My stepdaughter works retail in the mall. She is already sick of “christmas”. (I intentionally used a lower case “c” there. She isn’t sick of Christmas, just the shopping and hype of it all.) They’ve had Christmas decorations up since before Halloween. In fact, she has a picture of kids trick-or-treating in the mall with holiday decorations in the background.

Stores are announcing their “Black Friday” sales that begin at 6 pm on Thanksgiving Day.

Six years ago, this country went through one of the worst recessions it has seen since the Great Depression. But for the last two years or so we’ve been hearing commercials telling us to get the credit “we deserve” so we can buy home latte machines or better cars that we “deserve”.

Have you ever seen someone trying so hard to have fun that they are miserable? That’s what it seems like we’re all doing right now. We want to convince ourselves that if we rush out and buy that extra television or coffee maker, we’ll be “happy”. And we have to start even earlier or be more desperate to get a “great deal” on something that was made in China. Because that is what “christmas” is all about. (Again, lower case “c”.)

I’ve always loved Thanksgiving and the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas can be a pretty magical with parties, decorations and time with family. In the last few weeks/months, I’ve had some family challenges…health issues and such. Most of it is just life, of course. But rather than worrying about those challenges, I want to focus on the positives.

Thanksgiving is for being thankful for what we have. It was created as a holiday to be thankful for a great harvest…back when we were farmers. Now it is a time to pause and think about the real things we have. And by real, I don’t mean flat screens and electronic gadgets. Some of that stuff only lasts a year or so and then it has to be upgraded or replaced. Real is a warm place to sleep, family, friends, enough to eat. The rest is just window dressing.

It is also a time to think about those who don’t have those basics. Take some of that money you are going to “save” on Black Thursday/Friday and buy a gift for a kid who wouldn’t get one. Or donate some food/money to a food bank.

Lastly, think about holding back some of that gift money you plan to spend and shopping at a local/privately owned store instead of standing in line to shop at a big box for a “deal” that was made in China. Buy something special and unique from an artist or craftsperson in your neighborhood. That money stays at home and helps a struggling business stay afloat. It also marks you as a sophisticated gift giver.

Take a moment to pause and be thankful for what you have.

Happy Thanksgiving..

A group of characters in the book/television series Game of Thrones that represent “the north” have the family catchphrase “Winter is coming.” They say it in context of “it might be nice now, but winter is coming.” They are pretty much the downers they sound like.

Winter is definitely coming around here and with it are the beautiful snows (they are always beautiful the first time) slick roads, car accidents, power outages, and French Toast panics at the grocery store (what else do you do with bread, milk and eggs that get stripped from store shelves when weather forecasters announce winter weather warnings?).

What winter also brings are the inevitable photos on social media of thermometers with sub-freezing temperatures and piles of snow with comments like “What global warming?” We heard a few similar comments like that during the election. “Sure, climate changes all the time. It is raining outside right now.”

Climate is not weather. My daughters learned the difference in their Seventh Grade science text books.

• Climate is the “Condition of the atmosphere at a particular location over a long period of time (from one month to many millions of years, but generally 30 years).”
• Weather is the “state of the air and atmosphere at a particular time and place: the temperature and other outside conditions (such as rain, cloudiness, etc.) at a particular time and place.”

If you take away nothing else from this column, I hope it is to avoid looking foolish by confusing the two.

A couple years ago, I met a man from Norway, who happens to have a home in the Eastern Panhandle. He told me his hometown has trouble staging their annual winter games for lack of snow. The last two winter Olympics had trouble with warm weather and missing snow. In the arctic, the sea ice that makes up the top of the world has retreated significantly over the last 30 years or so (climate) but the October averages show sea ice is on the increase compared to summer (weather).

I believe the earth’s climate is warming. I believe the pollution we’ve dumped into the atmosphere has played a role in that. That said, I don’t feel the need to “convince” anyone of anything. Frankly, I don’t think it’s possible. You’re going to believe what you want to believe. Most people search for information online and disregard what doesn’t say what they want to hear. They click on links that support their beliefs.

Right now, there is a $500,000 prize for someone who can prove, scientifically, that global warming is true. There is also a $30,000 prize, funded by a scientist for anyone who can prove it isn’t real. Neither has been claimed.

But please, stop dismissing people who disagree with you using with over-simplified arguments like, “It’s raining outside…”. It just makes you look silly and galvanizes the conversation, making discussion impossible.

Remember, winter is coming..

In the fall of 1990, as the United States prepared for the first Gulf War, I was the editor of a weekly newspaper in Matewan, West Virginia. During the buildup, local leaders decided to organize a “Support the Troops” rally. While they weren’t sure about going to war in the Middle East, no one wanted to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Watching the buildup to the midterm election, it seems like we need to take the same approach to the “war on coal”. Most of the political ads tell us that regulations against coal are an attack on coal miners. There are those who suggest anything but blind allegiance to the coal industry is the equivalent of treason. Sorry to say, but it isn’t that simple.

