@HomewithDean - Homily 11/06

Yesterday we were down at Ventura Harbor to support a dear friend at an event she was hosting. Part of the day’s activities included taking a one hour narrated harbor cruise which, no matter how many times you’ve done it before, is always a relaxing and fun treat. It’s just fun to get out in a boat on the glassy smooth protected water, listen to interesting harbor facts, a few dad jokes and bad puns as the tour guide keeps things interesting, and also cruise by big expensive boats and even more expensive waterfront houses. I suppose the attraction of staring at rich people’s stuff is all about dreaming of what it might be like to own a great big house, or two, and a great big boat, and imagining how exciting it would be if we were on the inside of that life, looking out our windows at the longing faces on the harbor cruise.<br /><br />So as we glided by one of these big homes with its requisite big boat, it was in that spirit of—let’s call it wistful envy—that our tour guide made this comment …<br /><br />“During the Holidays I do this tour at night when all these homes are lit up with twinkly lights. It’s beautiful. But the other thing is, at night you can see in those windows when these people are home and you can see what they’re doing. And you know what almost all of them are doing? Watching the idiot box! I mean, here you have this multimillion waterfront dollar home with a multimillion dollar boat parked right outside, and most nights most of these folks are doing what I do every night in my little house 23 miles inland from here!”<br /><br />You could tell by the tone in his voice, he was incredulous, almost outright offended, at the thought of people wasting that wealth by doing normal things. Well, welcome to reality. You know the phrase, “the best things in life are free”? Guess what, it’s pretty much true. I remember when Tina and I were first getting started, finances were extremely tight. There were many, many, many days when a splurge would be getting a coffee out a coffee house instead of making it