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Merry Christmas, America

Christmas is America’s national holiday. Regardless of your religion or level of religiosity, wishing your fellow Americans “Merry Christmas” is a big statement of unity and shared vision for our shared future together. It’s not a statement of theology. Rather it is a statement that we belong to and are committed to this Western nation with its own history, laws, freedoms, culture, and commonly held ideals. One of the ideals of this season, this time of year, is a universal peace, a sense of personal peacefulness. A communal peacefulness. Peace through kindness, charity, less judgmentalism and more forgiveness. Peace through a sense of satisfaction for having the simple things, for enjoying the simple things. For sharing in the simple things.

People who are shouting at children singing holiday songs, shouting at people who are putting up communal holiday trees, shouting at people who are attempting to enjoy this brief period of communal peacefulness, do not belong here. They have no inherent right to be here. The people who are disrupting holiday celebrations with demands of “look at me, me me” need to leave this place. They don’t fit here, America is not a good fit for them. There is no good reason why we should give up our little moment of annual peaceful respite out of the entire year for these selfish grinches. Who do they think they are? Who and what do they think we are?

I’ll be charitable and say that these people are frustrating.

It is best that we be honest with them and tell them “This American culture here is not your culture, we see it and that is OK, and so we understand that you need to go back to the place where your shouting and violence and mean spirited behavior is a good fit. We don’t want it here. We are happy with what we have here. We will be happier when you leave America and don’t come back.”

Whoever’s path you happen to cross, wish them Merry Christmas.

And that is my honest Merry Christmas message. I wish you and all of us peace and peacefulness. Hopefully we get snow, too, which really enhances the sense of being settled cozy inside, together.

Merry Christmas, America.

Slippers from My Pillow two thumbs up

My Pillow slippers are conventional looking, but unbelievably comfortable to wear

For my birthday I received a pair of slippers from My Pillow, a brand known for high quality. Because my gigantic duck feet are so large and wide, and because My Pillow specializes in serving customers, even the outlandishly sized or shaped, My Pillow actually had a pair of size 14 wide for me.

These are the most comfortable slippers I have ever worn. The secret appears to be a really generous layer of highly durable foam cushion between the shearling that touches the foot and the rubber sole. My LL Bean slippers were marketed as being “highest quality,” and yet they don’t come close to the amazing comfort and durability of these My Pillow slippers.

In contrast, my go-to slippers for the past ten years have been a pair by Carl Dyer. Bison leather outer, lined with soft elk leather, and sporting all kinds of adjustable braided leather toggles and fancy bronze buttons, the Carl Dyer moccasins are comfortable but really the opposite of the My Pillow ones. They are meant to be worn with heavy socks in cold weather, and are stylish to those discerning enough to appreciate hand made things of uncommon natural materials.

Both of these house slippers work wonderfully, but I imagine the My Pillow slippers are more appealing to the vast majority of Americans. I highly recommend them. If you are looking for a last minute holiday gift for Dad, these slippers are an excellent choice. Dad will put them on and only reluctantly take them off.

Some thoughts on PA deer season

We are already halfway through our two-week deer season in Pennsylvania, and already many hunters are discussing the merits of the first-ever Saturday opener. Pennsylvania has had a Monday opener for many decades, and where I grew up not only did the schools close on that Monday, there was a festive atmosphere that was palpable for the week leading up to it.

Gotta say, both Saturday and Monday were the quietest first days of deer season that I have ever heard. Very few shots heard either day, an observation made by a lot of other hunters.

One cannot help but wonder if the holiday atmosphere and the special quality of taking a work day off to gather together with family and friends to hunt has been lost with the Saturday opener. Yes, it would be ironic, because the change was done to expand hunting opportunities, given that most people do not work on Saturday like they do work on Mondays. But for many hunters it seems that having deer season now begin as just another weekend event of many other weekend events caused it to lose its specialness.

We shall see from the deer hunting results!

Separately, Pennsylvania now has a both a new trespass law and a new private land boundary marking law. Private land can now be marked “POSTED – NO TRESPASSING” by simply painting a vibrant purple paint stripe at least eight (8) inches long and one inch wide every 100 feet along the boundary of any private property. Seems that I am not alone in having my Posted signs ripped down by jealous jerks. Seems like I am not alone in working really really hard to create good whitetail deer habitat on my land, only to have some jealous people decide that it is so unfair that they can’t take advantage of all my hard work and also hunt there. So they rip down Posted signs and help themselves to my land and the land of many, many other private property owners.

Last Saturday we experienced a hunter trespassing on us, along with his young son. Why they would expect to be allowed to pass through the middle of our property, a place we hardly ever go because it is a deer sanctuary, is beyond imagination. They literally walked right through a long line of Posted signs, as if they did not exist. Their thinking seemed to be “So what if we ruin your hunting? We are simply trying to have a good hunting experience ourselves.”

But someone’s good hunting experience should never come at the expense of someone else’s hunt, especially if it results from trespassing on their property.

Think about it this way: A property owner spends all year toiling to make his property attractive to deer, and he creates sanctuaries around the property where not even he will go beginning in September, so the deer can relax there and not feel pressured. And then someone else who is not invited decides that they either want to hunt on that same property, or they want to pass through it to get to some other property, like public land. When they pass through, they disturb the deer and greatly reduce the quality of the hunting there.

Is this OK behavior?

As someone who works hard on his property to make it a quality hunting place, I can say that it is not OK behavior. It is a form of theft; trespassers are stealing from private property owners.

Dear trespassers – do you want people stealing from you? No? OK, so then you know how we feel when you steal from us. Don’t do it!

It will be interesting to see how the new trespass law and the new boundary marking law begin to change one of Pennsylvania’s least desirable cultures – the culture of defiant trespass. That just has to change.

Hope everyone has a productive, fun and safe rest of the season. When it is over, we begin our trapping season and small game hunting.

 

 

Everybody is Irish today

Americans celebrate a multitude of holidays.  Some are religiously based, some are ethnic, some are historic, and some are just fun.

Today is Saint Patrick’s Day, a holiday we borrowed from Ireland and made even better.  In Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day has a load of religious meaning, which is fine, and yes, they have some festive public drinking to lend a celebratory air to it.

But here in America, we celebrate St. Patty’s Day as if every American is a little Irish, as indeed many, even most, are.

And that is important, because the Irish were among the very first slaves brought to America, and even as freed men they helped build this incredible nation, knowing that they had as much a share in it as anyone else.  Coming from a place – Ireland – where Catholic Irish had their lands stolen on a whim, and where Catholics could be shot on sight just for the fun of it, any place was better.

Irish pluck, Irish luck, Irish humor, Irish fierceness…all are key ingredients in America’s success today.  So here’s to the Irish today, and of yesterday, and to all of us Americans.  We owe ye much, lads!  Today we are all a little bit o’ Irish, just by being Americans.