Tradition and Experience are important too.

A lot has been talked about regarding the so-called Millennial generation.  These are basically understood as young adults today.  They, for the most part have a slightly different outlook and approach to life than people of my age to.  Make no mistake, I am a baby boomer.  That is the generation of people born after World War II and before 1960 and a rather large segment of society.

Throughout my youth, there were so many of us that schools, churches, shopping centers, and even suburbs expanded rapidly to accommodate the baby boomers.  Then the growth rate of our population seemed to slow down and we had some excess capacity in all of those areas and schools were converted to senior homes and other such uses.

Getting back to millennials, we boomers have had to make an effort to get along with their culture first by understanding it or trying to and then by figuring out ways to make our cultures work.  With that said, I would like to make the point that our ideas and our ways count too.  There is something to be said for tradition and experience that we boomers have lived for most of our lives.

While it is fine to understand and get along with other age groups, we should be proud of the traditions and experience that we bring to the world every day.  All age groups should respect and learn from all others.  That makes a lot of sense.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

There are many reasons why people get stressed during the Christmas Season.  Sometimes we feel that we must meet certain expectations in order to properly celebrate Christmas.  We need to have the perfect parties or buy the perfect gifts.

Chasing the perfect Christmas is not the answer to making this the most wonderful time of the year, it just is.  We are celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ whose birth forever changed the world.  If we focus on that aspect of this wonderful time, we won't be disappointed.

With that being said, the celebrations that go with this Season, are also awesome including gift exchanges, decorating, carols, and gatherings.  The decorations do so very much to help us to celebrate the season.  I thank everyone who makes that extra effort to decorate their home both inside and out site,

If you think about it, outside decorations are for the benefit of other folks, not the person doing the decorating.  Those who create displays of any kind are decorating so that we can enjoy looking at them and being reminded of this most wonderful time of the year!

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

A city with culture

In 2016, Cleveland has been in the spotlight for great sports teams and for the Republican National Convention.  It has been a fun year and I believe the city has a lot to be proud of in 2016!

Our Cleveland Cavaliers have ended our drought of 52 years without a professional sports team championship in our city.  The previous title was held by the 1964 Cleveland Browns.  Then our Fall Surprise was the appearance of our very own Cleveland Indians in the 2016 World Series.  We came within one swing of the bat of winning it all.

But there has been much more to love about Cleveland for many decades including our cultural offerings.  Two that come to mind immediately are our renowned Cleveland Orchestra and our fabulous Art Museum.    Our Orchestra is recognized as one of the finest in the world.

For more information and to purchase tickets to one of their performances, simply visit their website .  In addition to a wonderful Christmas and holiday schedule, their 2016-17 season will include works by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, and Mahler.  If you are into classical music, plan to take in one of their concerts in the beautiful Severance Hall pictured above.

Right across the street, literally, is our Cleveland Museum of Art.  After extensive renovations and expansions, our Art Museum is bigger and better than ever.  You will find amazing works of art from famous painters and sculptors as well as artifacts from around the world from past centuries.  Treat yourself to our free-admission Museum of Art.

Cleveland is truly a city of culture and I am proud to call it my hometown!

Trying to make a comeback

I have been away from this blog for a very long time.  The reason is that I thought I was just too busy.  Being busy is relative.  I started this blog several years about so that I can write out my thoughts and observations and share them with others.  Then it got away from me.

Actually my last post was almost one year ago and I was kind of surprised to learn that just now.  The title of this post is "Trying to make a comeback" because that is what I am trying to do with this blog.  Find the time to share thoughts and observations.

The inspiration comes from my buddy Rick who writes a blog post every Sunday titled Hanging With Rich where he does exactly what I was trying to do before I became supposedly too busy one year ago.  I don't know if anyone reads this blog but I know that I benefit from writing it because it helps me to understand what I think and observe.

Today is Thanksgiving Day 2016 and we all have a lot to be thankful for today!  I will leave it up to  you to decide what you are thankful for but I am sure that you have a lot!  Have a fantastic day, enjoy your time off and your families, and enjoy the season!  God Bless!