| Prior Date | Back to Archive Index | Next Date |
|
WITandWISDOM(tm) - December 21, 1999 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: "Those who dance appear insane to those who cannot hear the music." -Mark Kleiman (Tom Ervin via E-zine: HeartWarming Mailto:heartwarming-subscribe@onelist.com) ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: It's just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked Through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so. It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas - oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it - overspending. . . the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma - the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't think of anything else. Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way. Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended; and shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford. Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn't acknowledge defeat. Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, "I wish just one of them could have won," he said. "They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them." Mike loved kids - all kids - and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That's when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition - one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on. The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents. As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn't end there. You see, we lost Mike last year due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning, it was joined by three more. Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope. Mike's spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us. May we all remember Christ, who is the reason for the season, and the true Christmas spirit this year and always. - THE TRADITION, Author unknown (George Haig, The Howells, Sharon Hamel, Tom Crawford, Don Henry, Dave Aufrance) ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: WHAT NOT TO GET YOUR DOG FOR CHRISTMAS A CD of cats meowing popular Christmas songs. A chew toy shaped like a shoe which he is immediately going to confuse with the right sneaker of your favorite pair. Central A/C for his Dogloo when you're still using individual wall units that are barely up to cooling a small close-size area in your house. Anything Garfield. A remote control for the refrigerator door. A knitted pink sweater that makes your macho Doberman look like a poodle. Doggie antlers when your near-sighted hunting relatives will be spending the holidays with you. A doggie door between you and the suspicious butcher next door. His own Petsmart credit card. (E-zine: FAST EDDIE'S FUNNIES http://recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=154533 ) ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: The parson had been disturbed by a person who was a fast reader. "We shall now read the Twenty-third Psalm in unison," he announced. "Will the lady who is always by 'the still waters' while the rest of us are in 'green pastures,' please wait a minute until we catch up?" (Web Site: BibleNet http://www.biblenet.net/ ) ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: How long are your blood vessels? . . . If you could stretch out all of a human's blood vessels, they would be more than long enough to go around the world twice. There are over 62,000 miles (99,800 kilometers) of veins, arteries, and capillaries inside of each of us. The thickest are as thick as a forefinger, while the thinnest, which are called capillaries, are as thin as a hair. By far the largest part of the total length is the length of the capillaries. Arteries (which carry blood away from the heart) and veins (which carry blood back to the heart) are not just simple tubes. Their walls are lined with muscles that squeeze the blood inside, providing part of the blood pressure (the rest is provided by the heart). Interactive diagram of an artery and a vein: http://www.innerbody.com/image/c1.html The physics of blood pressure: http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/ph128/3a.html (E-zine: THE LEARNING KINGDOM http://www.tlk-lists.com/join/ ) |