Father Christmas

For someone like my father (a man who traditionally has the appearance of being socially distressed except when things are strictly on his own terms), Christmas (or indeed any other merrymaking) is at first blush an inconvenience. This at least is the situation if he harbours (or my mother seeks to enforce) the remotest idea that his participation in the event is either required or expected. It’s the presumption of charity that kills him. To succumb to the social convention which attends such ceremony is for him a grave irritation, though I suspect it would be closer to the truth to label it an awkwardness or disenchantment. Whatever the limitation, there is no question that the nuisance value is high.

Men and boys and the price of their toys!

It would be unimaginable to address the battalion of options available for discourse upon the facetious subject of "men and boys and the price of their toys". Beginning with childhood and continuing to adulthood, there is among males the well-known passage from dinky toys to train sets, from bicycles to all-terrain vehicles, from motorcycles to automobiles, from boats to planes and many other combinations of mechanical diversions in between. What however is a less publicized absorption is the delight which men derive from watches and clocks.

The Value of Money

To countenance the expenditure of money naturally calls for some justification especially when the recommendation is conjoined with extravagance. Even the profligate spender harbours the shadow of concern for primary economic theory (though of course he seldom dilutes the strength of his initial devotion). By contrast the close-fisted penny-pincher buoys his preferred fiscal modesty with psychology, likening materialism to Philistinism. Between these two extremes of pecuniary dissolution and worldly deprivation resides the body of people who from time to time have what I believe to be a quite understandable need or desire to reward themselves. Nonetheless with all this talk of late about the incredible amount of debt being serviced by Canadians the idea of spending even funny money may be considered foolhardy. I think however that this is a proposition which needs to be re-examined in a context broader than mere economic principles or the loaded comparison of intemperance and frugality. It is my thesis that spending some money on yourself can be a very good thing indeed.

Withering Heights

When at last one has ploddingly attained the dizzying pinnacle of one’s career there is recognizably only one way to go - down! Eventually even the most accomplished of us is overwhelmed by the perpetual furtherance of knowledge and advancements of technology. It becomes both undesirable and impossible to keep up with the unrelenting pace of change. We begin to lose our footing, freshness and vigor, and the prospect of vanishing and disappearing altogether becomes all too real.

The Dutch Uncle

Some truths are by nature unmerciful and therefore hard to withstand though their communication to the object of the factuality is as often both necessary and preferable. The same however does not hold so readily for the truths of the Dutch uncle.

The Entrepreneur

The expression "entrepreneur" normally applies to rather common and generally unimpressive undertakings. Historically for example it pertained to self-employed people such as water-carriers, brewers, hat makers, chimney sweeps and so forth. Today it broadly includes almost anyone who "undertakes some responsibility and pursues a goal with self-motivation" and certainly does not necessarily reflect a merchant but also includes service providers and professionals such as doctors, lawyers and accountants. Some however take a narrow view of the word and restrict its application to those who have special characteristics above being new and small; that is, they create something new or different; they change or transmute values.

Clothes Maketh the Man

Being adjudged by one’s appearance is nothing new.  Nor is it something which most people would hasten to contradict, as shallow and distasteful as the observation may initially appear.  Mark Twain supportively opined:  “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”