Words of Wisdom

No, not the word of wisdom...but something better. Words from a grandmother on a fixed income who is struggling with the whole meaning of Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I am not against giving a gift to show how much you love and appreciate a loved one or a friend..but I do agree that there has to be a limit....any maybe we should all consider having a limit and sending some of the money we would usually spend going over the limit to someone in need....or better yet, just spend some quality time with our families instead of running around shopping looking for the perfect gift...Often, our attention and love is the perfect gift!

Christmas has been stolen from us
Utah Voices
Janice Cameron

Usually the Christmas season starts the day after Thanksgiving with huge come-ons in the stores. Last year, I even went with my family to Best Buy and stood in line to buy a DVD for just over $30. My grandsons camped out all night in the line to purchase all the things the family wanted. But this year, I decided Christmas has just gone too far. When the X-Box craze appeared at the first of the week, and people were camping out, I finally decided we U.S. citizens have gone crazy!
You see, I live in a retirement center on a fixed income. This is the first year I have had to face the fact that I can't go out and charge up the world with my cards. And I have always enjoyed giving gifts and doing things for others at Christmas. So when I looked at the Target advertisement a few weeks ago and noted the prices of the suggested gifts (ranging from $40 for video games to I-Pods that were far more than what I could pay for), I determined that I could not give at Christmas anymore. Sen. Orrin Hatch said recently that the elderly have more money to spend than ever before. I don't know where he gets that idea because he sure doesn't live like I do. And I live in a nice retirement home (not a nursing home), I have a nice dining room and drivers to take me to my doctor appointments and shopping.
There is nothing more in this world I want to do than buy some great gifts for my grandchildren. But I can no longer compete with the prices of items for those children today and, darn it, I love them just as much as the next grandma. What happened to kids lying out in the snow and moving their arms up and down to make snow angels? What happened to the families who chopped down their own Christmas tree and decorated it with whatever they had, including stringing popcorn. What happened to the sleds, skates, hot chocolate and people singing Christmas carols and baking cookies?
And I wonder what the low-income parents do to try and be Santa Claus to a generation of kids who always have something stuck in their ear while you are trying to have a meaningful conversation.
The true fact of Christmas this year is that there are a lot of lonely elderly people out there whose families have become so busy that they don't have time for us. They have season tickets to the local football teams; they fly to Hawaii (or some exotic place) for Christmas; they watch their children play in tournaments and run marathons, and are so busy that they miss an awful lot of life.
The fact is that there are many children who have no way of getting those expensive items. The fact is there are soldiers who put their life on the line for us every day to give us the freedom we experience. The fact is that 70,000 people were killed in Pakistan recently and winter is coming on for them, and they have no food. People in Africa are struggling with AIDS. And Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala just were decimated by storms.
There are the people without homes in the New Orleans area, and just last week the electricity was finally on in the Fort Lauderdale area. The Navajo people need stoves to keep them warm (they are one of the few Indians who do not have gambling casinos); Delta Air Lines is in bankruptcy; General Motors is laying off thousands of workers. The food banks are asking for help. The Humane Society needs food and warm bedding, and frankly, there are just a thousand ways everyone in this United States could spend their money this season. But instead, this nation chooses to stand in line to be the first to have the latest technology of today instead of what is really needed.
Even though it is depressing right now to face the Christmas season, all the needy and elderly may get through it. But how many could you have helped instead of buying that digital camera? --- Janice Cameron is a retired mother of two and grandmother of five. She lives in South Jordan.