Manns Medium

Back in the day, the most celebrated holiday was Christmas but now it seems to have been replaced by others thought up by particular groups.  Christmas could be found in every single home with all proudly displaying bright lights, candles and good cheer.  Not so much today as now we wish to make it seem we must celebrate  Kwanzaa  and others like it instead.  It’s as if we have to choose between one and the other to prove something to someone much more important to us than we are to ourselves and that is a shame. Could it be that many who was first taught to believe in God, stopped and therefore felt an urgent need to replace it with something that they could celebrate?  Could it be that commercially we began to sell out our beliefs for what we were being told by a television show or advertisement?  Could it be that we gave up on what I believe the true meaning of Christmas is so that we may fit in with the majority or those we thought was the maj...

Many parents are under the impression that buying your child name brand items and everything he or she wants is the ideal measure of good parenting.  They think that just by giving them all that they desire, it will prevent them from desiring anything that the parent cannot afford.  The only problem with this is they are wrong and have been for so long, I’m embarrassed that it has taken so long for many of us to realize it. If you buy your child only name brand items and everything he or she wants, you are setting them up to keep that mindset as they age and because of that, they now will do whatever they need to in order to obtain that desire.  People often wonder why children shoplift especially when they are quite affluent or have the money in their pockets.  Children shoplift because they want it now and the effort to walk up to the counter and pay for it is just too much for them.  You ask why children who are poor shoplift, simply because their parent...

Today we want to talk about the Calendar and dates that we hold so  dear.   The issue is whether we should continue to follow common wisdom or begin to think for ourselves.  Jehovah Witness say Jesus was born in October and some point to the Greek calendar to say it was other  months.   Regardless of what date you decide to observe and celebrate the birth of Christ, the main point is that you celebrate it.   What we have come to call the birth of Christ on the 25 th of December has  stopped meaning celebrating the best gift this world could have ever gotten, to seeing just how many  lights we can strum upon our house, how many presents we can put under the tree, who can out spend  whom on this date.   The news is not about the birth of Christ and instead we are bombarded with  Christmas Specials as if Hollywood has the answers to our salvation.   Kids get to see all the old Christmas  Cartoon Specials and for we...

Being a single parent, I can really feel the anguish many parents may endure this holiday season when it comes to not having the finances to put anything under the Christmas tree or even have a tree this year but while thinking about that, another thought entered my mind.   What if this event is happening for another reason, what if this is an opportunity for all of us to get back to the real meaning of Christmas. In a well-written article by Phil Wahba and Martha Sanchez-Avila for Reuters titled Poor struggling, rich spending as Christmas nears, it was reported that “Adriana Garcia won't be buying her family Christmas gifts this year.   The 26-year-old from Huntington Park, California lost her job as a teacher's assistant last year and now works part-time at a Jamba Juice near Los Angeles.   Her husband, a security guard unable to work since hurting his hand three months ago, is not yet getting his disability checks. The couple spends on the basics: food and rent. ...