A LITTLE SEASONING

The week before Christmas is usually one of the busiest times of the year at J.B.'s Barber Shop. It seems that everyone wants to look nice for family, photos and parties. So, we look forward to the increase in business. However, I must admit that I don't generally look forward to the holiday, as such.

For years, Sherry and the kids considered me kind of a Scrooge. Thus, they learned to just tolerate my annual moodiness.

I finally reached a point where I felt guilty about my immaturity and how it affected the rest of the family. I decided to try to identify the source of the problem.

I soon discovered that part of the problem had to do with the "traditional compulsories" -- the excessive buying, eating, visiting, etc. The other part involved how holidays disrupt my routine.

When in town, my routine is very simple: get out of bed at 4:30 to 5:00 AM, leave the house by 5:50, be in a restaurant drinking coffee and reading a book by 6 and open the shop at 7. Yet, holidays change all this and leave me with an uncomfortable "What do I do now?" type of uselessness.

With our three children married and gone from home, and with other loved ones having passed on, there has been a change in attitude. Scrooge has sort of turned into a sentimentalist, as holidays take on a meaning they never had. They've become those precious moments, on a clock that can never be turned back.

Horace Mann once ran a lost-and-found advertisement: "Lost, one 24-carat golden day. Each hour studded with 60 diamond minutes. Each minute studded with 60 ruby seconds. But don't bother to look for it. It is gone forever, that wonderful, golden day, I lost today."

BARBER-OSOPHY: Mature people appreciate the timeless benefits that "a little seasoning" brings to a routine.

Copyright 2004, Sumerlin Enterprises.

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