President’s Message – Nov/Dec 2007

Late fall, early winter, the time of feasting is upon us from Halloween to New Years Day. With a bit of trepidation, I donned costume paraphernalia and attended NWSSA’s Fall Fest at the symposium. I needn’t have worried. We had a DeWalt angle grinder, a nymph in white, a core drill (big one), and 2 Chinese pottery warriors just to mention a few who really used their time and creativity for costuming. I believe everyone had an enjoyable time. Not being tied down in a sitting position, the conversing was fluid, roaming from room to room amidst the stones. Good times.

And now we move on to that great gastronomic epic: Thanksgiving. We Americans do, that is. I extend a belated Thanksgiving wish to our Canadian pals who celebrated theirs on the second Monday of October, in this case the eighth. Here in the lower half, we extol it as Columbus Day. My copious research on the Wikipedia assured me that both countries celebrate the same sort of thing: food, family and friends, focusing on a universal human sense of well being whilst giving thanks for being alive and being well fed. It’s a good thing for those of us who have it.

Next we move on to the month of Dec. where we celebrate various religious observances and secular ones as well. In this particular season of late fall and early winter, whether the dates differ or the reasons for celebration, there remains a constant – food. The giving and receiving and the food ends in New Year resolutions to loose the food and become svelte. It’s kind of a shame, in a way, that with higher intelligence we seem at our best metabolizing a feast and only as peaceable as the lion pride after its feast. There has to be something we’re missing with the food thing.

Peace and food thoughts for the New Year,

Elaine