OpEdNews - Diary: From the Fourth of July to Christmas

I am a member of a little reminiscing writing group at the Towers and I thought you might like to know what I wrote. The Mission of Hope takes clothes, food and toys to those in the hollers of Kentucky.

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CHISTMAS IN JULY was the subject of the Church's newsletter:

The average price of gasoline in the U.S. is over $4 a gallon. These record-breaking prices have had a dramatic impact on the cost of every commodity used by the nation's families.

Low-income annuitants have been hit especially hard. The ripple effect of soaring energy costs affects what consumers pay for food, utilities and other necessities as well. During the month of July the United Church Board for Ministerial Assistance (UCBMA) one of the corporations comprising the Pension Boards will provide $200 one-time Energy Assistance Grants to 1,000 low-income retirees.

Long before Barack Obama was chosen Democratic presidential candidate, I had subscribed to the newsletter, because I realized there were people out there critical of his church. As it happens to be the denomination where I kept the faith as a Sunday School superintendent in the days of another troubled wartime, I was glad to hear they are still working for the poor among us.

It didn't take a newsletter from the East to tell me that people in our neck of the woods were being pinched too. When gasoline hit $3.00 I began to think of Thanksgiving baskets and the Mission of Hope for Christmas. It makes one think about the old checkbook and what it says.

The Fourth of July is all too much a reminder that the year is half gone, and I always begin to think of Christmas. It's time to think of family, friends and neighbors. And then the extended family of those to whom a bag of groceries or pair of shoes is a blessing. The whole matter has made me wonder how my own family would have me react this year. Except for children, who expect books from me, probably all the adults will receive a token of family love. Some goodies for the holiday table, perhaps. They will not think the less of me. Their needs are really less than mine, based on their circumstances.

The Christmas list has become so much more complicated. Instead of buying pretty cards and the stamps necessary to mail them, for the first time ever I will compose a personal greeting--appropriate to those I touch lives with--to tell them I wish them a blessed holiday season and a prosperous new year. Where possible, the messages will go free by email, and of course I will not overlook anyone who needs snail mail.

As I think of my neighbors at the Towers I think back to the year the residents had an association which didn't survive. There were funds left to be dispersed and the Mission of Hope was one of the recipients. I lean toward them for any extra dollars I can dig up.