Gordon A. Wilson's Blog

I look at my stats and realize I haven't posted in a year. Without getting too deep in it, about the time I published Harbinger of Calamity, I was involved in writing and composing songs for a record. My creative attention for the last year plus has been in that direction. I have found song writing and playing them with a band is similar to writing books but the return is so much more visceral and immediate, it is a hard to explain, but that is what is going on right now. In the meantime I felt the need to compile some current thoughts. Marijuana in Michigan The Reclamation of Freedom and some other thoughtsYesterday was a historic day in Michigan. Legal marijuana.I could talk for a long time about how many people die, especially in Mexico as part of the illegal drug trade, including tons of marijuana, most of which comes to the US. Without going deep into economics, supply and demand are both sides of the same coin. Where there is demand, it will be met with supply. If one less person dies from marijuana prohibition, in my opinion, it’s a step in a good direction. Even if the state really screws up the implementation of the laws and regulations which will come, there is no way a part of the plan will include murdering rival dealers and law enforcement or government officials as a part of it. If this sounds like passionate opinion, I would encourage anyone to look into the realities of the drug trade at our southern border.I could talk about how much of our independence has been shifted from local authorities to the federal government but that’s a big, dirty can of worms. Even now the FDA has approved a derivative of marijuana as a treatment for specific disorders yet the same government continues to keep it schedule 1 as a drug “with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” If this actually makes sense to anyone, I would love to have it explained to me. Last spring, in a move barely addressed in mass media, federal elected officials introduced legislation allowing states who have chosen to legalize marijuana to do so without the current interference by federal government. Not only did it not get much mention, it has yet to make it past whatever process would allow it to be voted on.My first guess without going too deep is that it has to do with the gridlock of our broken two party system; or it not meeting the agenda of the all too influential special interests, but that is also too big of a worm can for now. This is one, single example, but a drop in the big, big bucket. The point I would like to make is this, the closer to my home, where I live, where the decisions I have to live with actually happen, the better of a chance we have collectively of the representatives actually representing us and being accountable for their decisions. Ironically, my hometown “opted out” of even dealing with marijuana, I suppose this will postpone my city council from accountability for the time being which would be great if it is for a reason to gather facts as opposed to supporting a virtual local prohibition which may or may not be what the constituents want. I honestly believe this shift or deterioration of local power and accountability is not a mere opinion. I so wish we could bring back our founding fathers to explain why states rights and self governance was a critical point of our constitution. If this sounds like opinion, I encourage anyone to read up, it was damn near a deal breaker.A second pointAt the risk of being judged, I will admit that I began looking into medical marijuana as an alternative to my doctors offering to put me on pain meds for life, most likely opioids, with no hope of any of my conditions ever improving. The end goal was to mask the pain, forever. Not no, hell no as they used to say, I’ll pass. I turned down the treatment flat without ever getting a first prescription. I would rather deal with pain than addiction or melting my liver by choice, unless it’s rum, but that is my choice. I work quite a bit and need to function at the top of my game most often, cannabutter works wonders, and while I personally may use it four or more days a week, I’m not “high”, and truth be told I almost never actually “smoke weed”, not that it matters, but it’s part of a misconception. It is widely known and accepted that marijuana and its derivatives are being used to treat medical conditions in a natural way, yet the schedule 1 classification in our country makes it impractical for research. Some of the advances in medicinal usage have been made in states like Colorado where it was legalized years ago. I shouldn’t need to explain the connection.3 lights of my lifeA third (or more) pointI have two aging Great Pyrenees (dogs, not mountains) who are the light of my life, the older one is getting so stiff from his arthritis he really has a hard time getting around. I dose them both with my own marijuana derivative and it takes years off of their mobility. The alternative? Pain medications and steroids which will certainly damage their liver and eventually shorten their lives. What would you choose for yourself? I want that dog around for every day I can squeeze out of him, even if it is for selfish reasons.I also have had the privilege of helping a couple friends with similar conditions as well as anxiety and PTSD with similar concoctions. The results are real. There is still a big stigma against marijuana, part of it may be justified but part of it, maybe not. This is a far cry from the Cheech and Chong scenes of smoking weed in a van, but is part of a conception that needs updating, as funny and entertaining as the images are. (Kids should not be using marijuana, this is well supported by fact, they probably shouldn’t be consuming unhealthy doses of alcohol among other things either. Michigan put a 21 year old age in the law.)It may be obvious that this is a subject I personally am passionate about, and I realize that talking about it will inevitably get me dropped into the Cheech and Chong category, or possibly even an anti-government kook, but I feel strongly enough to come out and say something. I know that I have been lied to the better part of my life, as has my generation.ConclusionI applaud the people of Michigan for legalizing marijuana. It is a step forward in asserting our states rights, a step forward in people understanding and essentially admitting that there is a demand for a product currently being met in not so great of a way. It is a step forward for bringing up a subject which is taboo at best and a step forward in advancing possible truth to generations of people who have been collectively lied to for a variety of reasons, none of which in my opinion hold with the reality of the times we live.We have too much information at our disposal to go along with anything without checking the facts.

