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“He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.”
- Roy L. Smith
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Common Sense
The Progress
Editorial
December 8,2022
From the Staff
Spending our holiday time
The holidays are a good time to think
about who one spends their time with and
what that looks like in the context of life
as a whole, whether we’re on our way to
grandma’s house or just stopping by the
neighbor’s with a Christmas card. It’s the
time of year a majority of people spend
the most hours with friends or family,
while other times of year these connec
tions might be skipped.
According to data from the American
Time Use Survey, time with both family
and friends is in deceptively short supply.
Time with friends peaks at age 18 (school
is good for friendships) and time with
family peaks in childhood (for obvious
reasons). This makes it all the more im
portant to be present at the holidays.
Those minutes might be worth more than
the average movement of a clock hand as
less and less time is spent with these two
groups.
The time use chart also makes plain
the amount of time one spends and will
spend alone. Throughout life this is
where most of our time is spent, and it
only increases with age. Being alone at
the holidays and being alone in other
parts of life is not necessarily bad, but
feeling lonely is.
In a study titled “Are U.S. Older
Adults Getting Lonelier?: Age, Period,
and Cohort Differences” published in
Psychology’ and Aging the authors found
“no evidence that loneliness is substan
tially higher...or that it has increased
over the past decade,” so that is good
news, but it doesn’t mean you can skip
Christmas Eve dinner because you didn’t
cook anything.
In the same study loneliness is shown
to actually decrease with age, as people
become more socially experienced and
selective about who they spend their time
with. Many might call this their “I don’t
like other people” phase, but there is a
phycological advantage to that selective
ness.
Take that advantage and be selective
about who you spend your time with to
end the year, but don’t make excuses not
to see them; we’ve only got so many
minutes in the tank to be able to spend
with everyone and the holidays are al
ready set up for us to be able to make
those connections more easily.
400 mins
300 mins
200 mins
100 mins
0 minsr
15 20
Age
Alone
With partner
With family
With children
With friends
With coworkers
Chart from Our World in Data
Source: American Time Use Survey and Lindberg
Tell us your thoughts with a letter to the editor. E-mail to news@pickensprogress.com
See letter submission guidelines on the Letters to the Editor page or call us 706-253-2457.
■
Ponderings of a Simple Man
Caleb Smith
History
Lessons
[Caleb Smith’s column
runs twice monthly in the
Progress.]
With the Thanksgiving
and Christmas holidays
among us, I find myself with
some extra time on my
hands. A fact which, nor
mally, is enough to send most
fire departments into manda
tory overtime and my neigh
bors nervously increasing
their homeowners insurance.
This year, however, I de
cided to take a break from
improving my home and in
stead focus on improving my
mind.
“But Simple Man!” I can
hear you cry, “Why try to
sharpen an already razor
sharp wit?”
And I hear your concerns,
but even the most well run
ning engine can do with a lit
tle upkeep and maintenance
from time to time.
So, glasses in hand, I
started reading American his
tory. After a time I discovered
the glasses worked better on
my face and the whole
process became much more
enjoyable.
I went through a variety of
books and found I remem
bered most of the facts from
my school days, but one fact
surprised me. It was buried in
an enormous tome titled Tid
bits of the American Frontier
and was just a few short para
graphs, but its title grabbed
my attention immediately,
“Concerning the Beard.”
I, like most people, be
lieved that people have had
beards since there were peo
ple. This book taught me that
I was wr- WTO- wtoo — that I
could have been more accu
rate. That beards, like all
things awesome and wonder
ful, were an American inven
tion.
Indeed, surprising the
beard isn’t even that old. It
was invented back in 1829 by
a trapper by the name of Alan
Beard. It seems that for all of
human history, men had
woken up every morning and
immediately shaved their
face, and thus, never learned
the glory to which they could
have risen.
Alan, a manly man (as is
right for the inventor of the
beard) was out trapping one
day, taking a leisurely route
of around 75-100 miles, an
easy day for him, when he
was attacked by a mountain
lion. This normally would
have been no problem for
Alan but when the wolves
showed up, after forming an
alliance with the Grizzly
bears of the area, Alan de
cided to take the better part of
valor.
After fighting an abnor
mally large bear on a log
across a stream, no doubt
above a raging waterfall,
Alan slipped and fell into the
rushing waters below. Again,
this was no problem for Alan,
but in the fall he lost his pack
containing all of his food,
weapons, and, worst of all,
his straight razor.
The trek back to civiliza
tion only took a day, but in
that time Alan grew an enor
mous, luxuriant beard. The
men of the town, seeing him
return with an entire caribou
strapped across his back, im
mediately rushed to throw
their own razors away.
And thus the beard was
bom.
Caleb Smith is a resident
of a ramshackle cabin on an
undisclosed mountaintop. He
can be contacted at jcaleb-
smith90@yahoo.com.
(USPS 431-820)
Published by Pickens County Progress, Inc.
94 North Main Street, Jasper, GA 30143
(706) 253-2457
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DAN POOL
Publisher/Editor
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#lbc School
Other Voices
At Christmastime (and Every Other Day).
Less Is More
By Dwayne Keith Petty
When I first began teach
ing in 1995, my first princi
pal, a wise woman named Dr.
Kathryn Floyd, told me that a
cornerstone of her educa
tional philosophy was “Less
is more.”
