Dog Bites and Bee Stings

The Paul McCartney song goes “Simply having a wonderful Christmas time.” What kind of person “simply” has a wonderful Christmas time? How do you have a Christmas time without remembering the stress and the fights of previous traumatic Christmases? Having said that, Christmas is timeless. Or eternal. It always comes back. Even if you don’t feel Christmas-y, the lights still go up and the shopping goes on. Even if you aren’t having a wonderful Christmas time, someone else very well could be. Up north here in Buffalo, the snow doesn’t stop. And the snow always looks fantastic, even if my relationship with it might have become strained over the years. Snow was a beautiful friend growing up but after I started driving, our relationship became a bit more complicated.

That makes me think of one of my favorite things: When you think the roads are going to be garbage on a drive, and they turn out to be clean and you can drive your car with confidence. I recently got new tires on my car and I think I understand the people who drive way too fast in the snow now. They are unburdened by fears of spinning out. It’s not that they necessarily hate those people who are driving slow, but they aren’t suffering like the drivers who worry about every unplowed slice of road. It’s not always about us, a good thing to remember.

And now, a joke. Maybe it’s more of a statement. 

Michigan football is in the news these days. They fired their head coach last night. To me, it seems the program is in a bit of malaise, almost like there is a fog hanging over them. They obviously need a new face to guide them through that fog. How’s this sound…the new head football coach of the Michigan Wolverines…Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Thank you!