Santa suits can show true meaning of season

Column published in The Lima News, 12-17-05
Thank goodness for the innocent belief of children this time of year.
Only they have the love in their hearts to see the true meaning in Christmas when they see a Santa Claus on every corner.
If you spend any time walking through a mall this time of year, and most of us must at some point, you realize how hard it is to avoid ol’ St. Nick. He peaks out from nearly every advertisement. He hawks toys at the toy store as easily as spatulas at the home goods one.
And they all look different.
You’d think that would be confusing to a young child. A 4-year-old child runs only to the arms of her mother, after all, and can cer-tainly tell the difference between one old man claiming to be Father Christmas and the next.
Somehow they see behind the different facial features. They ignore a real beard vs. a fake beard. They don’t care if he has blue eyes or brown. He can be black as easily as white or any other shade in between.
That’s not what the children see.
They see generosity.
They see compassion.
They see love.
In short, they see God.
It’s not popular to say you see God nowadays. There’s a tendency to substitute out the word “Christmas” and use “holidays” instead, for fear of offending a non-Christian religion.
Most major religions acknowledge there probably was a Jesus Christ, though. Those same religions generally acknowledge He was a good person and something of a prophet. Acting like Him isn’t the worst idea in the world, no matter what your ideas might be of the Christian religions.
Which brings us back to Santa Claus or whatever other term you might like for the guy in the big red suit. His heritage generally traces back to St. Nicholas, the bishop of Myra in Asia Minor, in what is now Turkey. He supposedly came from a wealthy family but gave all his money to the poor.
The Dutch introduced the red suit with their Sinterklaas, who wore a red bishop’s costume including the large cap.
Over time, society transformed him into a jolly old elf who kindly delivers toys to all the good boys and girls in the world.
Some see a Santa on every corner as a sign secularism and sacrilege somehow took over the spirit of the Christmas season. Certainly the season took on a more economic tone than originally planned, but the basis remains love and charity for your fellow man.
If anything, the Santas on every corner prove the true meaning of the season is as pure now as it was when a baby laid in a manger some 2,000-plus years ago, if only to those who realize the power of the jolly old elf.
Children universally love him, and they know the importance of believing in Santa Claus. Even the ones who run and scream from him understand what he stands for; his presence just somehow terrifies them.
They know they’re seeing generosity, compassion and love personified in every face. They’re seeing God in every face. They under-stand the overwhelming concept of omnipresence unflinchingly.
We spend so much time teaching our children what’s wrong or what’s right. Now is a good time to start learning from them.

Modern-day nomads find their way home

Column published in The Lima News, 12-7-05
They wander from place to place, trying to make the most from the places they stay.
They may keep some communications with their homelands, by phone, e-mail or letters. They go off on their own, trying to make the most of their lives and find fulfillment.
They are the modern-day nomads. Instead of living off the land for as long as they can and moving, though, they live off a job and an area as long as they can until restlessness and homesickness drive them onward.
Author Steven K. Roberts calls them “technomads,” a nomadic person who remains connected through communications media. The rest of society may call them sisters, cousins or friends. Another term may be simply graduates.
There’s a constant concern about “brain drain” in this area. People wonder aloud what future their children might have, as there aren’t so many entry-level positions here for a well-educated student as there are well-educated students. They’ll go off to college, only to find they’re overqualified for most of the jobs where they were born. They’ll find seemingly far-off places to work in engineering, law or some other seemingly exotic profession.
The good news is it’s merely seemingly. In reality, the nomadic lifestyle seems to be quite temporary. As the clichés scream, there’s no place like home. These nomads do find their way back to a place they’ll call home.
You can drink the sweet tea and listen to the men howl about “them Dawgs” (the Georgia ones) in Savannah while admiring the ar-chitecture in the Civil War-era buildings downtown.
You can roam up and down the beautiful Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, sipping on the wines from the local vineyards and enjoying the breathtaking view of the bluish mountains leaping from the ground.
You can soak up the big-city life outside Columbus, traveling to Polaris for good shopping and food or heading to the old Horseshoe to watch the Buckeyes beat Michigan.
You can go all over the country and experience new and different things. Even the modern-day nomad feels the urge to find a place to call home, though.
That’s how it is for so many people of the 30-something generation, those folks too young to be X but not quite hip enough to be Y. You want to spread your wings and fly, and you do so for years and years. Eventually, though, that empty nest beckons you back.
You find yourself missing the little things in life. There’s no replacement for the loving hug of a young niece or nephew. Few things calm you as much as your father telling the car repair won’t be that expensive as he glances down on the engine. No feeling quite compares to the memories flowing back when you drive past your grandparents’ former home.
These things draw young, talented people back to this marvelous section of Ohio, whether you call it Northwest Ohio or West Cen-tral Ohio. This is home for many of us. There’s a comfortable feeling from knowing the back ways to your favorite places. There’s warmth in the memories from seeing the restaurant from your first date.
You can’t market these traits or put them on a postcard, for they’re as varied as the population here.
These memories and these warm feelings are just what it takes to bring a nomad back home. It may take four years of wandering, or it may take a lifetime of wandering, but eventually we all find our way back to where we belong.

