Replace competition with cooperation
The holidays are a time for playing games with our families and friends. Looking back at 2022, Wordle was the most prominent online puzzle game. Although it is a solitary game, one can always compare results with others to see who has bragging rights for the day.
To make things more interesting, sometimes a parent will handicap themselves against a younger child. According to Wikipedia, “Handicapping, in sport and games, is the practice of assigning advantage through scoring compensation or other advantage given to different contestants to equalize the chances of winning.” This handicapping is not changing the game rules, per se, but arbitrarily constraining one’s behavior for a purpose beyond winning and losing.
Sometimes game rules are changed for a higher purpose; sometimes whimsically. Working against the grain of the game can make the experience more interesting and even more fun. For example, I personally enjoy picking Wordle “starting words” that disadvantage me in terms of number of attempts, but would be really cool if they are the winning words.
Making arbitrary, radical decisions can be a thrill, reminiscent of the famous TV sitcom “Seinfeld” episode where Kramer attempted to drive as far as possible with the gas available during a test drive. Kramer was exhilarated, but soon had to walk to get help.
There is a similar concept applicable during the winter holiday season. As life becomes less typical and less hectic, we can replace our competitive stance with cooperative and caring perspectives such as sharing, grace, mercy, humility and kindness.
These traits are found in every culture and country but, for me, find particular resonance in the story of the birth of Christ. So here’s wishing holiday joy and peace to Morgantown and surrounding areas, and, indeed, everyone.
Steven Knudsen
Morgantown
Don’t exclude spouses from sexual abuse laws
In the upcoming 2023 legislative session, an effort will be made to give married persons the same legal protection in a sexual abuse situation that unmarried people already have.
While not a topic that is discussed often, it is shocking that being married gives a spouse less legal protection after being a victim of certain forced sexual contact to which they did not consent.
Our criminal laws distinguish between sexual assault and sexual abuse.
A spouse committing sexual assault against the other spouse can be prosecuted for that, but when a spouse commits sexual abuse against the other, it is not currently against West Virginia law.
So married individuals have legal protection against being sexually abused by a stranger or non-spouse. The opposite is true when the victim’s spouse commits the same abusive acts without consent.
Let your legislators know how inappropriate and unacceptable this situation is. The ability to prosecute the perpetrator of such harmful acts should not be based on the marital status of the victim.
Deb Miller
Reedsville
Thank you, Charlie Rose and Mountain Air LLC
On the night of Dec. 23, around 10:30 p.m., our furnace was blowing cold air. — on the coldest night of the year. I called Charlie and he said he would come over to check our furnace. He had been on service calls all day and night.
Within 20 minutes, he arrived. He checked the furnace, found a problem and we had heat. He told me to call him after 6 a.m. on Christmas Eve morning and let him know if there were any problems.
I called him Christmas Eve morning and told him we were losing heat. He said he thought it was a switch, and he would check his shop to see if he had the switches. He called me later to tell me he had the switches and that he had 10 more service calls and would be over later to replace the switches.
About two hours later, Charlie brought the switches, replaced them and the furnace was fixed and we had heat.
One of my dear friends called and said her mother and dad’s furnace was out. I called Charlie, texted him the information and he fixed their furnace.
Charlie is very dedicated to his job and loves to help out.
Thank you, Charlie, for your quick actions and getting us heat. We sincerely appreciate your help.
May God always bless you and your family and bring you peace, happiness and good health.
Carol Ann Miller
Morgantown
‘In this new year, let’s look to what unites us’
With the new year comes new opportunities and new challenges. The last year, indeed the last three years, have been an unending line of sometimes unbearable challenges, whether it’s been COVID, inflation, supply chain or just keeping house and family together. We have managed to come through them together.
In this new year, let’s look to what unites us and pulls us together rather than what tears us apart. Too many people in this world enjoy the personal power of conflict. When we encourage those few among us to pit the majority of us against each other, we allow conflict to rule us. There are very few things that require us to damage the property of the people around us, and of those few things that do, almost none of them occur in this country.
If we as a community allow those from within or from outside our home to come in and damage property and lives, then we become prisoners of our own apathy and laziness and deserve to live in fear. Only when we stand up and use our constitutional rights and privileges as citizens of the United States of America do we take the next step forward to true freedom.
So, in the coming New Year, may we all be healthy and live wise lives. May we not cower in our homes but instead get out say ‘no’ to those among us who would take away our livelihoods, damage and poison our children and neighbors and destroy our way of life.
If we wish to maintain and grow our republic and not wake one day to our constitutional rights gone, then we cannot be sheep. We must say as a community, state and country that anarchy cannot have a foothold here.
In 2023, defend your rights and your republic with zeal because being a zealot in defense of liberty is not a sin, but being apathetic in the cause of freedom surely is.
Andrew Price
Core