In other words, instead of
inundating students with vast
amounts of information and
assignments, teaching them
with fewer and more specific
targets equated to greater
success in the long ran.
For three decades, I have
held to Dr. Floyd’s educa
tional theory, and I fully be
lieve that it works well in the
classroom. Over time, how
ever, I have also come to live
by that tenet in many aspects
of my life.
I have become a dissenter
in relation to what American
society demands we be in
order to exhibit success; and
I have found a fair amount of
solace in doing so.
In the early days of my ca
reer, I was approved for a
mortgage of $225,000, a sum
that could then purchase a
very nice home. I was fol
lowing the pathway of the
American Dream.
Somewhere along that
pathway, however, I
metaphorically stepped on a
sharp stone, and I asked my
self what the hell I was
doing. I realized that I was
basically enslaving myself to
30 years of commitment dur
ing which any number of
events might befall me.
I wondered if after taking
on the hefty mortgage, I
would be able to sleep at
night or toss with worry.
Thus, my plans halted, and I
began a journey down an
other path. The results of that
decision were a far simpler
home, far less worry, and far
more freedom.
In turn, “less is more” be
came a mantra for my life.
Other than buying a specific
type of pants and shoes I can
only find in retail, I shop at
thrift and consignment stores,
finding like-new shirts and
coats. I buy a portion of my
groceries at dollar stores. I
plan day trips instead of long
vacations that force exorbi
tant boarding fees; and
though necessity demanded I
buy a new car a couple of
years ago, I bought an econ
omy base model that even
has manual windows, and my
daily ride is a laughable 21-
year old Volvo with a ripped
driver’s seat, a cracked con
sole, a super-glued driver-
side door handle, and a
cacophony of clanks and rat
tles.
Within this, there is little I
desire as I contrast, by
choice, the stress-inducing
existence the majority of
Americans endure either
from the circumstances soci
ety forces upon them or from
their own mind-numbing
pursuits of money and mate
rial possessions.
On one hand, a large fac
tion of Americans struggle
perpetually to keep up with
just the basic necessities of
life. Whereas 50 years ago,
“keeping up with the Jone
ses” was a well-noted aspira
tion across the United States,
today, “Can I keep up just to
survive?” might well be a
more appropriately assigned
sentiment for the human con
dition of this segment of the
populace.
On the other hand, another
large faction of Americans
dwell within a dome of insa
tiable self-indulgence.
They have jobs and ca
reers that pay well, and they
can provide for themselves
and their families with rela
tive ease. Still, they are with
out satisfaction.
Their restlessness and lack
of contentment drives them
to pursue the latest gadgets,
the bigger house, and the
more expensive vehicle
throughout the spectrum of
their lives. For example, a
friend recently shared with
me that another of her friends
purchased a truck that came
with a $1,400 a month pay
ment.
This is either unfettered
optimism or blind ignorance,
but how long will the thrill of
driving this exorbitantly
priced vehicle fill the emo
tional void?
It is this that brings us to
Christmas.
Each year, the Christmas
season exacerbates the ex
tremes of socioeconomic
means within our country. It
is the microcosm symbolic of
the macrocosm. One end of
the economic scale meets
with difficulty to even put a
decent Christmas meal on the
table, much less purchase
gifts. The other end of the
configuration either has the
money to purchase outright
or the line of credit to overex
tend for the purpose of again
temporarily pacifying want at
great expense.
In light of such glaring re
alities, would it then be better
if no Christmas meals and no
Christmas gifts existed at all?
What if, like Dr. Seuss’s
Whos down in Whoville with
their cupboards and refriger
ators stripped bare and their
houses void of decoration
and festively-wrapped pack
ages, we emerged from our
houses and sang anyway?
What if we celebrated
friendship, good health, the
loved ones present, generos
ity, compassion, forgiveness,
peace and love? What if we
did so by gathering with just
a bologna sandwich and glass
of milk for dinner? What if
we extended this sentiment
365 days a year?
What if instead of a corpo
rate-ladder-climbing, cut
throat, dog-eat-dog,
Darwinistic society, we em
braced and embodied the
basic needs of all people
from housing to health care
and made them possible for
all?
What if we were content
with the basics and those be
side us? What if our daily ef
forts were, instead of either
trying to simply survive or
perpetually gain more, fo
cused upon a foundation of
equality and simplicity?
Such a country is a remote
possibility, for the powers
that be in the world of corpo
rate and individual wealth
make it so that innumerable
carrots of accomplishment
and success and innumerable
mandates just to survive dan
gle before all of us. We can
make some choices that en
able less stress and participa
tion in the proverbial rat race
that encompasses the whole
of us, but, by and large, it
would take drastic measures
and unprecedented societal
paradigm shifts to manifest
such a base, hospitable na
tion.
When possible, however,
even at Christmastime, op
portunities and decisions to
uncomplicate our lives in re
gard to money and material
ism may free us to be more
than we have ever dreamed,
both individually and as a
collective. In the wise words
of the now-departed Dr.
Kathryn Floyd, “Less is
more.”
[Keith Petty is a Pickens
native and longtime educator
in the local school system. He
contributes regularly to the
Progress and other publica
tions.]
WEATHER
By William Dilbeck
HI
LOW
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54
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Spot an
error,
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know.
dpool@
pickensprogress.com
706-253-2457