Year-End Parody Time
This year’s victim is Rankin-Bass as we visit the Island of Misfit Years. Enjoy!
Why bother to be thankful?
Thursday is Thanksgiving in the United States, but there doesn’t seem to be much reason to be thankful. The economy continues to limp along with no relief in sight. Congress appears to have failed in its efforts to end the budget impasse. Economies and governments are imploding throughout Europe. Our nation seems to be divided among the 1%, 99%, 53%, or whatever percentage you choose. It’s little wonder that we want to forego the whole calorie-laden holiday and go straight to the Black Friday sales.
I like to look at things differently.
Consider the Norman Rockwell painting to the left. It is the often parodied and sometimes ridiculed image of a perfect family Thanksgiving. A giant turkey with all the fixings, the best china and silverware, and family members chatting and — even more remarkably — getting along.
Now, consider when the painting was made — 1943. Read more »
Get Bliss for Free!
What matters most
I was cleaning out some old files from my home office. Some of them were my personal files from a previous employer. It was a company where things had gone well for me for many years, and then I was assigned to another manager who was a source of conflict.
Even though I left the company years ago, and I’ve been successful with my current employer, the scars from leaving that job have never completely healed. Going through those old papers brought back bitter memories.
I was going through a folder from a trade show in Seattle five months before I left the company when I found the picture to the left. It was a picture my daughter drew before I went on the trip. I kept it in the same folder as my copies of the expense report and agendas.
Looking at the picture brought the experience back into perspective. Nearly all of the technology I learned about on that trip is obsolete. Many of the vendors I saw are no longer in business. Most of the software I looked at is no longer available and won’t even run on Windows 7. But my family is still here. My daughter still draws. My son is much taller. My wife is still beautiful.
Jobs come and go, and careers have high points and low. But family, health, and enjoyment of life — these are what matter most. While most of my old personal files are going through the shredder, my daughter’s pictures and other notes my family left for me are the things I will keep and treasure.
The dying art of Cursive
I had to write a note to my son’s teacher. As an old-timer, I wrote my note by hand. That’s how a teacher can tell that the note came from a parent and not something the child had forged. My son looked at the note and said, “Why did you write it in Cursive? No one can read it.”
When I was my son’s age, I had to write in Cursive. I had Cursive writing drilled into me from third grade on (including the Qs that look like 2s as shown). It was the one subject I struggled in throughout elementary school. Assignments were required to be in Cursive, and students were graded on penmanship as well as content. It wasn’t until high school that I was allowed to start typing my papers. And even in college, I still had to write essays by hand in blue books for my finals.
Now, they hardly teach Cursive in school anymore. Read more »
