Is the Sky Really Falling?

We read the news reports and hear the horror stories, but is the sky really falling?

After all, this is going to be the worst Christmas for consumer spending, everyone is going to go broke, all the stores will be losing so much they will shut down forever, doom and gloom to no end, might just as well pack it in, the economy is gone.

The studies show that consumers plan to spend $26 less per person on Christmas than last year.

Oh, dear. Since almost all people underestimate what Christmas will cost, and end up spending more than planned, forgive me if I don't see this as the end of life as we know it.

The doom and gloom and hype are the reason I don't watch the news any more. I read a few headlines, so I will be informed if the world does actually end. I just don't want to get caught up in the constant worry cycle the news industry seems to want to create. It is not a good climate to live in, no matter what the temperature outside may be.

As for us, my kids know that if they have food on the table, they better be grateful. All Christmas money goes for the obligatory gifts to nieces and nephews.

The world is changing. The economy changes. It is in the nature of the beast, that things change, that we live in time, and to live in time means to change. I won't let that convince me the sky is falling.


Today is:

Feast of No Return

Gunpowder Day

Guy Fawkes' Day, UK

National Doughnut Day

National Men Make Dinner Day

Pope Day

St. Elizabeth's Day


Birthdays Today:

Judy Reyes, 1967
Tatum O'Neal, 1963
Tilda Swinton, 1960
Bryan Adams, 1959
Peter Noone, 1947
Sam Shepard, 1943
Art Garfunkel, 1941
Elke Sommer, 1940
Ike Turner, 1931
Vivien Leigh, 1913
Roy Rogers, 1911
Joel McCrea, 1905
Strom Thurmond, 1902


Today in History:

Wu MeKuan, a collection of 48 Zen koans, compiled in China, 1228
Publication of the Catholicon in Treguier (Brittany); it is the first Breton dictionary as well as the first French dictionary, 1499
St. Felix's Flood ravages the Dutch coast and destroys the city of Reimerswaal in the Netherlands, 1530
The Gunpowder Plot, in which Catholics were trying to blow up the English Parliament, is foiled, 1605
Susan B. Anthony is arrested for trying to vote in Rochester, NY, 1871
The first US patent for a gasoline driven motor car is granted to George B. Selden, 1895
Calbraith Rodgers arrives in Pasadena from Sheepshead Bay, NY, completing the first transcontinental plane flight, in 49 days, 1911