Hard hospitality

Random thoughts after reading the Tribune this morning…

On page 2 of main section there’s an article about a woman and her campaign to get people in Boston to smile more. Not a bad idea. Hospitality in action.

On page 3 there’s an article about people in Houston who are weary of having New Orleans Katrina evacuees in their city. Strain on the city budgets, schools, hospitals, etc. A reminder that true hospitality goes beyond smiling (though a grin is certainly a start). Hospitality is hard, hard work and can often force sacrifice.

Finally, there was a blurb after the article about the president’s attempts to lower gas prices about how one can save on gas. I skipped over it at first assuming I’d know the answers. But I went back and was surpised by the omission of a couple things. There was advice about going the speed limit, not having excess weight in the trunk, etc. But some obvious ones were missing like, oh, I don’t know, maybe riding a bike or walking once in a while, carpooling or taking mass transit, you know, actually being in close proximity with people. The fact that some find that difficult to do (even me, sometimes) is even more painful, I think, than paying $3 per gallon.