Last year I wrote a little post about the day after Christmas. I seriously cannot believe it’s that time again. I use the term year round to describe a huge let down after a very exciting event. As a kid we would ride bikes through the fairgrounds Sunday morning after the fair left to pick up returnable cans. It was a similar situation, the big nothing after a huge event. For a week that fair is the center of so many peoples world, until everyone packs up everything and leaves. Then the area is just trampled down grass with litter and ten cent cans laying around. The excitement is gone and the center of the world shifts to another location. The circus has come to town? I love that phrase too but that is an entirely different scenario.I am not into the whole commercial aspect of the holiday but I respect it, it’s good for the economy. I always find myself using the space around the holidays as a time of reflection and marking where I was in the past. I won’t go as far as making a bunch of ridiculous resolutions. I do think it is worth a few moments to take an inventory of the significant happenings of the year just to look at them and think about it. It won’t hurt to consider what has been going on, or what I may need to change. Whether anything changes or not, I hope to live to see, but this year has been a whopper in an overall good way with some bumps here and there.Life is the fair and the excitement is not gone, it just keeps moving from town to town.

I was thinking around Halloween about horror or disturbing stories. I wondered about scary situations I may take for granted that could be reinterpreted or were possibly misinterpreted from the start. I didn't have to go far. I was thinking about a neighborhood where some of the people are real but some of the people aren't. Nobody seems to be able to tell the difference no one cares. There is some good here, everyone gets along extremely well. I thought about a crabby old dude that literally lives in a trash can and no one ever thinks twice about it, it's just accepted. Even though he's seldom glad to have visitors, people continuously bother him. I think he amuses them. I thought about two dudes who live together but they seem to have almost nothing in common and they don't even realize they are total puppets for someone else's agenda. A monster? Every scary story needs a monster. In this case, he is big and blue and hairy and his main focus is eating cookies. I believe he may be involved in controlled substances known to increase appetite, but it's never addressed. To top things off, the neighborhood has a giant bird bigger than all the people who just shows up. Nothing is big enough for him and he couldn't fit through any doors but everyone thinks it's normal. I think I have the base for a very disturbing story, maybe even a series.

It is time for Harbinger of Calamity to come meet the world. I will address more aspects of this later but for now, put the fruit of my mind out for the universe to consume.

It is available for a free download on Amazon right now http://www.amazon.com/dp/B076TMJWNW



My crack team of primate videologists have also prepared some trailers-


https://youtu.be/n8rj1jBf814

https://youtu.be/bfXZvXjPFaQ

https://youtu.be/s9LdtyX9D_4

Today is the day of the "totality" eclipse. I happened to be around and was asked to lunch by my son- an event nearly as rare as the eclipse itself- so I took the offer. We ate and he showed me how to reverse the camera on my phone to safely take a picture after scolding me for looking into the sun. I took a couple shots, we parted and I took the dogs out to experience the eclipse as well. They were not into it and I was 258 miles from maximum impact, so we made due with a walk.

