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We’ve come into the season of holidays; Thanksgiving gives way to Christmas and moves inexorably to New Years. For centuries this season has stood for blessings, fellowship, and unity; if not in actuality, at least on the surface.

This time around something has gone off the tracks. Everyone is edgier, ruder, more desperate. One could attribute this holiday syndrome as an ever-increasing out-pouring of the stress felt by countless millions of people who don’t know what the next year will bring economically, politically, or within the family.

The question is: Why has our population become seemingly unequipped to keep themselves under control?

Our forefathers for centuries lived with the knowledge that nothing in this world is certain. Life and their own common sense taught them to plan for those lean times, rely only on necessities, especially when luxuries cost so much more than most could pay. They lived with few clothes for each member of the family.

A father with more than two pairs of pants, one work shirt and one for Sunday, and who could give the same for each of his family, was a wealthy man by the standards of the time.

A mother who didn’t lose at least two children to stillbirth, illness or injury before they were five years old was truly blessed. Children who still had both birth parents to attend their weddings, complete with cake and a bride’s veil, could remember that for the rest of their lives.

If one owned a small cabin or house, with enough land to provide a kitchen garden that would produce enough food to put away for winter stores, wealth was clear. Size of the home didn’t matter. Everyone would have a place to sleep, warm and secure when cold and snow took over the outer territory. The living room/family room/kitchen, etc. occupied one space, all of which might have measured 15×20 feet. A loft was always necessary for sleeping nooks for the children.

When the world industrialized and cities became the working world for many, credit became common for those who always paid their bills on time. The 1929 Depression and subsequent lean years didn’t teach everyone the price of greed. People afterwards merely moved to different avenues for making money.

By the early 21^st Century we’ve become barbarians in subtle ways. Take the incidents these past couple of days across the country. People, so absorbed in their passion to buy the latest and greatest for the cheapest price available, have been willing to kill or maim others to get to a desired item first.

Headlines in the news: Woman pepper sprays others, injuring 20 people, to get to a xbox on sale. Shoppers, anxious to get into a store for first pickings, dismantle a door and trample to death a young woman standing ready to open the door at the appointed time. A man is shot in a store’s parking lot during a sale.

Question: Have we become barbarous murderers in the name of possessions? Or, has greed so possessed our people through constant consumerism propaganda that we’re desensitized to our own actions?

Incidents like the above are on the increase, and not just at this season. When will be grow out of this selfish adolescence and back into the adulthoo

Reviewed by Suzanne Lieurance

What was it like to be a pioneer? Author Pat McCarthy answers this question by giving young readers a detailed look at the daily life of pioneer children and adults in her new book Heading West: Life with the Pioneers.

This rich and compelling resource includes dozens of firsthand accounts from journals and autobiographies with several illustrations and photos on almost every page. The book is easy for children to read because it provides helpful sidebars and clear captions for all the photos and illustrations. Kids will love the 21 activities that include several easy recipes for foods the pioneers used to make; staples like cornbread and applebutter, as well as special treats like maple snow candy.

The book begins with a timeline of important events during this period and follows with clear explanations of these events and how they each contributed to the westward movement.

Kids will learn that although the life of a pioneer was often isolated and filled with many hardships, in many ways it was not so different from life today. There were regular routines, like school, chores, and church, and fun social events the whole family looked forward to.

This book is the perfect resource for the classroom, the school library, or for homeschooling parents.

Title: Heading West: Life with the Pioneers, 21 Activities
Author: Pat McCarthy
Publisher: Chicago Review Press (August 1, 2009)
Reading level: Ages 9-12
ISBN-10: 1556528094
ISBN-13: 978-1556528095