The dam is cracked and leaking. The results of these cracks: Rising healthcare and criminal justice costs due to caring for people with advanced illness, homelessness, broken families, increasing severity of disease, broken lives.

Return to a simple, straightforward lifestyle. Turn off technology and head down to the park for a walk. Back away form the flurry of peer interactions, and spend time with family instead. Turn off the TV and the smart phone, and just hang out in the house, play a board game or read a book. Get back to basics for a while.

Name calling, personal attacks, and outright abuse replaced the gratitude lists of previous years.

The kids are watching. They are listening. They are sitting within earshot overhearing adult conversations.