Looks like a picture of the sun to me.
So here I come back to my computer. Back to writing. Back to reality? Maybe. I am looking at the inevitable end of summer. Yay. Not yay. I'm not sure. I journey back to the beginning of this blog and think about what I was doing and why. I was writing about things which inspired me. Why? There was no clear why. I was doing it for some kind of self-therapy, maybe even introspection. As I found subjects of interest, I would blog about them. It was fun and interesting and I won't say pointless but I think it has been an interesting discussion all along. 
Where have I been since the launch of Gender in Fiction? Great question. 
Buried in music. In a good way. This spring we auditioned students for a "show band" to put together a set and perform at a bunch of shows. It was a lot of work and a lot of rehearsals, a lot of great music and a bunch of shows. All of the performances were packed in from June until last Thursday. During the course of it all, we tried to add new material and perfect the existing. On top of this, the group I play and sing in (The Roadhouse) had several commitments to perform as well which kind of kept me trying to be as good as I could while adding new material and perfecting existing too. This whole thing was very eye-opening. Some of the student Show Band gigs allowed us to get involved in some high profile shows, a couple of which were a haul from the school at different types of venues than our kids (and I) were accustomed to. Kind of exciting and exhausting. We also hosted a touring group for a performance in the midst of it all. It is so encouraging and exciting to see young people with a passion for music having a chance to perform in front of a crowd that includes their peers. It truly was inspiring.

Students I coach at performances this summer.
The Roadhouse at a gig in June.

Earlier this spring The Roadhouse needed a drummer. Things happened, I talked to a bunch of people and nothing was working out quite right. An old friend (Jeff Groll) from my youth put something on Facebook for my birthday. He and I were in bands together all through school but had not spoken since 1985 when we graduated. We got talking and next thing I know- he's drumming for us and it's like we never parted. Our musical chemistry came back in very short order and we have been catching up personally along the way. It turns out our paths had been crossing for a very long time but we never knew it till now. We both enlisted in the Army a few years apart he was a tank mechanic and I was a tanker, both fairly uncommon jobs. We were stationed at two forts at overlapping times in Georgia and Kentucky and never knew it. Then we went on to Michigan State University at the same time and never knew it. You get the idea. Pretty bizarre but we are back playing music and remaking our friendship. Good stuff.

Jeff is the skinny one.

Another aspect of the musical burial began at the beginning of the summer as well. I found myself writing songs with another person in another set of near unexplainable circumstance. We had some help here and there with chord progressions essentially but the writing has been just the two of us. We have about a dozen songs put together for an upcoming record so far. We have done some scratch track recording, almost what I would consider a rough draft in my fiction. But... I strongly feel some of these songs are going to be good. Actively doing something collaborative in this way is nothing like I have experienced. Collaborating in fiction I do all the time. I send some email back and forth and my friends help me out. Being in the same proximity as the whole thing is hatched is quite a different interaction. The oddest thing about it all is this- I had not written songs since I was really young. Yes, I am writing all the time, but writing songs was a dead thing. I write a book here and there, blog posts fairly often- but there is something more visceral and immediately gratifying about writing and singing a song with an acoustic guitar and piano that resides in a different world from writing fiction. I never saw this train coming until it ran me over. The experience is so different from novel writing I could barely explain it. It has been a very interesting diversion and has definitely allowed my mind to expand in a different direction from the norm.

Something else of interest, I finally finished putting together our recording studio. The aforementioned project prompted its completion. Yes, this happened this summer too. It could still use a little of this and that, but it is up and running and has even been used a few times. The whole sound isolation thing is a study of its own. I can keep the sound in quite well, but keeping other noise out as they say- not so much.



So what about that whole novel writing thing? Hopefully, it gets better as my mind grows more in an artistic direction. Sounds good anyhow. Harbinger of Calamity, the sequel to Firetok, is essentially done. During the musical avalanche, I did finish the book. A couple minor formatting things were very recently fixed and now it is ready to go. My plan is to read it one more time, or not, and launch it later this fall. This is the same book I once thought would launch in the winter of 2016. Enough said. Let everyone get settled back into their non-summer routine, including myself, then let her go.

The time has come. So that's what has been going on here. I'd love to hear from you and thanks for reading.

Have I abandoned the blog? 
No, that is not what is going on. The last big event here was the Gender in Fiction project and its time to move on. I am continuing to edit Harbinger of Calamity. At this time the book is in the hands of Jim Ferguson who did the first edit of Firetok many years ago.  He was my journalism teacher back when we had one computer for the whole class, now he's is helping me put my unconventional into convention. (RE)Teaching the wizardry necessary to put my storytelling in a form that won't make a reader with a much better understanding of how things are done cringe or dispose of my book. I welcome the help. I have also had a couple trusted advisors lend a hand along the way. The story is definitely where it is and where it is going. Now it's just a matter of polish. I have begun to write the follow up as well, part three I suppose. There is just so much left to tell it forced itself upon me.





