The cold, cold Midwest

Barb and I are "home" for Christmas. We are spending this Christmas with her family in the house and town that she grew up in, Plattsburg, Missouri. It is good to get away from work and such and get a better perspective on things, especially life and my living of it. I have much to mull over and have already found myself discovering my weakest points. I left California with several details undone and have had to spend some of this time patching things up and send an apology email to a friend whose reputation was compromised with a neighbor because of my lack of follow through on a donated vehicle. Details--my achilles, and by being my achilles it often becomes the achilles of others I work with from day to day. This flaw kept me awake for hours last night as I contemplated why I cannot seem to grasp that part of my life. It is beyond frustrating as reflect upon my inability to finish a job completely and thoroughly the first time through.

The worst question (I use that loosely) that anyone could ask me is, "So, you talked to John. What did you guys talk about? What is the book you're reading about?" I will talk to you about details, suprisingly enough, but I may not be able to tell you the overall jist. I have never really been good at that. In literature class I would be called on to summarize a poem or a scene in a play and I could not do it. I could not simply generalize the story. I could elucidate a specific part (one detail) but I could not make them fit together in cohesion. I don't know--a mystery of sorts. Like when I write I write very specifically and hit details, but I get lost in the details and can't get a metanarrative, a story that is above it all.

Anyway, I'm helping Bill, my father-in-law, finish a staircase. He has a toolbox full of patience. Oh, and 15 degrees should never be called "a high for today." I'm beginning to think Santa wears a red down coat.

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,

Jason