for it all. In fact, we sort of look upon it all as our right, and we too often complain about what we do have. Many of us will stand in line for hours in the wee watches

And most of the hoopla is not really even about giving to others; it’s more and more becoming what I can get for me. More material things for self. That’s the modern American way! Thankfully, that’s not how my parents reared me–and it’s not the way my wife and I reared our children. I pray that it’s not the way our children are rearing our grandchildren! As one ages, I think the passage of time brings a bit more sober thinking (one would hope), time (if one allows himself to