Yo Rudolf!

So I am sitting on my front porch recently. The walls protecting me from the elements are framed windows. The ADT camera is on and all of our sensors are working. I am sure not to do anything embarrassing for fear of being filmed and arrested. Just minding my own business and looking out the window at the replica Christmas tree not more than 15 feet away. Looks cool, lots of colors, I like psychedelic and am a product of the 60's. You get it. 

I thought about the movie Elf, with Will Ferrell, having just watched it on TV by myself. My wife 3shad left me home alone to go caucus with her friends at a bar to decide, together, if they would continue on with the collection of knuckleheads they were married to and to strategize on how to get back at the retailers who screwed them on Black Friday.

I look out at the tree and notice there is a deer standing right next to it.

Our deer population in this section of New Jersey is heavy. They will stand in your yard, motionless, in the middle of a bright shiny day and enjoy a feast of the flowers you worked so hard to grow. Unfortunately, it is because they are starving.

The only thing worse is the Rut season. Imagine the pain and confusion of feeling the extreme desire to mate while you endure extreme hunger simultaneously. You're so crazed you run in front of cars... for a couple of months...every year.

Bad combination.

So I look at the deer, I see she is looking right back at me. Eye to eye contact. I think, there are no flowers to eat, just a fake tree that looks like it should have been on the "magic bus" in the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (how many of you remember this book?).

The deer then looks at the tree, so I look at the tree. 

Again this is like 15 feet away. 

The deer then looks at me as I had turned to look at her because I thought this whole thing was getting weird. I am now looking back at her.

So I think to myself "if this thing’s nose turns red I am going to have to be admitted somewhere."

I think about how, as kids, my beautiful and wonderful sister Karen and I believed.  I feel sad she is at the great gig in the sky way too early.

I look back at the deer, she is still standing there. 

I can hear the paws of our dog, Dash, tapping on the marble as he makes his way through the foyer to join me on the porch. I looked at him and reached out to touch him on the nose. 

I looked back outside and the deer was gone. I could feel tingling and the hair standing up on the back of my neck.

Ten thousand years of evolution does that for a reason. 

Man, I don't know what any of this means short of believing our relationships with each other matter, in business and in life. How we interact with each other in all forms and with the planet is a big deal.

Think about it.

Whatever you're celebrating enjoy the season and have a Very Merry Christmas!

My Best,