It's That Time Again

It's Christmas. We're surrounded by Christmas music, Nativity scenes, Salvation Army kettles, plastic ice decorations, and relentless Christmas cheer -- all of which is supposed to be non sectarian. Right.

This has been an awful few months. My mother died just before Thanksgiving (which was not awful; at 96 1/2 years, she'd lived a full life, and had a peaceful and calm death -- the sort of death we all hope to have -- but it was still wrenching), we learned that Ann's brother Carlo is suffering from liver cancer with a not-positive prognosis, and that a good friend (and Ohio State alumna) is in the final stages of lung cancer. So it's not been a great time. Plus, an external review of my workplace done this fall identifies me as one three people who are an impediment to any approval in our area, and that nothing will change until we retire, or leave, or . . . Well, that was a cheerful holiday present!

And on top of all that, problems at the Coop, which take up an enormous amount of time. They will, I believe, eventually be resolved. But it drags on and on, ... and on. Although why, if I'm an impediment to any change at Ohio State, am I spending all these hours on Coop business? Surely an impediment one place will still be an impediment at another place 1 1/2 miles distant? And, if so, shouldn't the impediment simply resign, so that progress can continue unchecked?

Oh, well. the holiday season is here. The controversy in Olympia, Washington, about what the city government should or should not display (Christian, Jewish, Muslim signs, but no atheist), resulted in this sign being posted>



and posted it was. And torn down. And reposted. Sigh. When will they ever learn? when will they ever learn??