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11月23日 Yearly Christmas ReprieveEvery year I get more and more disgusted with Christmas. What is supposed to be the crowning event of the year where we look to Christ and his atonement has been turned into the yearly greed-fest. And I have noticed that this season starts earlier and earlier each year. It used to be that I was disgusted with people who lit their Christmas lights before Thanksgiving (although I think it's okay to hang them much earlier when it's not snowing). Now that is the norm and I am horrified when people light their lights and put up their tree before Halloween! By my count there are about 55 days between Halloween and Christmas (62 until New Years). That means that they have their Christmas tree up for nearly 15-20% of the year! If you put your tree up on December 1st and take it down January 2nd that is only about 8% of the year. In keeping with the trend, so-called Black Friday has been starting earlier and earlier every year. In fact, this year it actually started at 9PM on Thanksgiving in our local malls and other retail stores. There was some crazy lady on the News who caped out in front of Circuit City for over 36 hours missing Thanksgiving entirely!
I guess the big question is why does this matter, or at least why do I think it matters? The reason I think it matters is because I really think this is having a horrific impact on our youth. I know that some people actually incur a large amount of debt just to have "the perfect Christmas". They need to buy their kids everything they asked for Christmas. I also know that their Children notice. They notice the debt, the excessiveness, the kinds of things you do at Christmas, and why you are doing those things. Kids pick up on these kinds of things. Obviously every child is different but I think that most walk away with a sense of want=need and with assurance that it is okay to do whatever it takes to fill that want-need. They may also gain a sense of entitlement that has become so prevalent. They may feel that they are entitled to the luxury's of life rather than understanding that those things can only be had by hard work. They think that luxury is a basic human right and that not having an iPod or a cell phone has robbed them somehow. Many become Democrats :) But all have real trouble adjusting when they have a family of their own and try to provide all of those want-needs.
So with that, here are my suggestions for ways to keep the good things about Christmas while leaving out the bad things:
I'm sure anyone reading my blog that can relate to what I am saying can add more so feel free to leave a comment. I hope that 10 years from now I can write another blog entry about how we need to make a bigger deal about Christmas. --Nathan Zaugg 6月25日 Live WealthyLast Sunday I was teaching the lesson in Elders Quorum and was teaching about Financial Preparedness. To prepare I had been listening to the book-on-tape of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” which was a very interesting book so far as it points out that wealth is the ability to control ones financial destiny. When I thought about what wealth is the first thing that comes to mind is wealth = materialistic items. A nice, large set of tools! A Plasma TV! Nice cars and other nice things. This is one of the first times the definition of wealth has been challenged. I started to think that really the materialistic items were not really what wealth is about, but perhaps it’s a little more. Perhaps wealth = power? Power could include a more general set of things that define wealth.
I got word this week that my old friend, Warren Ludlow, has passed away. I use the term old friend because I haven’t seen or heard from him in almost 10 years but he lived just a few houses down the street for most of my teen-aged life. The image I think of when I think of him is at scout camp one time I came up to the cabin and heard someone choking! I went to see if whoever was going to be okay when I saw Warren choking on some skittles. He started breathing again so I breathed a sigh of relief. Just then Russ King came around the corner, also responding to the distress of chocking. He assured us he was okay and continued eating skittles. Almost immediately he started chocking again! We again rushed over to his aide. He re-gained composure and informed us he was fine. He said that skittles make him choke. Russ asked, “Why do you keep eating them then?” to which the reply “Because they’re good!” eventually came between chocking and gasps for air. We shook our heads and walked away. That was Warren. Warren and I were in very similar stages of our life. He was only 1 year younger, married, and with a kid on the way. It’s a little shocking to lose someone so young, 26. While on my 1,600 mile journey to Montana this weekend I thought a lot about what it must have been like for him and his family. It was really easy considering our circumstances were so similar. What would I have done with the time I had left? The first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, tried to prolong his mortality any way possible and at any cost! By the end of my journey I really started to miss my wife and kids when all of the sudden two thoughts mixed. I thought what would I do if I had a bunch of money and I was about to die? If I could “purchase” or otherwise bargain for more time would I, could I? What would I be willing to pay for just a few moments? I suppose I would pay a million bucks or more! In fact, every moment I do spend with them is worth a million bucks if I am seconds away from death or not! It’s worth a million bucks if I have many millions or not. I get to spend lots of time with them so maybe there is some grandiose “bar tab” being tallied. Perhaps the price has already been paid for the time we share together; like some large inheritance the cost of time is suddenly diminished. Perhaps this was the case. Suddenly a new, better, definition came for wealth. Wealth = Happiness. That is to say wealth is only a state of mind. You feel wealthy if and only if you look for it in the right places. We all know that money cannot buy happiness but wealth has nothing to do with money! To be wealthy is to look at what you have with gratitude rather than looking for what you don’t have with envy. We are all blessed so abundantly that it is easy for anyone, anywhere to be wealthy. --Nathan Zaugg |
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