A Target Christmas catalog came in the mail this week. It was artfully done: colorful, and full of happy smiling children. It’s goal was to convince you that you could have a joyful Christmas only if you bought all this stuff guaranteed to produce joyful children (stuff available at Target, of course). Mostly that meant very expensive stuff. Mostly that meant electronic stuff. Electronic stuff that had, in every case, one solitary child interacting with an image on a TV screen.

I fear that too many parents, especially parents with little money, will despair (at least subliminally) of having happy children this Christmas because they can’t possibly afford to buy any of this stuff. They may even know that this catalog is a lie—that nothing in it can produce real happiness. Interacting with something electronic is an empty, ultimately unsatisfying endeavor. Loving interactions with other people, genuinely connecting with other people, serving others, seeking to make others happy—this produces real happiness.

I remember being a parent with little or no money for Christmas gifts. I remember overhearing my children say (about dozens of items), “I want THAT for Christmas!” as they watched yet another commercial on TV or looked at yet another printed ad. (Some scriptures come to mind: “their eyes are full of greediness.”) I felt like throwing the TV in the trash just to stop the “I want”s. It was making my children covetous and materialistic. And that guaranteed that they would be miserable on Christmas morning, and that they would think themselves deprived and cheated.

I don’t know at what age a person finally realizes that most “stuff” cannot guarantee happiness. Perhaps some people live their whole lives and never come to that realization. An old song from my parent’s era proclaimed that “the best things in life are free.” It was never a favorite of mine—crummy tune, bad poetry, saccharine sentiments. But, it seems to become truer all the time.

The moon belongs to everyone.
The best things in life are free.
The stars belong to everyone.
They gleam there for you and me.

The flowers in spring,
The robins that sing,
The sunbeams that shine,
They're yours, they're mine.

And love can come to everyone.
The best things in life are free.



My biggest fear is that we are all addicted to our electronic stuff and have lost touch with stuff that is real. And wholesome. And healing. And deeply satisfying. Anyone up for a walk in (or a dive into) the autumn leaves?

Apple Pie Order

I don’t think that I have ever used the idiom, “Apple-pie order,” in a conversation in my entire life. Furthermore, I don’t think that I have actually heard anyone else use it either.

Therefore, when the phrase popped spontaneously into my mind a couple of weeks ago, in response to my having finished “tidying-up” a family in NewFamilySearch, I was surprised.

Now, it frequently springs spontaneously to my lips as I admire how the family looks when they have their names and dates all tidied-up and the children in chronological order. In that moment, I feel enormously warm and happy and contented.

It’s an odd little idiom. Where did it come from? No one really knows, but it is thought that it was an English corruption of the French nappes pliées, “neatly folded.” Everything is in perfect order and tidy if it is in apple pie order. Interesting that its origins might be French—seeing as how it is French families that I am tidying up. Another oddity is that apple pie is “distinctively American”—“as American as apple pie.”

Just a little food for thought. And its Lo-cal!

You really need to see this photo on full screen. It's so good, it's almost like being there. This is Wasatch Mountain State Park in Heber Valley. The colors are spectacular. It's time to go for a drive up the canyon! Now!

No, I didn't take this photo, I borrowed it from KSL TV weather news photo gallery. I was looking for a lovely photo to adorn my BLOG. I come here every day to see if anyone has posted anything on their BLOGs, and my last BLOG was rather colorless and drab. As a kindness to myself, I decided that I needed something lovely to greet me when I come here. Sometimes the astronomy photo of the day is sufficient. And it actually was the astronomy photo of the day today that made me think of going to KSL TV weather to look at their sunsets, etc.

Don't you just love the beautiful Fall weather we have been having? Makes you glad to be alive!