Politically Correct

Now, I have friends of multiple religious persuasions and respect all of them. That being said, I love this poem I found today. Christmas is my favorite time of year, and that combined with a recent article in Times magazing that talked about helcopter parents and how we all hover over our children too much made this apropo for me this year. (I agree with the article. Parents are NUTS!)

‘Twas the night before Christmas and Santa’s a wreck…
How to live in a world that’s politically correct?
His workers no longer would answer to “Elves,”
“Vertically Challenged” they were calling themselves.


And labor conditions at the North Pole
Were alleged by the union to stifle the soul.
Four reindeer had vanished, without much propriety,
Released to the wilds by the Humane Society.


And equal employment had made it quite clear
That Santa had better not use just reindeer.
So Dancer and Donner, Comet and Cupid,
Were replaced with 4 pigs, and you know that looked stupid!


The runners had been removed from his sleigh;
The ruts were termed dangerous by the E.P.A.
And people had started to call for the cops
When they heard sled noises on their roof-tops.


Second-hand smoke from his pipe had his workers quite frightened.
His fur trimmed red suit was called “Unenlightened.”
And to show you the strangeness of life’s ebbs and flows,
Rudolf was suing over unauthorized use of his nose
And had gone on Geraldo, in front of the nation,
Demanding millions in over-due compensation.


So, half of the reindeer were gone; and his wife,
Who suddenly said she’d enough of this life,
Joined a self-help group, packed, and left in a whiz,
Demanding from now on her title was Ms.


And as for the gifts, why, he’d ne’er had a notion
That making a choice could cause so much commotion.
Nothing of leather, nothing of fur,
Which meant nothing for him. And nothing for her.


Nothing that might be construed to pollute.
Nothing to aim. Nothing to shoot.
Nothing that clamored or made lots of noise.
Nothing for just girls. Or just for the boys.


Nothing that claimed to be gender specific.
Nothing that’s warlike or non-pacific.
No candy or sweets…they were bad for the tooth.
Nothing that seemed to embellish a truth.


And fairy tales, while not yet forbidden,
Were like Ken and Barbie, better off hidden.
For they raised the hackles of those psychological
Who claimed the only good gift was one ecological.


No baseball, no football…someone could get hurt;
Besides, playing sports exposed kids to dirt.
Dolls were said to be sexist, and should be passe’;
And Nintendo would rot your entire brain away.


So Santa just stood there, disheveled, perplexed;
He just could not figure out what to do next.
He tried to be merry, tried to be gay,
But you’ve got to be careful with that word today.


His sack was quite empty, limp to the ground;
Nothing fully acceptable was to be found.
Something special was needed, a gift that he might
Give to all without angering the left or the right.


A gift that would satisfy, with no indecision,
Each group of people, every religion;
Every ethnicity, every hue,
Everyone, everywhere…even you.


So here is that gift, it’s price beyond worth…
“May you and your loved ones enjoy peace on earth.”


copyright Harvey Ehrlich, 1992
Notice: This poem is copyright 1992 by Harvey Ehrlich. It is free to distribute, without changes, as long as this notice remains intact.

Whether you celebrate Christmas or Yule or Hanukah, the lesson here can be seen.Think about it.

Merry Christmas!

Countdown to Christmas

It's December 21st, I think. I'm down to a tickle in my throat and being exhausted but getting better. We've finished wrapping our presents and if I didn't know we were moving, I'd be sad. Have to save the money for the move. Our van is acting up and we will be taking it in tomorrow. I'm sick of car trouble, that's for sure.

It needs to be working before we move and that's in less than two weeks! UGH. The week after Christmas is going to be hectic as my MIL and daughter will be here. I would prefer our van worked by then as we want to tour the missions here in San Antonio with them.

