OPINIONS & EDITORIALS » CONNECTIONS

Written by Dolores Bader, 02/18/2010

The neighborhood deer are no longer bashful. The deer will get as close to you as they have to if they think there is something nourishing to be had. They have been favoring the ground at the base of my trees, which they clear with their hooves. They also regularly check the flower wagon in the front yard of Linda and Rick Rhoads. One is a regular visitor who is often joined by three others. Their tracks are everywhere. It is not unusual to see one stand under the trees by our south drive for an hour at a time. The deer seem at home with the traffic which they watch totally unconcerned. Don’t trust them; their "better weather" pattern takes them across the highway early morning and early evening every day.

Part of out "broken" economy that never gets publicized has nothing do with our ability to buy. It is rooted in the fact that a lot of household residents can’t sack for Goodwill fast enough to make room for new belongings. There is a saturation point. Beyond food, can you name life’s essentials? Water, heat, clothing. Even your car and your medications are options or privileges, not necessities. They are so much a part of our daily life that we can’t image life without them. Maybe we all need to take time to really visit with a nursing home resident. Many of those people can help reset our priorities. A lot of them remember war days of rationing and scarcity of every sort. There were plenty of jobs and decent paychecks, but material belongings were not coming by boatloads from China every day. American production lines turned out tanks, ships and airplanes, not cars and pickups. The past and the future hold hands, they are linked whether we like it or not. We need to live "accordingly."

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