Random Acts of Pond'ring on a Christmas Night

Christmas was pleasant for me, for the first time in . . . maybe for life? Well, it was pleasant. We had a relatively quiet family dinner at the new office. (Damn, I just have to get some pictures posted of that place.) And the day prompted my usual random thoughts - which, characteristically, I now inflict upon you.

Something my wife gave me as a Christmas gift was a book of photography and poetry by Gerry Spence. Spence is the (accurately) self-styled "Best trial lawyer in America." My admiration of him is almost boundless. The photos are of his Wyoming, which he loves as much as I love my Mother West Virginia. And his poetry is sensitive and revealing and even soaring. Seeing that gives me sort of "license" to write poetry again - if a manly guy like Spence can do it, it must be OK. (I know that's a stupid association to need to make.) And maybe even I'll take up some photography. Note to myself - Talk to Ragamuffin about cameras. We already have a big-ass printer.

My father-in-law gave me a pocket knife. Frankly, I don't know what the habits are of people elsewhere, but here it is most common to carry a knife. I've read condemnations of all blades in magazines, generally in liberal rags, the kind I favor. Give me a break. A crazy with a baseball bat is a whole lot more dangerous than me with my pocket knife. Hmmm - Maybe someday I'll take a baseball bat and a pocket knife through security at a courthouse, and see which gets seized. In any event, this knife that my father-in-law gave me was my favorite brand, "Buck." I have several of their knives, for every occasion, the oldest of which I received when I was about 10. They are made in Idaho, by American craftsmen. So I thought. I looked on the box, and there were chilling words: "Made in China." This is appalling. I went to the company website [buckknives.com], and apparently they still do some manufacturing in the United States - and they don't mention any overseas manufacturing. But this is an indicator of how terrible are the inroads that China is making into American craftsmanship and manufacturing. China uses essentially slave labor, pennies a day labor. American companies save enough on labor costs to more than cover the shipping to the United States. (Containerized shipping, is it the Achille's Heel of American Labor?) In a Wal-Mart-ized economy, saving pennies per unit is an adequate excuse to send American jobs offshore. Buck is a high end, recognizable brand, universally noted for quality, and it is having some of its products made in China . This is particularly troubling.

One thing i found on the Buck package insert and again on their website is interesting - and this will sound peculiar coming from me - it talks about their philosophy of business and that they have always considered God the Senior Partner in the firm - what a good sentiment. It's good enough, I think, to talk to my partner about using. I know that I am somewhat profane and rather unconventional. I think religious "authority" is ridiculous. No person is authoritative enough or wise enough to intercede with God for me. S/he will have to accept me as I am, without interpretation. Anyway, I think that "God as senior partner" thing is a good idea, which reflects our values. (My partner is a trustee of her church. She has found it humorous that I have helped her ghost-write some fairly pious offerings for the congregation.)

One of the books I received (everybody knows, if they don’t know what to get me as a gift, give me a book, and they have done a good deed) was a quarto size book about Scouting. I read it this afternoon & evening - really got into it. I am discouraged about Scouting today. When I was a kid, it was still OK to wear a Scout uniform, it was a matter of pride, and the scouting community, both youth and adult, was respected. The politicization of the movement is killing its good works and positive message of belonging and self-reliance for young people. All of the bullshit about gays and atheists is distracting those within the movement and has misrepresented our hearts to those outside the movement. Scouting is needed today. The fact that kids now would largely prefer to sit on their asses and play computer games bothers me greatly. And I recognize that I'm real hypocritical with that observation, given my physical condition - maybe I want better things for these kids than I myself had or did.

Perhaps I’ll expand on one or more of these topics later. These were just the things stirring around in my mind tonight.

Merry Christmas to all. Mizpah!

Roger