Opinion

Dear (Your-Name-Here) Foundation: I have a plan. Your part is to help.

JEFFERSON CITY (Jan. 13, 2022) – Ahead of the next forecasted round of freezing temperatures, Ameren Missouri is reminding customers to plan for severe winter weather in advance. This includes having proper supplies on hand for a winter storm.

One thing we have learned or have had reinforced from this pandemic is our need for human contact. And the important role of technology in communicating with others. There’s a skill to communicating efficiently and properly using technology. Even a basic text can be misunderstood without the element of facial expression; hence the creation of emoticons to assist in getting a message across.

The good people at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan for decades have tried to keep us on the straight and narrow because someone should at least try.

I like machines. Occasionally, usually on the couch, I envision an idyllic future, like the one in The Jetsons, where a robot rolls over to me with a martini. In the timeless classic by Flight of the Concords, the song Robots, set in “the distant future, the year 2000,” it is Man vs. Robot. The song is so good I’m rooting for the robots! And who could forget Short Circuit, the 1986 film starring Steve Guttenberg alongside a delightful robot, No. 5? The picture also gave us the hit single “Who’s Johnny,” by El Debarge. OK, fine. Most people forgot that film but I did not! #neverforget!

On a frozen lake in Northern Minnesota, Rob Perez met with Jack Frost. They chatted while ice skating for the better part of an hour.

Home, a simple word that strikes a chord deep inside of us. As they say, “Home is where the heart is.” Sometimes home isn’t a physical place any longer. It’s a place in time we long to return to again. Curly Putman wrote a song that has been sung by many people, that Porter Wagoner made popular in 1965, called, “Green, Green of Home” about a man sentenced to die in prison dreaming of home. Is there anything better than the feeling of coming home where your people love you just as you are? Home is forever in our memory. People in prison, hospitals, soldiers serving their country, nursing homes, kids away at camp, anyone physically away from their home place rely on their memory and recognize that deep desire for home. They know that home is often, people.

The simple task of unpacking Christmas ornaments is like opening a time capsule. As we pick up each ornament a memory may be attached that takes us back in time or to loved ones and friends we love. Decorating the tree with these ornaments becomes a gift as we enjoy these memories. When my niece, Becca was little we began exchanging ornaments. I began giving her ornaments each year so that when she got married and had a home of her own, she would have some ornaments on her first Christmas tree. I’m going to try to begin the same tradition with my great-nieces and nephews. When I’m long gone, they will have ornaments for their trees from Aunt Pam and hopefully loving memories.