.KEYWORD ppeditorial1201
.FLYINGHEAD FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
.TITLE Be all you can be
.DEPT
.SUMMARY Normally, we at PalmPower devote our December issue to the choosing of gifts for the holidays, and thereby do our part to honor the link between commerce and celebration. But this year, we’ve decided to take a different approach from years past.
.AUTHOR David Gewirtz
Those of you who know me well know I’m not a religious man. In fact, on the few rare occasions when I’m required to put down my religion on some form or another, I write in "devout capitalist." It pretty much tells the story.
Yet capitalism is irrevocably intertwined with the holiday season. For many businesses, the bulk of their revenues are derived from the few months before Christmas. The linking of Christmas time (and other celebrations of the Winter Solstice, across cultures) to the giving of gifts goes back at least to 1804, when the New York Historical Society was founded with Nicholas as its patron saint, its members reviving the Dutch tradition of St. Nicholas as a gift-bringer.
Where there are gifts to be brought, there are gifts to be made and to be purchased. And therein was born the fundamental link between commerce and the secular Christmas celebration.
Normally, we at PalmPower devote our December issue to the choosing of gifts for the holidays, and thereby do our part to honor the link between commerce and celebration. We’re doing some of that anyway, in that we’re sending out our popular holiday gift ideas mailing in a few days, and we recently released the Ultimate Palm OS Device Buyer’s Guide, a compendium of Palm OS devices currently on the market.
But this year, we’ve decided to take a different approach from years past. We’ve all been through a lot these past months. Events have brought us closer together, challenged us, inspired us, and given us reason to look forward into our new millennium with wiser, more worldly, and sadly, somewhat wearier eyes.
The twelve months beginning in November 2000 and ending in November of 2001 have truly tested our mettle.
We began with an unprecedented transfer of power, noteworthy not just for the petty squabbles over bits of paper, but also for the fundamentally sound structure of a nation that can weather such a transfer without placing a single armed man on the streets. We end this year by placing armed men in the streets, in our airports, and in far off lands, notable not only for the horror of the events, but for the strength of character and innate civility of most of our people.
2001 has truly been quite a year. But now, as has always been the case for us, with a fundamental philosophy founded on the premise of enlightened self-interest, it is time to move on. In our culture, December marks the end before January’s new beginning.
We move on by returning to our capitalist ways, by buying things and selling things and consuming things. To those of us who are truly devout, this is as the world should be. For with an active commerce, we’re empowered. We’re empowered to buy food and shelter. And we’re also empowered to empower our representatives to protect us, to fight for us, and to avenge us. And so, it brings me great satisfaction to watch the wheels of commerce grind on, powering a great nation and a world that grows ever smaller in distance and greater in substance.
But we also move on by healing and growing, by reevaluating and reinventing, and by restoring and recreating.
And so, we’ve decided to devote this issue to healing and growing and reinventing. In fact, we’ve called this issue a special "Reinventing yourself for the new year" issue. In doing so, we bring you a number of fascinating articles.
The first, by our own Managing Editor Denise Amrich, is about Yoga and the Chakra system. The word Yoga, by the way, is derived from the Sanskit, meaning union or joining. Can you think of a better concept at this time? Denise is a Yoga master and she shows you how certain Palm OS products can be related to the body’s Chakras, or energy centers. It’s an article not to be missed.
Another article is my own. Both Denise and I recently attended a fascinating course on an obscurely named discipline called NLP, which stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming. NLP is a fascinating practice that can help you, almost literally, rewire some of your habits and limiting beliefs. It too is a topic ideally suited for this time of growth and rediscovery.
Of course, we have our usual crop of useful tips, techniques, and reviews, so no matter what your taste or interest, you’re sure to find something useful in this issue.
That about wraps it for now. Have a great holiday, be strong, and, to steal a great line from the recruiters, be all you can be. See you next year.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information about Palm computers, visit http://www.palm.com.
.H1 Easy, flexible article reprints
ZATZ now offers a quick, easy, flexible and inexpensive way to use article reprints in your marketing and promotion efforts. You can now get article reprints for a one-time fee of only $200. For details, visit http://mediakit.zatz.com/reprints.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@@.ee6fb6a
