Post-holiday musings

We have adjusted pretty well to the empty-nester situation, I think, but the house felt empty yesterday. I have this somewhat melancholy ritual now where, after a child's visit has ended, I shut the heater vent in the child's room (energy saver!) and close the door so our friendly cat doesn't shed friendly cat hair all over the child's bed. And it struck me that it may be unusual in the near future to have both children home at the same time, what with one of them headed to his first posting as a Marine.

It's also been disturbing to read about the ugly incident in New York, where the crowd trampled the poor man who was too slow to open the doors at the WalMart at 5 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving. The always-astute media columnist in the New York Times made a great point about the sad incident today: The media are now tut-tutting like mad about the stampede, the death and what it supposedly reveals about our society. But, of course, it is the media that essentially created the whole Black Friday mystique and which hypes it, relentlessly, in the days immediately before and after. I usually enjoy holiday shopping but have never understood the wait-before-dawn-for-the-store-to-open idea.

Happier thoughts next time ...