In The Cigar Box

Thanksgiving.  Here, we’ll take the day for relaxing, eating and being with friends.  A few will use the day’s closing hours for shopping.  Many of us will give thanks, heartfelt thanks.  There will be memories of loved ones who have crossed to their eternity.  People less fortunate will genuinely be remembered in prayer.  This is the day when an abundance of food is donated to people who know that being well fed can be an ephemeral luxury.  Seeing all the reasons for thanks is hard on this or any day. At about midnight tonight, here in the central US, the Thanksgiving holiday will officially begin.  At about that same time, daylight will be full over Kabul and in the provinces whose names have become familiar on the nightly news like Kandahar and Helmand.  In such places the sounds of exploding ordnance have often announced the beginning of another day.  The tedious work and critical mission will not take a break.  For the de...

Very few still have wooden statues of Native Americans positioned at the entrances. The blue-white smoke that formed a constant cloud hanging below the tin ceilings has dissipated as anti-smoking ordinances were enacted and enforced.  But the candy cane swirl of a barber pole still announces one of the last surviving havens for guys.  These places are not salons.  You can’t make an appointment – some don’t have telephones.  Barber shops. Last week, I sat in the barber chair in Barry’s shop.  His is a traditional chair with a cast iron base and long handle with a faux ivory grip so he can operate the chair’s hydraulic pump.  The action of pumping sounds like a moose gargling while his mate is wheezing but the seat raises or lowers so the head of hair is brought to the barber’s hands and eyes.  Every shop, Barry’s included, has a picture window in front or on the end of the row of barber chairs.  Such windows are always slightly smoky with...

The lid on the Cigar Box has remained closed for several days.  In this election season, everyone has been inundated with more words and images than most of us can process or tolerate.  The unprecedented degree of patronizing, hate-filled speech stifles even the most resilient spirit.  It seemed best for the Cigar Box stories to take a break except to encourage everyone to overcome the overload long enough to cast a vote. Please remember that elections are not sports nor horse races.  When the votes are counted, we should hope and plan for everyone to celebrate the victory of self-government over being ruled by fiat or by despots.  Significant challenges remain.  We must overcome the effects of those who would co-opt power through gross mischaracterizations, hyperbole and outright falsehoods.  In resisting those forces, the accumulated wisdom of millions of voters has served us well for more than 200 years – I pray that it will again.  A...