Each year Bob Popovics would post or text out a Christmas message. It was something I have looked forward to every year. Yesterday the above image was sent out by Joe Nicosia. It stopped me in my seat for a moment. That's what happens when life is happening and we're not thinking each day of those that we have lost who were close to us. So I had to be brought back for a moment. It's only been a few months since Bob's accident and subsequent passing and I was reminded how fragile the lives we live really are.
It's easy to wax poetic around the holidays on how we should all be thankful and grateful. It's not a bad thing but it's akin to just telling those in our lives that we love them once or twice a year. It's something we should do everyday. But we don't. And the truth is the day we are waiting to start doing that may never come, as lives are sometimes cut way too short.
What's incredible is how we allow the small stuff, and they say it's all small stuff, to get in the way of being and treating people the best we can. While it's said, "You can only control yourself", these days life seems to be so much faster and more difficult to navigate then in years past. Times used to be simpler, more wholesome, and even more rewarding. We have become numb to each other and the world around us.
It's easy to say, "I would go back in a minute", with each of us knowing it's impossible. But the times we live in are, well mostly, shit, compared to the good old days, whenever they really were. Us old folks, yes I'm 56, can't keep up with the news and technology and all the bullshit that we encounter each day. We're just not wired for it. It has become a world we're not used to and can't keep up with. It is truly a young persons world, they run it now, and we are all caught up in the fray.
Going back to "simple" just means you are surrendering and will no doubt be left behind. Between instant images, instant money transfers, Amazon orders that arrive in hours, to ChatGPT and AI, there is no longer a simple life. Simple nights out cost a fortune, for mostly food that is decent at best, and for drinks that are way overpriced. Disney, has become a joke, losing it's base and it's meaning, and even in the experience, where you have to plan every step of your trip, and have it electronically set on a wristband, a year before you get in the park. And a week for a family of four will cost you $10,000. We just saw the shit show that went on a few weeks back with something as simple as buying a buggy pass for Island Beach State Park. Just a nightmare.
Christmas, for me, is celebrating the birth of Jesus. Those years of waiting outside Toys-R-Us for that must have gift are over. Hell, who even actually goes to a store to gift shop these days. Small envelopes with money or gifts cards are the new wrapped gifts stacked under the tree. Maybe if there's still little ones in your house you may have that experience still, but for the big kids, it's over. And getting everyone together, for no reason or the holidays, can be like pulling teeth with a pair of rusty pliers. Now to be honest, and grateful, I've done well with kid participation at family functions as of late, something they don't realize how important it is to us dinosaurs.
So Merry Christmas for now. Enjoy your day, and each other. It's over before you know it.
And not be the Grinch, but, I'm still waiting, now a month, for the $20,000 winner to be announced for the 2024 NJ SAT FEST. The largest surf fishing tournament in the United
States that was held in Seaside Heights on November 24th, just four weeks ago. The organizers said the winner would be announced after two weeks, and the required lie detector test. With the stated 13,000 participants someone must have scored one fish between 28-31 inches to take home first place.
I mean, as it states above, "Anglers from all over the Country!", were in on it. If I was out there for those cold five hours and fishing hard and waiting see if my $185 entrance fee paid off I'd be pissed. Maybe it's just me, a grumpy, getting-old curmudgeon, sticking my head in where it doesn't belong.