What have I learned? 
I am still overusing words. I have been in "had" therapy for years. It's such a nothing word. I can use had in every sentence I write and pull it out and nothing changes. Kind of like offering advice to a kid. So the "had" thing is nothing new. Like and that abuse worked its way in around my had abuse. I think had was a gateway word which led to stronger more addictive things like using t-h-a-t- all the time.  Those are a couple words I tend to overuse and have taken a look at how and when I really should.

Redundancy. Yes, I write redundantly, especially in rough draft- but I don't care at that point it's about getting the story out of my head. I do begin to care later on in the process. Using the same word in two subsequent sentences rarely makes it past my read aloud. Here is one that the automated grammar checker wasn't liking though- started several sentences with the same word. This one has been slipping by under the radar. When I look at three sentences each beginning with "the" it starts to sound pretty children's bookish. Not like Dr. Seuss but more like a child wrote it. Relooking at that whole thing.

Mr. Ferg has also been suggestion some compound-complex sentence therapy as well as some other treatment. I went to a couple meetings, ate a couple doughnuts- but they kicked me out. The moderator suggested I didn't know enough English mechanics to write copy for Chinese cookie fortunes. It didn't turn into a fist fight but I got his message. I'm working on it. I'll keep studying.


The last thing I want to do is get into an English lesson with me being the teacher for reasons already mentioned. What have I found to help in my polish process? A couple things. I use LibreOffice for all my editing. There are a few different extensions you can add to look for mistakes. After the Deadline is a good one. I will admit it took me a bit of screwing around to figure out how it works but when it does it's at least helpful. Grammarly is pretty sweet but it seems only to work online, forcing me to work around it. It has been extremely helpful in helping me understand these English rules and conventions I seem to have forgotten or reinterpreted incorrectly. There are others for certain the discussion of each could make for its own post.

As always thanks for reading. 

Back in November, the idea was born to create an ebook and a series of blog posts on gender in writing- specifically fiction. The project was an extension of the genre project of the same nature from last year. It was fun and a pretty neat experience covered a lot of ground and exposed some different approaches to genre.

My intent was to expand on that and include a couple more people. A little ebook and some blog posts was the initial plan. The project grew and grew in both time and scope. We ended up with 7 contributors plus myself which would make it 7.5 and 6 months before it all came together. But it did come together. It grew into a full blown book, it's only fifty some pages but it was way too big for a blog post.

Did I learn anything? Oh did I.

Here are some of my lessons-


If something is well written the reader shouldn't need to wonder about who wrote it. It wouldn't cross their mind. If the writing takes you that far out of the story, as far as I am concerned, it's a mistake. I've lost you. I shouldn't read a passage and have the conscious thought "this sounds like a dude wrote this" and vice versa. 
If I am writing a character way out of my realm I should do some research in whatever form it takes. This research would be more beneficial beforehand than after the fact.
Some people make ebooks and then work towards turning them into paperbacks. I have never done it this way and Amazon offers it as an option. Someone in the project told me don't do it. I did not. I think it is easier the other way around. I start paperback on CreateSpace and go from there.
Formatting for ebook is considerably different from paperback. Amazon KDP does not like PDF. And stuff like formatting seems to get lost in the upload for an ebook- including color. If there is a way to get color in an ebook- I don't know it.
Communicating with 7.5 people from different parts of the globe who are all insanely busy is damn near miracle worker territory. One of the contributors very accurately called it herding cats. I am continuously neck deep in several all consuming projects and so is everyone else- try to bring that together. 
We were able to communicate as a group of friends and collaborators. It was enriching and inspirational. 
The end product was worth the time and effort and completely exceeded anything I could have imagined. I think they call that synergy.
A history of being abused is not a very good reason to inflict abuse yourself. I think it extends the power of the initial abuser. This has nothing to do with the book but I'm sticking with it.

Next post I will try to add some excerpt teasers. The plan is for it to be released on May 11.

