Less means more on Christmas

By Jeff Trull

Christmas is the favorite time of the year for many Americans. It’s the time when families come together to celebrate and enjoy the season. We become engrossed in the holiday with decorating, songs and movies. A large part of the holiday also hinges on gift giving. People go crazy to find the perfect gift no matter how expensive it may be. Parents shell out cash to buy toys, clothes, and the latest and greatest gadgets. Collectively, Americans spend billions on Christmas gifts. This can mean hundreds or thousands spent by each family. While it’s the season for giving, giving should not lead to excessive spending.

If you don’t believe me that American’s spending habits are out of control on the holidays, just look at the shopping trends. I doubt anyone went this entire Thanksgiving break without hearing the words “Black Friday.” This is traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year. Retailers do all they can to lure customers to their stores with big sales. Stores open their doors at 5 a.m. or even earlier. Determined shoppers line up outside stores in the freezing cold for hours, waiting for stores to open. I’ve even done it myself. Three years ago I needed a new laptop. I woke up at five a.m. and made my way over to CompUSA. When the doors opened at six, there was a frenzy inside the store. People ran everywhere, grabbing everything on their shopping list as quickly as they could. I did end up getting a laptop that day, saving me about $300. Still, that one experience was enough for me, and I haven’t shopped on Black Friday since.

It seems every year that more and more money is spent on gifts. The value of the gifts I receive from aunts, uncles, and grandparents keeps increasing. Everyone feels as though they have to match amounts spent by other families so they aren’t being cheap. While it is nice to receive gifts from family members, I do feel guilty sometimes because I know how much my own parents and others are spending.

There are several ways that spending could be decreased. At the very least, a maximum price on gifts could be set ahead of time. Instead of spending $50 on every single person, why not agree to cut that in half? If everyone in the family agrees, no one will have to worry about feeling cheap. My family has taken a different approach. We’ve agreed to try a “Secret Santa” swap this year. To do this, everyone drew one name out of a hat. Everyone is responsible for buying a gift for that one family member, and we’ve limited the price to $50. This makes things interesting, since you don’t know from whom you are getting a gift, and you only have to buy a gift for one other person. This detracts from the frustration of finding the perfect gift for everyone, and gives more time to find a nice gift for one person.

The Center for a New American Dream offers a printable pamphlet on their website, newdream.org, that gives some great ideas like these on how to cut down on costs and waste for the holidays. New American Dream estimates that “70 percent of Americans would welcome less emphasis on gift giving and spending,” according to a recent survey.

Chances are that if you feel this way, others in your family may agree with you as well. New American Dream suggests simple gift ideas. Some examples include “gifts of time,” where the giver promises to spend time with the recipient or do things like wash their car. Homemade gifts such as fresh baked cookies or photo albums are great ways to spend less. There are even ideas that don’t require any money to be spent at all, such as a “re-gift swap” where gifts from past holidays that were never used can be exchanged among friends. Doing things such as these reduces waste from buying new items in new packaging and throwing them away as well. Finally, money can be given to charity instead of receiving gifts. This is a great way to give money to a charity of your choice.

All of these ideas are about spending less money, which is something college students all think about. I’ve already heard complaints from other students who can’t afford presents for everyone in their families. Utilizing these ideas will surely cut down on holiday costs.

I know some of these ideas may be a tough sell, especially to families that have been giving gifts for a long time and will resist the change. But Christmas should not revolve around gift giving. It should be about enjoying time with family, not worrying about finding gifts and spending a lot of money.

College Now loses a student

By Knottia Carrigan

I recently wrote about a program here at UMass Dartmouth called College Now. Students enrolled in the program, including myself, were accepted into our school through the program. College Now helps students by offering tutoring for various subjects and other academic assistance that we need. This brings me to a question: if the program has all these advantages and benefits, why did we lose a student?

