Reflections of a True Millennial

"As a country, we have been through this too many times. "Whether it's an elementary school in Newtown, a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago, these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children. We're going to have to come together to take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics." -President Obama, 12-14-12 Yes, this has happened to many times. Small towns plastered across national news for all the wrong reasons. Intricate stories laid out over weeks displaying a web of corruption and a trail of broken hearts. Too much. Places like movie theaters and schools seem like places we can't even go. Since I was a kid, my perceptions of the time when my parents grew up seems like a time when everything was perfect. Old home videos from their childhoods set up a viewing window into another time. It seemed like

Yay, it's December 2nd! Christmas is almost here. December is one of my favorite times of year, you can just feel the Christmas spirit. And you can see it too, in decorations going up around the house.      In the above picture is a little basket in our living room with all the Christmas books we own. Of course there are many classic titles by classic authors with classic characters and classic messages. But headlining the pile has been a book by an odd title by an  odd author with odd characters, but a classic message. Well, staring me in the face every time I pass by, "The Lump of Coal" by Lemony Snicket coaxed me into reading it this afternoon. I remembered the story was about a lump of coal who could not find acceptance anywhere and his journey, but didn't recall the last and perhaps most important paragraph. When the lump of coal finds a purpose to his cold, black, charcoal-y life, Mr. Snicket closes the book with the following paragraph:      &q