Thanks for reading- G

Here I am on the first or second day of spring. It was fantastic. Got the dogs out a couple times and even walked to town. It was only two blocks but hey- I did it. Last summer and fall I was fairly certain I would have a book ready about February time frame. Summer and Fall came and went, now guess what? Yes, Winter is gone too. I saw a pair of robins at least a month ago and it has been bitter cold since then, I think they may regret falling for the trick of an early spring. Did the book get done in February? Kind of yes and no. I definitely had a rough draft done. I even went as far as to get a paper proof which led to a massive batch of edits across the board. The problem might be this has led to the unending batch of edits. I don't really mean problem let's just call it "the situation." It's not a problem, its part of the process. A very necessary part of the process as frustrating as it gets.


This should mean I am making progress and learning. I must be. Can I pinpoint any specifics? Yes, if I had to nail it down, my biggest problem is confusion. Not confusion on my part other than my role in writing passages that don't make sense to anyone but me or leaving out details that I know but there is no way the reader does- especially when I don't include them. This might sound obvious, but it's not. I know all the details of the story, for the most part, I really know what happened in the story. So much so, I skip details while I am trying to stuff them to my computer.


How can I avoid this? I do not have the answer. I believe it is more than discipline. How I have discovered the problems is an easier question to answer. Step back and let someone else read it to provide the objective observer. The answer seems obvious but it is not necessarily as easy as it sounds either. Finding someone willing to read part of a book, much less the whole thing is a pretty big favor to ask.  Big isn't the right word, it's huge. Getting them to provide a minor amount of feedback- a monumental act of generosity. Fortunately, I have a couple of people who have helped in this area, this is a giant blessing. Fortunately for my wife, it's not her, she has the book almost memorized by now which may lead to therapy on its own merit. I cannot spend the better part of a year explaining a story and step back even a couple weeks and come at it objectively, I have tried- it doesn't work.



At this point, my expectations for perfection have taken away most of my "I'm going to write what I'm going to write" attitude and replaced it with something a little more dangerous- knowledge and experience. I will admit it is not a great deal of either attribute but taking everything as a learning opportunity adds to both. As with any creative work, I have to decide when it is as good as I can do at this moment. Hopefully, I could do better at any time in the future or I am not growing. This doesn't need to mean the best thing ever done, but I think it needs to mean the best I can do where I am right now. After time has passed I certainly hope I will have evolved more and my level of perfection will remain the same- I will need to do the best I possibly can. That's all I can do, my personal best and trust me here, that is not a very low bar.


My mom has a great line she has used ever since I can remember. It goes something like this- "when people offer you advice, just politely listen, thank them and go do whatever it was you were going to do." It is kind of funny and if you knew my mom you would think it's hilarious but it is a deeper thought and one worth thinking about.

Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks. But why bother, it's still an old dog. I very recently completed reading my second entire book on a tablet. Not a stone tablet, an electronic one. Big deal? For me it was. I have owned a Samsung tab for years and for certain things I really love it. Reading books has not been one of them (old dog). I still prefer paper but I had an ebook given to me. I really wanted to read it. There you go. I also recently got a Samsung tab e which is a huge improvement over the old one and I find myself using it for just about everything-ha, including reading. But wait there's more.



When I was in the endless editing of Firetok, I would print off chapters and even the whole book on computer paper. I would read the first paragraph or so to realize I had numerous problems, say a lot of bad words, edit and do it again. I wasted so much paper. I still contend doing a final couple of go throughs on paper is the way for me. I don't see that changing. Seeing and reading and comprehending and everything else- are very different on a screen than a piece of paper in my hand. It is even different from my monitor to my tablet. There is science to it and very smart people have concluded their conclusions. I am not one of them smart people but my conclusion is the same. It just works for me, let the scientists explain why ... but.

But what? Well, I thought I might share how I am doing it this time and what I have learned in the spirit of sharing my experience. I am fairly deep in the edits for the sequel to Firetok, Harbinger of Calamity. So deep, in fact, I am somewhere near the point of wondering if I did anything right or if I should be looking at wordless picture books. If you have written much, you know the spot I'm talking about. I have read the whole book numerous times front to back- editing and cursing all the way. When I got to the point that my eyes could no longer see mistakes, I uploaded the files to CreateSpace exactly as if I were going to publish. Which I am- but not yet. I put my cover prototype in, made up some mumbo jumbo bull crap for a temporary description, jump through their hoops and get to the publish part.



Here's the part I learned, you don't actually publish yet. Matter of fact they won't allow you to publish until you have proofed the book. Yeah, yeah, yeah any dope would know that. I didn't and remember all the paper and ink I wasted?

