What’s really worthwhile? What’s the point of all this effort and energy we expend day in and day out? Where’s the goal line? Or, to put the question another way: What’s the purpose in our lives?

It’s been six years since I completed my 57th and final year as a teacher and I’ll be honest with you, in many ways I am glad that I am not having to face the classroom (and out of classroom) challenges that teachers are facing in this topsy-turvy year of the COVID and the situations it creates.

The nation’s EMS system is facing a crippling workforce shortage, a long-term problem that has been building for more than a decade. It threatens to undermine our emergency 9-1-1 infrastructure and deserves urgent attention by the Congress.

Hi Bill, Dayna, I saw the picture in the paper of dad with the 1958 HHS Girls basketball team he coached. Thanks so much. I think that was his first year in Holdenville from Yeager. Anyway, he’s 96 and hanging in there. His memory is not what it used to be, but he still remembers Holdenville.

Whenever I heard the song “I’ll be home for Christmas” I think of my Mom and how she would always get melancholy when the song played. Mom didn’t live near her parents and, after she married, never got to spend Christmas with them. So while I love the song it always makes me feel a little sad.

“A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn…” O Holy Night, a Christmas hymn Are you feeling weary? Out of hope? We all experience times like this but it seems the whole world is weary these days.

A New Place. A New Christmas.

City Council blocks another nomination Is it Procedure or Politics that concerns them? A councilman resigns and an extremely wellqualified candidate, a graduate of HHS and deep roots in our city asks her councilmember to be considered for the open position.

Art exploration for the young and young at heart What does the Thanksgiving holiday bring to mind? If you said family, roast turkey, cranberry sauce, or pumpkin pie, that would likely strike a chord in the minds of most Americans.

When my Mom was alive my children would often quiz her about mistakes I made when I was their age. “Tell us about some of the bad stuff dad did when he was a kid” they’d ask. Mom usually tilted her head, smiled and said, “He really never did anything wrong. He was always a good boy.”