Another Christmas down, one more New Year to follow.  Football games to watch through early January. Then the Christmas tree comes down and the lights and ornaments stored in the “Christmas Closet” until next year.

We measure our lives by special days.  Actually, by the special moments of special days.  Weddings, anniversaries, holidays, and other memorable occasions, all provide distinct moments, unique to each of us, but a basic experience shared throughout the world.  I find comfort in that.

On Christmas day my family asked me if I was excited by looking forward to 2022.  My answer is always about the same.

I live in the moment, which means that I pay attention to my situation and the people I’m with.  I wring as much meaning and satisfaction that I can from every experience. I don’t spend my life peeking over the shoulder of right now, trying to discern some meaning or pleasure from what I think may or may not happen another time. I hug the immediacy of here rather than the distance of there and then.

I also reserve the right to celebrate anything I want, whenever I want.  I don’t have to wait for a holiday to give myself, or others, a gift.  Before Christmas I celebrated for two weeks with four orders of garlic cheese toast from the Smoke House in Burbank.  This has always been one of my favorite guilty pleasures.

My best wishes to you for an outstanding year, which can start whenever you like, with or without garlic cheese toast (or toast of a different sort on New Year’s Eve).

As some of you may have noticed, my title echoes a well-known quote from Yogi Berra, who said, “It’s Deja Vu all over again.”

Hang in there.  A new beginning is about to present itself.

Just like every other day.

Alan

I’m sitting at my desk working, when it occurs to me that this week and next I will have a 3-1/2 day workweek because of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

Hurrah!

My attitude towards the holidays is a 180 degree change from when I launched ACF Property Management, Inc. in 1968.  At that time I resented any and all time off, because I was building a business as quickly as I could, and any day that my staff and I didn’t work was one day longer to arrive at my business destination.  I was definitely in a hurry, and worked virtually every weekend.

Last night, Daveen gently reminded me that one of my tasks in this life is to learn patience.  I agreed with her, but told her that I am often more patient today than I was fifty years ago.

Today, if someone is one minute late for a meeting or telephone call I don’t fly into an immediate internal rage, or start calculating just how much each minute of waiting is costing me.  I have learned to wait without complaint.  That is, without external complaint.

Another large personal change in my life has been my relationship to food. Instead of living to eat, I now eat to live.  As a kid, my breakfast was four eggs, eight slices of bacon, and four slices of buttered toast.  No wonder I weighed 207 pounds on the day I graduated high school.  Today my breakfast is one egg, one slice of Canadian bacon (20 calories), and one slice of toast (still buttered). During the pandemic I have lost almost 20 pounds, and now weigh less than I did when I was a teenager.

For most of my life my goal was to be a couch potato.  I became quite good at sitting still.  Moving is what cars are for. Today I aim to walk a few miles every day.

My original attitude toward Christmas, except for receiving a present, leaned toward “Bah, Humbug.”  Taking time off from work?  Really?

Today, I actually enjoy Christmas.  Our tree is trimmed in the family room, lights twinkling day and night, and we look forward to spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day together with a small group of our family.

Life is change.  We are life.

Happy Holidays to all.

Love,

Alan

This week is the 100^th anniversary of the annual Miss America beauty pageant. Over the years the “pageant” has evolved considerably. Though it began as a “bathing beauty review” in 1921, it is no longer considered a pageant, but a competition. The swimsuit portion was eliminated in 2018 and the participants, now referred to as candidates, are no longer judged on their outward physical appearance, but on their talent and intellect.  And that reminds me of a meeting I had in the mid 1980’s with Debra Sue Maffett, who had been named Miss America in 1983.

I imagine many people, notably including me, are uncomfortable and not sure how to act when in the presence of an unusually attractive person who is a larger than life public figure. Especially when that person suddenly appears in their office.  In this case, Miss Maffett lived with a close friend of mine and had dropped by to introduce herself.

I confess, I was intimidated.

My mind went totally blank.  I don’t remember much from our conversation, other than feeling nervous. But ultimately, I was made to feel completely at ease by Miss Maffett, whose interpersonal skills and charm exceeded her considerable beauty.  She was an excellent conversationalist and I enjoyed spending time with her.

Obviously, in life we each try to “fit in” to society.  Especially as teenagers we are extremely concerned about being accepted.  Are we too short?  Too thin, too fat?  Is our nose the right size?  Do we dress in a socially acceptable way? Today these concerns about “fitting in” are amplified by our ubiquitous social media.

But – I’d like to reassure today’s youth that if you can have just one skill in life, cultivate the ability to get along well with others.

Develop your patience, tolerance, and consideration.  Even if you are exceptional in other ways – beauty, intelligence, charisma – to maximize your enjoyment of life, you still have to figure out how to create meaningful relationships with others. It is our relationships with friends, family members and colleagues that bring our greatest joy in life.  And while I know that we can’t please all of the people all of the time, we should aim to appeal to the people that matter to us whenever possible and to always treat them with kindness.

Debra, Wikipedia says that you hail from Cut and Shoot, Texas, and that you’re now 65 years old. There is no reason you should remember me, but since we’re all in the midst of a pandemic, I’d just like to say a virtual “hello,” and thank you for your lovely visit many years ago.

Alan