Long travel day yesterday and although I wanted to make an entry here I did not get it done. I just didn’t try hard enough. Maybe two today to make up for it.

Time passed both slowly and quickly this past week. A dose of cold reality mixed with some holiday warmth and cheer. We go on; life goes on.

Did you head out to shop yesterday? Did you get into any scuffles and make the evening news? Did you get that bargain you were looking for or were you just out for cheap stuff, maybe for free stuff?

Lots of folks out there looking for free stuff so beware, the competition is rough.

Do you look for free stuff? Do you take it even though something inside says that maybe you shouldn’t? What kind of free stuff do you take?

What kind of free stuff causes people to begin to agree to give up their independence? How much free stuff causes that journey to be complete?

We came home. We came home to a place that we pay for, a place that we built after decades of working and saving and planning and, why yes, a good bit of hope and some luck. But not blind luck. We looked around a long time for the best deals we could secure and then we struck them. We hired people and paid our bills. I think we helped during a time when things in this country were in a very depressed state- maybe not much better now but those times were quite bad. I think that our taxes now- let me be more precise, our property taxes- help out the community in more than a single or simple way.

If I give a dollar I should know pretty much where every penny of that dollar goes and if it goes where I want it to go. If I willingly give that dollar to a charity, to a friend or family member, to a man on the street, then I should know where it goes and if it goes where I want it to go. With taxes that is only partly possible, sometimes not even that much.

If I take a dollar then I should know where it came from and how much it cost to get that dollar to me- who had their cut along the way? I should also know what I am giving up in return for that dollar and if that is acceptable to me. Probably wind up not caring but I should.

If the giver of that dollar knows where it is going and if the receiver of that dollar knows where it is coming from then I would bet less would be wasted or lost along the way. Do you think your charity dollars are spent efficiently? Do you think so as well for the taxes you pay?

Taxes- saving that for another time.

Used to be that a man wouldn’t take anything for nothing so maybe if I take a dollar then I should give that much back by helping a neighbor or doing charity work for my community or another that is need. If I can hammer a nail, cut some wood, dig a hole, trim a tree, wash a floor, vacuum a rug, cook a meal, paint a wall, fix an engine, teach a kid, give a haircut, fix a furnace, clean some windows, shovel some snow, plant a garden, repair a broken chair, patch a coat, wash some clothes, go to the store, fix a hole in a roof, babysit a child, read a story, play a game, offer a positive word or spread some good cheer…all in response for that dollar I have received, not from those I help but from those who have chosen to help me, then I should indeed do so. It is not in exchange, it is in response.

Some call it “shining it on”. Didn’t this country used to be more like that?

But it seems to me that those who get stuff for free, who take that dollar, do not want to do much more than to make sure that the giver is still around tomorrow and the days after that.

But what if the giver is in fact a taker? And what if that taker takes so much from the original giver that there then comes a day when there is no more left to give?

And, then, no more left to take- what then?