Part of the process allows you to proof via pdf which is handy. I can download the exact file and go through it again. I did, but just for looking at formatting, I didn't actually read it again at this point. When my confidence was really strong I uploaded the most recent pdf to CS (you can do this over and over- trust me) and ordered a paper proof. Why? Partially for the reasons I touched on, partially because I know the cover looks a lot different in print than it does on my screen. Go figure.

Guess what? You don't actually have to guess, I'll tell you. I had multi-numerous changes to make. Some I made before the proof even delivered. I should have known. I had the cover nearly completely redone too. Go figure some more.



So now I have made it through tablet reading therapy, how can I use the experience to my benefit? I use LibreOffice for my editing which has an export directly as pdf button. Super easy. Export it to my pdf file and open up my google books account. The same one I read Mind Games and Witches of Ashford Place on. But what I didn't know is that I can upload my own pdfs to my google books. La di da. Now I can proof my book in my tablet and when I realize on page one I have a mistake ... edit, reupload and blam. It's as easy as getting spam. It took me a couple times to perfect but now I can take the proof on the road, open it up from any device and keep going. I wish I figured this out before I ordered the paper proof. There have been days I upload a different version each day, depending on what changes I made. It has been a big improvement to my process. So what now? I have read it aloud a full time off the tablet, making changes along the way. What's next? More editing of course. Another read aloud and more cursing, a lot less wasted paper.

What I have learned is that I will do more read aloud before I even commit to the paper proof. I was not as close as I thought. The one downside is, I have not yet figured out how to make notes or highlight in the pdf proof- this would make the process immeasurably better. I still have to go back to the document to edit. What I forgot to mention is the paper proof is almost no dollars. It is way cheaper than printer ink and a box of paper that's going to get trashed in a fit of edit-rage and it is a chance to see the cover and overall layout, leaving me room for more changes.



Time for another round of read aloud, editing, cursing and gnashing of teeth. I'll keep you posted.

What about Christmas. It's the day after, time to get back to normal. Time to get back into that ridiculous week between holidays where nothing gets done. Everyone is hungover and patiently waiting for the next big one. New Year's eve.


The holidays are notorious for depression and I think I get it. There is so much build up. I'm not sure if the stores even put up Halloween decorations anymore and just go straight for the jugular- mistletoe, reindeer and holly.



Personally, Christmas is a benchmark as much as anything else. I am not talking about the spiritual aspect or the "true" meaning, that's up to you to decide, I am talking more about the point in time. I remember when I was young having problems with family members for who knows what reason now and Christmas kind of forced everyone together. It was the perfect time to make an effort toward amends because you were all going to be together anyhow. Whether it lasted or was genuine I can't say, doesn't really matter. Throwing a coin in the red bucket is genuine, isn't it? How many stories I have seen that start out that way. Everyone is coming home for Christmas and then things start to happen from there. Drama, comedy, tragedy, it's all there for the taking.



Christmas past. I remember picking up this less than expensive sparkly thing and writing a note about hoping next year things will be better. I think I bought the same one a couple of years in a row. Not trying to say things were bad but I was hoping for better. It didn't have anything to do with the “true” meaning of Christmas but it was my benchmark. The end of the year. Time to look around and realize indeed the year is over. What have I done? Where am I going? Who is in my life and who’s not?




What was that thing about the holidays and depression? Might be a good time to look around and connect with someone you haven't heard from in a while. I am not saying I am depressed, don't take it that way but I can understand it. People get so caught in the build up you can't help but get bummed out when it's over. Shit. We start this whole spending frenzy thing a month out right? Making plans, buying gifts, black Friday and beyond. The day finally comes around, people journey home and do that family thing I mentioned earlier. They try to be polite or nice. They think about being kind and generous. All the stuff you hear about around Christmas. Then blam it's over. Time to get back to normal. Pick up the wrapping paper, pull down the tree and watch everybody go back to their real lives. No wonder people get sad. There is a lot of happy going on here, the laws of nature demand an opposing force right? I'm not sure if that is even true but I understand it on the surface.
We can hope some of the good will stick for the balance of the year. I guess I can hope all of it sticks for the rest of the year. There is never too much goodwill or generosity. I am all for more positive things and being kind this time of year and the other eleven months too.