In August, I wrote about a political staffer attacking West Virginia poet Crystal Good calling her a “poverty profiteer”. (You can read that column here.) A few days later another West Virginia poet, Kirk Judd from Morgantown, sent me one of his poems. It’s a great demonstration that the issue is much more complex than 30 second political ads want to make it.

The Campfires of the Hunters

(The economics of controlled harvesting)

By Kirk Judd

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 Photos courtesy of Jaime Rinehart and the WVSU Economic Development Center.

Why is good architecture reserved for the wealthy or for ceremonial spaces?

I heard that question the other night and it’s still resonating in my head. The question was asked by Chelsie Nichelle Bush, a local woman with a degree in architecture. (She is still working on her licenses to be an architect.)

For her senior thesis, Bush focused on what she called “Nothing to Everyone: Investigating the Potential of Neglected Space” and directed her energy at Patrick Street. Bush presented her thesis to a group of 30 or so people interested in Charleston’s West Side at the WVSU Economic Development Center last week.

Most of us use Patrick Street as a way in and out of Charleston and a route to avoid stoplights and evening traffic heading west on the interstate. Bush looked long and hard at that end of the city and said, “What if…?” She spent a year imagining ways to improve Patrick Street.

“I think projects like this are important because it teaches us that we deserve better and that we should demand better,” Bush said.

The area was once home to the Kelly Axe Factory, said to be the largest axe factory in the world, turning out more than 40,000 finished products a day. The factory closed in 1980. (Thanks to mywvhome.com for those details.) The Patrick Street Bridge is a Warren Through Truss Bridge, built in 1930, that is eligible to be added to the National Historic Register.

Some of Bush’s ideas included creating a café space under the bridge, using an abandoned bridge pier as an overlook on the river and planting urban gardens in the underused parking lots along with adding plantings and benches to improve the appearance of the area. She talked about how the street that runs through the parking lot around the car dealerships and Kmart is haphazard and blends into the parking lot so no one knows exactly where to drive. Patrick Street itself is a navigation nightmare.

Bush didn’t mention it, but I’ve heard rumblings about turning the CSX-Train Bridge over the Kanawha into an elevated park, like High Line Park in New York City, an elevated park built on an abandoned freight rail line on Manhattan’s West Side. That park has gained international attention.

Charleston’s West Side struggles with crime and other problems. While I’m not naïve enough to think that cleaning up Patrick Street will solve all of those problems, I do believe that improving the area can lead to greater investment and more positive attention.

There are obvious problems with any idea like this. Some of it is privately-owned property. It takes money to change things. There are politics involved. Nothing like this can happen overnight. But Chelsie Bush deserves a big hand for asking the questions and taking the initiative to get the ball rolling. Which brings us back to the question, why is good architecture reserved for the wealthy or for ceremonial spaces?.

Immigrants coming to the United States illegally draw a lot of attention and rancor. And I will be the first to say that the entire situation is handled dismally. But illegal immigration tends to overshadow LEGAL immigration.

There are still thousands of people coming to the US legally, with all of their paperwork in place, with the goal of finding a better life. Often, these people make their way here from places beset by war and conflict. These people are exactly like previous generations that built the United States.

Recently, I was invited to talk to a group of immigrants in Charleston who were forming a “conversation club”. They were studying English as a Second Language (ESL) at the Garnet Career Center and wanted to practice talking…to each other and native English speakers as well. In the group, there were four people from Syria (two of them children), two from Iran, and one each from Afghanistan, the Czech Republic and Cameroon. The organizers told me there were others, but that they couldn’t make it that night. The club meeting took place at the Charleston branch of the Kanawha County Library.

I was pleased to hear all of them say their reception in Charleston had been positive. They liked the city. And everyone said the people they had met were nice. A few had issues with the weather, but several had never seen snow before moving to the United States. One happened to arrive in Charleston last January; in the middle of a snow storm and right before the water crisis. (Frankly, I’m surprised she stayed. Most of us who were born here wanted out.)

I was invited to talk to the group because of my own experiences traveling. One of the first things I told them was I remembered being in Russia and being nervous about going out to get cash or get something to eat on my own, afraid my language skills wouldn’t be good enough. I was embarrassed and didn’t want to draw attention to myself. There were times it was easier to wait until the next day when a friend would come and get me, even if it meant going hungry for the night. I got some knowing looks. I’m sure more than one of them has had similar experiences. One girl mentioned she had been shopping when the cashier asked her “Credit or Debit”…a question we all know very well. Except, the cashier said it so quickly, the student had no idea what she was saying. Even when it was repeated.

If you happen to meet someone on the street with an unusual accent or who looks a little bewildered, ask them if they need help. Smile. Make them feel welcome. And if you’re interested in helping the group practice their English, you can contact the library to find out when they need someone to come in for a good conversation..