Lessons Learned

Good afternoon! Unless you want to call it evening. Feel free.

You know how rumors are, right? They tend to grow and grow and grow until you sometimes cannot recognize them. Well, I’m going to pass on some information that my son gave me and it may just be a rumor but we’ll talk about that in a bit.

First, we talk about a lot of different things at our house. You know we have some birthdays in December. There’s Grandma, Aunt Julie, Grandma Roper, Cedric, Amena, Gammy, and some not-so-distant ancestors. There’s at least one anniversary—Becky and Jay. And then there is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ whom most of us recognize as the savior of the world. In our family, we celebrate Christmas. Anyway, lots going on.

This year much of the talk has been about Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays. Amena reports that one of the middle school English teachers wanted to show Frosty the Snowman during class. Pretty non-religious, right? Hah! Think again, people! It mentions Christmas and refers to the first snow of the year being magical, especially when it falls on Christmas Eve and can be called Christmas Snow. Oh my freaking gosh! Because of this reference, the movie cannot be shown in a middle school in Barre, Massachusetts. Why? you ask. Well, I don’t know but I can tell you what I was told.

Cedric came home today and while we were wrapping packages, Christmas gifts, for family near and far (the far might not make it in time I’m sorry to say) and drinking hot chocolate he said, “Mom, you know how we can’t talk about Christmas at school?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I found out why today.”

“Really? Do tell!”

Cedric is taking 30 of these to school tomorrow. He opted not to put tags on the that say "North Pole" because it would have taken longer and would have been, in his words, "A waste of paper." Still, the candy cane is still a pretty obvious symbol of Christmas.

It appears, according to what he heard, that one student came to the school with his or her parents and a lawyer or two. These parents don’t want their child to hear any references to or about Christmas. Hmmmmm. Really? I asked Cedric if he heard this from his teacher and he admitted that he did not but the student he heard it from seems to be reliable. Honestly, I don’t care about that. I’ll probably be sending an email or two tomorrow to see if I can find out if this report is true or not because I don’t tend to like rumors and gossip.

In spite of that, this is exactly what has gotten us to the point we are at. ONE person decides that they don’t like something, that something is offensive, or whatever and that ONE person doesn’t want to see or hear that thing that is offensive and because of that ONE person, the hundreds have to suddenly not say or do whatever it is that the ONE found offensive. I am so tempted to say a swear. I’m going to say something. BULL POOP, people! ONE person doesn’t make the rules, the majority does. If something is that offensive, stay the heck away.

It’s been a busy day today and it isn’t over. This morning the younger boys and I went to Bethany Price’s to make some sugar and salt scrubs. We were gone longer than I’d anticipated but that was okay. We’ve been busy at home getting things ready for Christmas—wrapping packages, making cupcakes, just fun stuff in general. Tonight there is a Cub Scout Pack Meeting that we need to leave for in half an hour. I’m glad that two of the things I had on the calendar for today didn’t happen. One needs to tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to be another fun day.

Right now I need to make some frosting with Cedric so I’ll be back sometime.

Now it is good evening. Pack meeting: done. Cupcakes: done. Children: mostly in bed. Time for a change of pace. I’m still majorly annoyed with this whole Christmas thing at school because I still don’t feel that one person has the right to take away my right to talk about Christmas AT SCHOOL. Even if it is more than one person. Until it is a majority, and even then, there are certain rights that all mankind have and no MAN (as in human) has the right to infringe on those. I believe that agency is one of those rights which means I have the right to say whatever the heck I want to.

The winning team in action.

In the meantime, I was looking at a post on Facebook in which a friend mentioned me. She posted a plank challenge and if you think it’s about wood, think again. If you know it isn’t about wood but think it’s easy, think again. I replied something to the effect of that it is cool when your 10-year-old wants to do the planks with you. And it is. But after I posted it, I got to thinking.

The winning teams: 1st, 2nd, 3rd.

My parents weren’t exactly physically active. My grandparents weren’t physically active for the sake of being physically fit, but they were because it was their lifestyle and they enjoyed doing things like cross-country skiing and walking and hiking. Papa used to ride his bicycle to work. Because I watched my grandparents be active, I was more than I would have just by watching the example of my parents. (Please don’t think I’m being critical here—just making observations.)

Seth wanted to do planks with me. I need to encourage my children to by physically active by being physically active myself. If I never go out and go walking or jogging or hiking, I can’t very well expect my children to want to just because I say they should. I don’t know why it has taken me so long to figure this out; pretty sad, it is. So, when Cedric expresses interest in doing PiYo next time, you bet I’m going to say, “Come on over!” The only problem is that he’ll be able to do everything that I can’t because he’s starting out in pretty darn good shape. And it would sure be nice to have a living room like Bethany Price with a big screen to go in it so that any children who wanted to could do it at the same time in the same room. 

The moral of today: stand up for your rights and be a good example to your children.

Have a splendid night!