My intention is not to make people get the impression that just because one student drops out that the program isn’t useful. As a member of the College Now program, I am upset and confused. I knew this young woman and went to high school with her. That’s how I know it wasn’t easy for her to get to where she was. But why didn’t she stop and ask herself, “I made it this far, is it really worth throwing everything away?”

I’ve seen too many people destroyed in the process. People who I have grown up and went to high school with ended up dropping out of school at a very young age. They figured school wasn’t for them. They didn’t feel the need to at least try and give it their all, but instead gave up. Now they aren’t doing anything positive with their lives. What’s the outcome? None of it makes sense to me.

While I don’t know why this girl dropped out, is there anything we should change or do differently in the program? What can we do that will make students want to go to class everyday? I know the staff wants to be able to say, “Those students graduated, and they came through College Now.” I know many students question themselves about dropping out. While I know some students will always drop out, I still wonder why. I know people are wondering why I care. I care because we are three months into school and College Now students have grown to love and appreciate one another. We are all family.

I don’t know why students drop out of school. Maybe it could be a money situation, or that a student feels discouraged that he/she isn’t going to make it. Personally, I don’t think there is a good enough reason to drop out of college. College is a major accomplishment. Why give it all up?

One piece of advice to the students of College Now: make something of yourself while you’re here. Make your friends and family proud because some didn’t think you would be where you are today. You proved them wrong, but now you have to finish your journey. It’s all up to you. I just hope you all make the right decision in the end.

INKLINGS

‘Cool Hand Luke’ and the semester’s end

By Allison Reitz

It’s difficult to come back to school for a mere three weeks of classes and be motivated to do anything but fall into a turkey-induced coma. For example, it is only 5 p.m. as I write this, and I’m finding it hard to concentrate on anything other than my intense desire to curl up under the covers and take a nap.

From the sounds of things, most of my friends feel the same way. They grumble about work to be done and lament a lack of motivation to actually get that work done. They say things like, “It’s barely worth coming back for only three more weeks....” It’s not likely that we’ve all eaten the same apathy-laced turkey, so what’s going on here?

Perhaps we’re all just feeling a little betrayed. We have tasted the freedom of days with nothing to do but eat and take hour-long naps in the late afternoon. And now the university is asking us to throw on the shackles of the semester again...? Oh, UMass Dartmouth, how could you do this to us?!

It’s an unbelievably cruel trick to give students a break only to expect them to come back prepared to work hard for only three more weeks. What a bait-and-switch. Just as we think we’ve signed up for a whole month of holiday celebrations and lazy adventures with friends — BAM! Back on campus. Maybe I’m the only one, but I was almost fooled into thinking that this was it — no more classes, no more work.... Well, not until late January, anyway.

But who am I to complain about having a few days off from school? The Thanksgiving break gave me something to look forward to when work started bogging me down in early November, and I certainly appreciated my almost week-long respite from the daily grind. Then again, now that I’m in this post-Thanksgiving stretch, it’s hard to view the break as anything more than a big tease — an alluring glimpse at what’s to come after final exams, which seems an interminable three weeks away.

Part of me wants to rebel. You know, pull a Cool Hand Luke and run towards the border (of campus) and the seemingly unattainable freedom that waits beyond. Forget classes! Forget all the obligations of my thesis work! I’ll be yelling over my shoulder, “I’m shakin’ the tree, Boss,” while scampering off into the sunset.... I can see it now, and it’s absolutely glorious.

Of course, another much larger part of me wants to come out alive on the other side of this semester — literally, of course, and figuratively in terms of my good standing as a student at this institution. The reality of this situation is that I kind of need to graduate in the spring without being indebted to the university and, in order to do that, I’ll need to pass all my classes this semester.

So forget what I said about wanting to be a female Cool Hand Luke. I guess I’ve actually resigned myself to being a model student for another three weeks, though that’s not where my heart lies. (I like to imagine that my heart lies in a big punch bowl filled with eggnog and garnished with evergreen boughs and colored lights.)

