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The holidays are a very dangerous time for self-esteem.  The last thing we need to do is measure self-worth based on gifts. There are hundreds of opportunities now to turn away from activities that involve comparing ourselves to others. You only need to look within yourself to know if you are doing the right things. Don’t allow someone else to set your priorities for you. If you hate to do outside lights, get a spotlight and devote yourself to visiting the animal shelter if that’s what you want. It’s better to have a happy house than a tension-filled one that wears 10,000 lights. This season, more than all the others, should encourage you to value yourself because you are already valued…there is already a reason you’re here.

There are two phone conversations I’m trying not to listen to–difficult because I can hear every word. These people think they are having a private chat but the rest of us know that the girl in row five is incensed with her boyfriend and the man a few seats up  has, for reasons we can only guess,  found it necessary to state over and over that he is a very busy person.

Something has been lost with the advent of this media-mad world. It is a sense of delicacy. I just feel funny around someone who would have such a private conversation in such a public place. In fact, it is in dreadfully, exceedingly enormously bad taste. I am sure these are good people. One of them may even help me with my big, overstuffed bags. But please, self-importance is not the same as self-worth. The first is loud and embarrassing; the second is quiet and dignified.