Today I put all the presents under the Xmas tree. We have quite a few for the girls, plus tons that their grandparents and aunts/uncles sent for them. Too many presents if you ask me, but this is a consumerist culture and for this one time a year, I’m the epitome of a consumer. What can I say? I just love seeing boxes under the tree.
I was much more restrained in my presents for everyone else – I’m getting tired of adult presents. Kids presents are much more fun, plus they remind me of a time when I wanted to play. And of course, when I give presents to my kids I’m actually giving them to my child self. The real kids – or rather the older kid – I expect to be quite ungrateful and upset about what I got her, whatever it is. I used to be the same way so I can’t fault her.
Anyway, for three more days I get to enjoy my tree and the myriad of presents underneath them. Of course, I have to keep the younger one away from it (shoo!) but it’s worth it.
Category: My World (Page 10 of 15)
Xmas is not even here, and I’ve already received quite a few presents from my mother (and there are a lot wrapped up). Here they are, so I can remember and thank her!
I hope everybody will have a happy Thanksgiving, though the folly of that wish is painfully clear to me. We all know what a horrible place for so many millions of people this world is, so I won’t bother reminding you, specially when what we can do about it is of so limited use.
BUT, if you do want to do something this Thanksgiving, alleviate a little the guilt of having such a wonderful bounty (if you are reading this, you do) when others live in, well, subhuman conditions if at all, the Save Darfur coalition has an action for you. Just simply explain to your guests a little bit about the situation in Darfur (you can learn all about it on their website), and then asks your guests to sign a letter petitioning the UN Secretary General and President Bush to do some basic actions to stop/prevent the genocide from continuing. You can sign the letter online at http://action.savedarfur.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=5997
You can download a printable version of the petition here
Sometimes I have doubts. Perhaps not often. I feel that what I’m doing is meaningless, that I’m wasting my life behind a computer when I could be doing… what? I haven’t come up with a better answer. But I want to do something that uses my intellectual powers more, that is not just rote, that is not the same damn thing that I’ve been doing for a decade. But then I get recognition from the outside and poof, for another while, at least, everything is OK.
Yesterday I received a message from a person I didn’t know, who told me I was the only person he respected in the world and thanked me for my work. That can’t be true, of course, but it massaged my ego in all the right places. What I do, does matter – even if it’s rote.
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