The bamboo is green
The lotus are pink
The waterfall flows
and kisses newfound stones
The bamboo is brown
The lotus are yellow
The waterfall flows
and shapes eager stones
The bamboo is hollow
The lotus are red
The waterfall flows
and parts distinguished stones
The bamboo is green
The lotus are white
The waterfall flows
and kisses newfound stones.
When we shared our first Christmas together, we had only been dating and getting to know each other for about eight months. So when the second Christmas came around, enough time had been shared between us to make the holidays genuinely feel special.
I had some Christmas ornaments and a string of lights, but was unsure if I should buy a tree. Girlfriend wasn’t too keen on the idea. Her family never celebrated the holiday with much excitement, and they didn’t make much effort to decorate. When it came to the holidays, her family was very different than mine. But her family was different in other aspects as well, as they never expressed any physical affection towards one another. When Girlfriend told me that her parents never hugged her or her siblings, it was difficult for me to comprehend. She shrugged it off as the Japanese Way, and joked that some families are too overly emotional.
Rather than spending money on a tree, I came up with a compromise. I brought the potted rubber tree plant from the balcony and placed it in the corner. I told Girlfriend that we could decorate the rubber tree with the theme of A Hawaiian Christmas. I wrapped the rubber tree with lights, and we both placed the ornaments and garland. With the lights turned on, we stepped back to witness our Christmas tree. It was pathetic. Perhaps the saddest Christmas tree that ever was. We laughed at our tree and tried to decide what was needed to make it look a little more presentable. We were convinced that more lights would help, so off I went to buy more lights.
At the store, I bought another string of lights and a couple boxes of ornaments. As I exited the store, I couldn’t help but notice the large container of Christmas trees being sold at the end of the parking lot. I walked over and looked at the trees and then thought of the rubber tree that was waiting at home. I decided to buy a tree, and picked out the best one that I could find.
I had wondered how Girlfriend would respond to the tree, but I never imagined that she would be so outwardly excited when she saw me carrying the tree into the house. She was so tickled that we had a tree of our own, and her excitement had a childlike charm. Somehow that one Christmas tree clicked on her Christmas Spirit. With each Christmas that followed, she was creating her own ornaments and decorating the house and buying all kinds of crafts at the Ben Franklin craft store. I joked with her that I had created a Christmas Monster, but her excitement for the holiday was refreshing and her Christmas Spirit was infectious.
The Sun rises in a hurry
The pain once hidden begins to show
The eyes and mind are blurry
and surrounding clouds begin to know
Spirit aches and body numb
from continually holding the Sun
What a comfort a hard rain would be
for the sky to burst along with me
A good storm fades wasted years
but rainbows promise comes no more
Raindrops will hide the pain and tears
Let it rain, let it pour.
In the middle of a long hallway,
Mother and son sit
on the familiar wooden bench,
waiting for the doctor to see him.
She Combs his hair
with her fingers and spit
and reminds him to sit up straight.
She gives herself a Certs
to freshen her breath,
and puts one on his tongue
to occupy his mouth.
She pulls from her purse
two notebooks and two government pens,
keeping one of each
and giving the boy the other.
“Write a story for me,” she said with a soft whisper.
“Okay,” he said, swinging his dangling legs back and
forth.
Before returning to the unfinished letter
intended for her mother,
she watches the four year old boy
as he scrawls make-believe letters of his own
and constructs a pretend story from his imagination.
“Mommy, I’m gonna write something just for you.”
It has gotten to the point where every time I come to this site I find spam. It’s become somewhat of a endless ritual of delete, block, rebuild, repeat. The spam, which varies from advertising links for pharmaceutical companies to gambling sites to porn, oftentimes includes comments that are offensive at best.
Although spam is a nuisance, it is very much like commercials on television. One learns to ignore it the best way possible. It’s rather predictable that anything as big as the blog-world has become, Wall Street would want a piece of it. Therefore, the advertising and marketing that has flooded the blog scene is bound to get worse.
The blog-world is expanding at a rapid pace. I’ve read that on any given day 12,000 new blogs are created. Many of these new blogs are owned by second generation bloggers, some still young enough to be in grade school. While adult bloggers have long since built a callus towards any form of advertising, many of the young bloggers have not. The point is, if I’m receiving spam about porn sites and internet gambling and available drugs on the web, then surely some of these youngsters are receiving it as well.
In a time where the government is keeping close tabs on the media and what is presented to the general public, it’s time that they take a look at the advertisers that riding roughshod over the internet and flooding blogs with unwanted spam. These spammers need to be held to the same laws that stalkers and crank phone callers are held to. Their spam is nothing more than internet-stalking.
Holiday Q & A
* When is the best time to open presents? Ideally, Christmas morning.
* Have you been naughty or nice this year? Mostly nice.
* Real tree or imitation tree? Real.
* Favorite Christmas cartoon character? Little Drummer Boy. Sorry, Frosty.
* Did you ever write Santa a letter? Not that I can remember.
* Buy any Christmas presents online? Yes.
* Save the ribbon and paper or rip right through it? I rip.
* Sharing Christmas with family this year? Yes. In spirit.
* Ever ride in a one horse open sleigh? No, not yet.
* Ever roast a chestnut on an open fire? Actually, I have.
* Favorite Christmas pie? Pumpkin, no matter what holiday.
* Favorite Christmas movie? A Christmas Story.
* Favorite Christmas song? Feliz Navidad.
* People on your Christmas list; more or less than ten? Less.
* Will you have a white Christmas this year? Not likely.
* Do you believe in Santa Claus? In a way, yes.
* Who would you like to kiss under the mistletoe? It’s a secret.
* Who gives the best gifts? Mom & Dad.
* Do you send Christmas cards? No. Who can afford the postage?
* What color best represents Christmas? I’ll say red.
* Do you own any Christmas music? No.
* How many Christmas parties will you attend this year? None.
* Does the postal worker get a gift this year? Yes, she is always very helpful.
* Giving a present to a pet? Not sure. What do you buy a cat that has everything?
* Your shopping; All done, half-way done, just started, not yet started? Just started.
I’m what you might call a procrastinator. It’s not as if I don’t enjoy doing things or getting things done, but it’s more like I enjoy doing things in my own time and it just so happens the time is usually somewhere later on.
In recent years, procrastination has often been seen as a negative trait. I blame much of this negativity on overeager yuppies hyped up on double-shot Caffè Mochas. Compared to these select individuals, everyone looks like a slacker, and procrastinators are often seen as unmotivated couch potatoes.
Despite the bad reputation they generally receive, procrastinators are battle-tested. They understand deadlines, and stress is often their friend. If a report needs to be done in six months, then by all means give it to someone else. But if a comprehensive ten-page report is suddenly needed by tomorrow, you had better give it to the procrastinator because they have surely worked under such strenuous conditions before.
It should come as no surprise that I haven’t yet joined the crowd in the rush to the malls for Christmas shopping. As a procrastinator, my annual Christmas panic officially begins today. Die hard procrastinators still have a couple of weeks to hold off from shopping, but I’ve learned from past experience that putting Christmas shopping off for too long can sometimes result in choosing between nail-clippers and a popcorn popper as gifts.
I’m sure there is a reasonable explanation for procrastination, and undoubtedly there has been much written on the topic. I have every intention of researching the subject in full, but I’ll get to it a little later.