Repentant Solich?

Those T-shirts always made me laugh at my alma mater of Ohio University in Athens: "We're a drinking town with a football problem."

Who knew those two paths would ever cross so meagerly? Ohio football coach Frank Solich pleaded no contest to drunken driving on Monday after being found slumped over the wheel of the complimentary Nissan he drives, with the vehicle in drive, pointing the wrong way down a one-way street. See the Associated Press story.

The 61-year-old coach admitted on Tuesday he made a mistake. Perhaps it's just my word-aholism, but something about the sentence structure bothers me from this quote reported by Jason Arkley of the Athens Messenger:

“I would like to extend that apology, certainly because of the trouble and embarrassment that I’ve put many people in, including myself,” said a solemn-looking Solich, reading from a hand-written note. “I would like to apologize to all those associated with Ohio University. I would also like to apologize to the people of the Athens community. I would like to apologize to my coaches, their families, the players and their families.”

"I would like" is the part that bothers me. There is a not-so-subtle difference between telling your loved one "I'd like to apologize" and "I'm sorry." One is saying you will do it. The other is asking for forgiveness.

Athens has a unique culture that's admittedly very alcohol-driven. Yeah, it's ranked as the No. 2 party school in the country by the Princeton Review. Back in my days there, it constantly made top five on a number of lists. For a decent slice-of-life about this, check of this article by Joe Arnold of the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette.

The administration there seems to want to connect Solich to their efforts to correct this trend. They want him to become active in some intelligent drinking campaigns. (Advice for the coach... Tell them not to leave the car in drive while facing the wrong way down a one-way street.)

Truth be told, the kids are smarter than the coach on this count. Anyone who ever lived in Athens will tell you that you don't drive to the bars uptown. You walk. He certainly could've made the trip from uptown to his office at Peden Stadium with a minimum amount of hassle. It's not like he doesn't have a parking space in town.

I'm not going to come down from Mount Olympus on Frank Solich. I see a lot of sportswriters are cracking the whip at the university for not being harder on him, possibly firing him. I've been out drinking with enough sportswriters to know they've done the same thing. I've gotten behind the wheel after having a beer or two too many myself.

Besides, I like what Solich did for the program. He got me excited enough to buy season tickets. I had a great time watching competitive games for three of the five home games, including a shockingly thrilling win against a then-top 25 Pittsburgh squad.

Honestly, I don't think drinking is such a horrible thing, when kept under control. I haven't seen people coming out of the woodwork to say Solich had a real drinking problem. It sounds like he had one bad night where he did something stupid. I imagine the Nebraska administration has had a couple of those nights since essentially dumping Solich to get Bill Callahan. (Tom Osborne he's not.)

The real key is to learn and forgive. The man made a mistake. No one should hold anything over his head. We should merely take this as a reminder to be careful and smarter when we consume ourselves.

That's the only way the city of Athens, Ohio, can strip itself of the title of a "drinking town with a football problem."