Today I start a temporary, seasonal job at the mall. For the first time in over thirteen years I'll have a boss! I've never worked retail before, and quite frankly I have always dreaded the thought of the mall in the weeks leading up to Christmas, but I must confess that I'm excited. It pays poorly (I make more in one hour singing than I do in three hours at the store) but it's a reason to get dressed and out of the house.
The tree is half-decorated, Son Number One's birthday is tomorrow and I haven't even mailed a card (well, we are picking him up on Wednesday, so it's not ALL that horrible), and the rest of the house looks as though a grenade has been lobbed through an open window. I'm good with that. I have barely started shopping and have zero ideas of what to buy. I have given no one a list of what I want because I don't want anything, and I'm picking up our Christmas cards today. But as they say in The Grinch, "It comes without wrapping, it comes without bows..."
Meanwhile, my heart is with every teacher, every school child who has to enter a classroom this morning, and who will probably never feel safe again. Ultimately none of us is ever really safe anyway, of course. It's an illusion. We are no more in danger today than we were on Thursday, but we've been robbed of our selective vision that makes the world "workable". Any day, any hour, could be our last, but if we dwell on that we will never experience joy while we're here. We will never get anything done, never move forward. So patch up the bubble of protection and get out there. But don't forget to pray for peace, to be thankful for today and for your children, and to let the people in Washington know that it's time for them to do something about guns. Now.
The tree is half-decorated, Son Number One's birthday is tomorrow and I haven't even mailed a card (well, we are picking him up on Wednesday, so it's not ALL that horrible), and the rest of the house looks as though a grenade has been lobbed through an open window. I'm good with that. I have barely started shopping and have zero ideas of what to buy. I have given no one a list of what I want because I don't want anything, and I'm picking up our Christmas cards today. But as they say in The Grinch, "It comes without wrapping, it comes without bows..."
Meanwhile, my heart is with every teacher, every school child who has to enter a classroom this morning, and who will probably never feel safe again. Ultimately none of us is ever really safe anyway, of course. It's an illusion. We are no more in danger today than we were on Thursday, but we've been robbed of our selective vision that makes the world "workable". Any day, any hour, could be our last, but if we dwell on that we will never experience joy while we're here. We will never get anything done, never move forward. So patch up the bubble of protection and get out there. But don't forget to pray for peace, to be thankful for today and for your children, and to let the people in Washington know that it's time for them to do something about guns. Now.
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