I'm fixing on finishing up a couple of stories, but between cleaning house after being sick, my appointment today and the van I'm ready to pull my hair out! I have a contest for Winds of Fire though so IT WILL BE DONE. I HAVE SPOKEN. **insert scary voice there. lmao

When I get all moved, I'm hoping to sponsor a contest and if it has arrived, I will be giving away a signed copy of a romantic comedy, and another book, sorry not signed of an historical romance. I haven't decided which will be first or the criteria yet, so I'll have to think about it. I just know I'm going to do the give away for all my LOYAL fans :)

Sick

So that earlier sickness I mentioned? Strep throat in the worst way. I've started to blog a few times since but couldn't sit up long enough to get through my email, buch less a posing of any lenght or quality. Although, with my high fever, it may have been interesting to see what I wrote!

I tried to work a bit, outlining a series, etc, but I didn't get very far. Did ask a few questions/comments and learn a few things but now real work got done.

I do believe that my short story may be turning into a novel so I'm going to get started now. Plus, outline the series better as my feverish brain only imagined it wrote things down. Of course, the way I felt, it may be written down in blood somewhere for all I know. I was in a real bad way. My kids alternated between taking full advantage of a mom who can't talk much less raise her voice (Yeah, quiet you in the peanut gallery)and looking pretty scared when they saw me. I was miserable and you could tell with barely a glance.

I am looking forward to Christmas. I did get a couple wrapped day before yesterday cuz I felt a little better, but I exhausted myself so did nothing yesterday. My son keeps asking to wrap a packing box, as he calls it, which is actually a wipies holder for the diaper bag :D I said when I'm done wrapping presents. Oh lordie, for a five year old its been an interminable wait. Finally, late yesterday, I told him if he asks again I was going to let Isaac (the baby) wrap it!

He looked at me in confusion and said, "But Isaac can't wrap!" and I said, "Exactly!" He gave me a look like I had lost my mind and fled to his room to ponder what I meant.

I'm tortuing my 16 yr old with it as he was with me when I bought his christmas present and he wrapped it himself and has spent the last two weeks bugging me to open it LOL I said NOPE. That's all you're getting. It's been funny. He's been very creative about it. Like, I could do the dishes faster if I could just use that ;;) I swear, it's been more fun than presents I've bought him in years LOL

I miss the easy title days

I miss the easy title days of NaNoWrimo. Maybe I'll use it anyway, unless I have something special to report LOl. I made my goal yesterday and had the resubmission done quickly and easily ;;) **snort NOT it took all day and the baby was good! It was just things like feeding him, reading and rereading a passage. (If I had to reread it, I rewrote it.) Getting caught up on all the blogs I follow and some more house cleaning, again figuratively and literally. It took most of the day for me, ending with laundry mat for three hours!

I'm gearing up to start the research for my next book(s) and loving the freedom at this stage. Hubby has finished finals so will probably beat him over the head to help with the WIPs awaiting his assistance!

I'm excited for this Christmas. I will probably harp on it a bit LOL I went cheesy and finally gave in to the temptation to buy the coke bottles shaped like ornaments. I have them under our fiberoptic tree LOL Wrapping presents for my daughter who will be here two days after to open them. I'm so excited.

Christmas

Today, I will skim my rough draft and jot down info I can research. I will be running short on actual word counts for awhile as I have beaucoup edits to do on all of my stories. Edits mean adding LOTS of words but it also means cutting LOTS of words. Typically, for every 15k in words, you could average my cut rate at 2.5k and addition rate of 4.5k+. I end up with only 2k more words, but there is a large portion of those words that are new!

I got a little bit of Christmas done last night. My husband surprised me and we got a little fake tree. It's very cute and works well in our little house here. Next year I will have a big one from Washington where we grow trees for fun. For now, I'm glad to have anything Christmas as I thought the only Christmas I was going to get was wrapping paper on the wall or something. Like I said, it's a good week:)

My husband held up manfully as I squealed halfway through the store when I found out we were getting an addition to the groceries. He had told me earlier, on that very day, that he wasn't romantic! Pshaw, I told him. You are one of the most romantic men when you choose to be. then he did that :) Christmas is my favorite time of year, full of hope and love and faith. With all that's going wrong in my life right now, Christmas is the perfect antidote.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas Season. I'm sure I'll post again on it. Like I said, favorite season :P