Present Presence Presents… By Whitney Farmer – Un Pop Culture

December 29, 2011 Whitney Farmer 21 Comments

Whitney runs a rock music venue on the beach in L.A.. She has an M.B.A, and enjoys shopping for groceries.

 

With Christmas shoppers still nursing bruises from retail wars, Analyst Brian Riley of TowerGroup issued a timely report this week stating that $41 billion in gift card credits have gone unused since 2005. These credits have been forfeited to the vendors or surrendered to governmental agencies.

 

These cards represent $$$, even more than a credit card. And for the fifth consecutive year, gift cards are consumers’ most desired-by and the most purchased-for gift. The problem is not that people don’t want them. The problem is that people lose them or forget that they have them.

 

It was for this reason that when my mother asked if I wanted to do a late night Star Wars marathon with me that I said an emphatic “YES!”. And when my vampire colleagues called me during peak business hours prior to 2:00 a.m. closing time, they went into voice mail.

I was frustrated when two months after our move I found misplaced gift passes to Disneyland that were intended for a stellar fan. The promise they represented of a day in the Happiest Place on Earth became only an ironic anecdote regarding the value of a filing system, humorous only to those who weren’t involved in what could have been a joyous giving and receiving moment.

 

Like gift cards, life and love and visions can be lost or forgotten. And the New Year anthem of ‘Out with the Old / In with the New’ is best when it is embraced with free will and not required because of an accident.

 

More than Springtime, the dead of Winter seems like the time to go through what we have and figure out what we want. Retailers, including my beloved long-lost and recently found best friend, do inventory now. Now is the last chance – unless your ground is already frozen – to prepare the soil for new growth. Pause for effect…

 

I’m pondering the design of an herb garden in our entry courtyard. There is never enough jasmine in this world, and it reaches to the heavens while being considerate of the size of its footprint. If I clear out debris and the dead, I will have the luxury of space that will accommodate the fragrant.

 

In grammar, two verb tenses carry the weight of the challenges of being human: The Present Perfect and the Imperfect Past.  The Present Perfect is used to communicate that something has happened in some unspecified time in the past, whether it be an accomplishment, an action or a change. Its negative conveys an event that was expected but didn’t occur. Either way, the status is sealed and there is clarity, the dreadly overused closure. The Imperfect Past is the form that haunts us. It contains all of our wouldas / couldas / shouldas. It displays what still might need our attention. It is the messy closet that beckons and the file that compels to be opened, the gold mine that needs to be mined or risk remaining just a hole in the dirt.

 

Hope that connects the Present with Destiny is contained in the Future tense. “Today, while there is hope, I will…”

 

In a dream last night, I opened an unsorted file and found piles of money. In my dream, it had been reimbursement for work-related expenses from an old contract that I had completed years ago, payback for something that I had needed that had cost me.  But I never would have been able to enjoy what was mine if I hadn’t opened the box and sorted, separating the worthless and finding the precious.

 

The New Year is just another day from a calendar that was created by a pope named Greg. Or it can be, like any other day that begins with waking up, a fresh start.  Excluding death and taxes and other uncontrollable circumstances, we can choose to mine for treasure in ways that we define. We can wrestle order from chaos. We can plant a garden. We can remember that we can spend our gift cards of time by listening to stories while having tea with treasures who are present in our lives, or letting the time of our lives expire by watching the Kardashians.

 

Today…

 

…I will finish my blog.

 

…I will spend one hour on my closet.

 

…I will go to prayer meeting and pray for Mark, Margaret, Stephanie, and Stephen in Kenya.

 

…I will watch ‘Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith’ with Mom.

 

*  *  * NEWS FLASH *  *  *

Cheetah the Chimp, co-star of ‘Tarzan’ films dating back to the 1930s with Johnny Weissmuller, died on December 24^th of kidney failure. Living at Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Florida, Cheetah was thought to be perhaps the oldest known chimpanzee on record. He was 80 years old at the time of his death.  Mia Farrow, daughter of frequent co-star Maureen O’Sullivan, tweeted: “My mom, Tarzan’s Jane, referred to Cheetah-the-Chimp as ‘that b@#&*%d’ – saying he bit her at every opportunity.”

 

Quote of the Blog, from C-3PO in ‘Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones’…”I’m programmed for etiquette, not destruction!”