But, big tease or not, we’ve all still got assignments to complete (and miles to go before we sleep, or something like that). Sure, we may have been tricked into a false sense of security, but what’s three more weeks?

If we can all forgive UMass Dartmouth for getting our hopes up only to crush them under the weight of a thousand textbooks, we’ll probably be better off in the long run. So I’ll do my work; you do yours. After all, there’s no shame in serving the time we have left without trying to make a break for it — though I’m sure Luke would disagree.

Allison Reitz is editor-in-chief of The Torch. She has seen “Cool Hand Luke” five times and cheered for Luke each and every time. You can send your questions, comments, concerns and movie quotes to her at u_areitz@umassd.edu.

SOUL SIGHTINGS

Upcoming Festival of Lights

Hanukkah, December 1 through 12 this year, celebrates the rededication of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BCE. Although it is a late addition to the Jewish liturgical calendar, the eight-day festival of Hanukkah has become a beloved and joyous holiday. It is also known as the Festival of Lights and always takes place during the time of year when the days are the shortest in the northern hemisphere.

Hanukkah is celebrated because the Jews of Judea rose up in revolt against the oppression of King Antiochus IV. Judah the Maccabee, the leader of the revolt, and his followers were able to recapture the Temple in Jerusalem, which had been turned into a pagan shrine. They cleansed it and rededicated it. Much later, rabbinic tradition, uncomfortable with the military aspects of the holiday’s origins and very aware of the potential dangers of revolt against the Roman Empire, ascribes the length of the festival to a miraculous cruse of oil that burned for eight days.

Much of the activity of Hanukkah takes place at home. Central to the holiday is the lighting of the Hanukkiah, an eight-branched candelabrum to which one candle is added on each night of the holiday until it is ablaze with light on the eighth night. The most popular foods are latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (jelly donuts). Both foods are traditional for the holiday because they are made with oil.

The Maccabee victory can be seen as Jewish resistance to homogenization. Perhaps it can be an inspiration about the importance of religious pluralism for everybody. Forced conformity can lead to repression and to cruelty.

For sources and more information about Hanukkah, please see myjewishlearning.com or contact the Center for Jewish Culture.

Director,
Center for Jewish Culture
Rabbi Jacqueline Romm Satlow

Help others: Be a mentor

I really believe everybody needs a mentor. I have enjoyed several in my life. I have a friend now who is about 20 years older than me. He told me over coffee today, “If you announce in advance what your upcoming sermons are going to cover, it makes you predictable and people may decide in advance your subject isn’t relevant to them.” In other words, “Yada yada yada…”  

Having just announced my sermons for the next month, I thought about that. I was a little embarrassed. But the fellow, something of a mentor to me, didn’t say it to embarrass me but to instead help me. That’s a good mentoring principle. As we seek to grow, we rarely need scolding so much as we need encouragement. A good mentor does see our weaknesses. But he or she isn’t commissioned to belittle us. 

Today, I ran into a grad student in the Underground Café who works on campus for a professor. She was in tears and said her professor had been mean to her and that she didn’t feel like she is doing well. I asked her if she works hard and does her best. She said that she does. So I tried to encourage her, but clearly she needs a mentor.

Many years ago in Texas I cleaned swimming pools while in graduate school. They were large, commercial pools, making them hard to keep clean. My boss at the time (a guy named Clark), also a minister and a seminary student, was a great mentor. I made many mistakes, got frustrated, and probably WAS a frustration to Clark more than once. But he was steady-handed, protective, and a good instructor. To this day I think he was the best boss I ever had because he was more than a boss; he took the time and the effort to become a mentor. 

An ancient Christian saying goes, “It is enough for the disciple that he become as his teacher.” Who can YOU mentor?  To whom can you carefully pass on the lessons you have learned? Even if you are a freshman, with whom can you share the lessons you’ve learned so far? There are plenty of candidates.   

Rev. Neil C. Damgaard
Protestant Chaplain