What would Jesus buy?

Yesterday, Tuesday the 18th of December, we had had an afternoon thunder storm with summer time hail. I'm 40 miles (65 km) west of Philadelphia and I'm 40 degrees north of the equator. The lawn is still green and it looks like it needs to be cut. Yes, these are strange times.

I feel like the Knights of the Round Table from the movie Monty Python And The Holy Grail -what is your quest? Today the one big quest is to find Cranky, he goes with the Thomas The Tank Engine play set for my niece. At first I didn't realize which character was Cranky and I was looking for an engine with an irritable expression, just didn't think Cranky was a happy little crane.

Cranky seems to be the undercurrent. Economically things are better but half the people I know are still out of work and the other half just hate their jobs. What happened in Newtown Connecticut still casts a dark shadow over everything and the issue of gun control has given plenty of people fodder to argue over. There's the coming fiscal cliff -who's to blame and what does it really mean. I was listening to one local yammering about how Obama is part of Muslim world conspiracy to take over America. It enough to make you want to shout -what about peace on Earth and shut the hell up.

Billy J down in Pottstown is still out there in his one man campaign against Wal Mart. It been fun to watch because Billy has been successful getting the public to see how harmful the Mega-Merchandiser is. Yes the parking lots of the two Wal Mart supercenters (less than 10 miles apart) are full but Billy has made his mark and few less shoppers are there this year and maybe a few less next year.

My biggest fear today is the local Wal Mart might have the last Cranky The Crane on the shelves .

I will have consult the other Billy of the Christmas Season, also known as Rev. Billy C Wirtz. Rev. Billy Wirtz is the man with the message, yes -what would Jesus buy?

   

Still some time today I have to find Cranky the Crane. When my two sons were little children, they were very enamored with Thomas the Tank Engine. Just back then it seemed the pieces were lot less pricey and easier to find. And when we couldn't find a piece, that was okay my boys would play around that. I'd help them too, tell them stories about Thomas and all the cheeky little steam engines on the Island of Sodor. Like the time Gordon got addicted to painkillers because his sleeve bearings were old and scraped -and how Gordon got better with proper lubrication and a stint in rehab. 

We had other imaginary adventures on Sodor, like when Sir Toppem Hat divorced his wife and got a new girlfriend. Then Sir Toppem Hat had to pick which steam engine to sell to pay for the new vacation house in the Cayman Islands. Or the time when the new steam engine from the factory was accidentally shipped to Mordor instead of Sodor. Or when Frank the Boxcar had an operation and came back as Francesca the Flatcar -boy was Percy embarrassed over that one.

It's really not about things. You have encourage your children to think, to be creative and always know that you're willing to spend the most precious thing in the world on them -not your money but your time.