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A little over fifty-five years ago - can you believe it, 55?! - Charles Schulz’s animated musical “A Charlie Brown Christmas” aired for the very first time. The special hit our TV’s on Dec. 9, 1965 and our friend Charlie Brown became famous for his pitiful little Christmas tree! The story was actually a commentary on the loss of the true spirit of Christmas and the selection of his forlorn tree was to protest the commercialization of Christmas. The story ends on an amazing note as poor ol’ Charlie Brown asks, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” Linus reassures him by famously reciting the Christmas story from Luke 2. Such a terrific Christmas story - both of them!

Alex, a happy, smiling, nearly 2-year-old boy, was born in February 2020. By the time he turned 1, his development was noticeably behind.

Gifts! Gifts! Gifts! People sure love getting and giving them year round don’t they?! And it seems at Christmas, it gets ramped up to full speed ahead! So, besides baking every cookie known to man, fully decorating your home - inside & out - sending cards to people you rarely see, and attending all sorts of holiday events - you now find yourself shopping your head off for scores of people. But what to buy?? The million dollar question for sure.

With all the political turmoil these days, most of which is separating rather than uniting us, I have tried to listen and keep my mouth shut, but there are straws and there are last straws and my last straw is an opinion or two. In 2021 to date there have been 30 school shootings in the United States, 22 since August 1st, 88 since 2018. The recent case at Oxford, Michigan High School left four dead and seven hospitalized. Blame is being waved around like flags on the Fourth of July. There’s plenty to go around, but the real issue is how freely we permit gun ownership without much, if any indoctrination as to their handling and use; the United States is the number one gun manufacturer in the world. Not only do we export them and provide our own military, but we also sell them carelessly to the civilian population. The NRA goof balls continuously quote the second amendment, blah, blah, blah.

It’s rare these days that we get an amazing piece of health journalism that really explicates what’s wrong with the U.S. health system. But “Out of Control: America’s losing battle against diabetes,” is a series of three stories published starting in August by Chad Terhune, Robin Respaut, and Deborah J. Nelson at Reuters, gets right to the troubles plaguing American health care.