As I spend the entire post-turkey day trying recover from two Thanksgiving dinners, I’ll recount the things I’m grateful for since both dinners I attended forgot to do so and proceeded past go and collected 200 carbs on the monopoly style buffets.
This year has had its challenges and stresses. Most people I know are tired of the pandemic and wish folks were responsible enough not to spread the plague so we could return to some sense of normalcy. Work has been exhausting as well – companies seem to want to run at full capacity without the same staffing. I’m a big fan of the sub-reddit Anti-Work. I have worked since I was 14, I am so tired of working so hard for no equity of my labor.
Complaints aside, I am grateful for the good things that have happened this year.
- Living from home has helped pay down debts
- Getting to spend more quality with my parents (double-edged sword, but they won’t last forever)
- Playing DND with friends over the internet, and on rare occasions in-person.
- Not having to drive to an office every weekday
- Enjoying our successes at the Portage County Historical Society. We were approved for $100,000 grant from Ohio from historic home preservation. The Carter House will last for generations to come.
- Have not caught “The Rona” and thus have not given it to anyone I care about.
- Had way too much time to play Star Wars: Battlefront II on the PS4.
Black Friday has always felt commercially unclean to me. I have always been of the mindset that “If you need something, buy it” as opposed to waiting for promotions. Subsequently, it is difficult to buy gifts for people that have what they need, or so I’ve been told. I used to work retail and loathed how many people bought crap that they or the gift recipient did not need. I feel our economy is significantly based on getting things for people that don’t need or want them. After all the gift giving is done, our houses our filled with crap and end up watching a hoarders show on TV and feel the need to “purge around the house a little” to find out flat surfaces.
Having moved to and from so many apartments over the years, it dawned on me that most things I have, I don’t need. The items I have sentimental attachment to are mostly small trinkets or photos of memorable moments. These days, one box of trinkets and storing photos digitally and a laptop to see them on is most of the precious things I need to hang on to. The rest of these items crowding up my life are consumables or temporary convenience clutter – meaning things that you use and could be replaced since they are functional, not meaningful such as a stapler.
Instead of jumping on the buy-things bandwagon, I took today off, to reflect on things, and watch some one of my favorite old films Roberta. Theatrical poster above. If you have not seen a Fred and Ginger film before, I would recommend this one. It’s a little slow to start off and has this god-awful scene of a bunch of people in a band trying to emulate a theater organ that Fred’s character plays with gloves, but once you get past that, you can sit back and enjoy some timely subtle humor, excellent dancing and some enjoyable character rapport.
Roberta was the first Fred and Ginger film I watched. It introduced me to the other nine films they made together for RKO studios and a host of music that made its way into The Great American Songbook.
I hope that you get a chance to sit back and enjoy the simple pleasures of life today.