my Thinking spot: there IS a santa!!!!!

12 December 2006

there IS a santa!!!!!

oh, what an emotional roller coaster of a day it has been!

i'm always so torn around the holiday season.

on the one hand, i know that the gift giving frenzy has reached epidemic proportions. not to mention, i've long held that if i were a christian, i would be horrified by what the day has become in this consumer culture. it seems so contrary to what christ himself might expect a birthday celebration to be.

on the other hand, i remember being a child and all of the joy and happiness and excitement that came from seeing gifts under the tree. i've really re-connected with this through bebe. he is slowly ridding me of my bah-humbugness.

this year has been a tough one on us, financially. we are literally barely scraping by, the money for bills somehow appearing when we need it. but this month has found us a lot closer to the edge than i ever imagined i'd see in my adult life. i have vivid memories of this sort of living on the edge from childhood, as my mom was alone and 17 when she had me. we lived with my grandparents the first several years in my life, but after that... suffice it to say that it scares the crap out of me to this day.

i've spent a fair amount of time battling with myself over christmas this year wanting even a few small gifts for bebe to have. i decided that i would take a few of his toys, maybe, and hide them to wrap up to open on christmas day. after all, he is in the area of development still where he will most likely enjoy the unwrapping of presents way more than he would the presents themselves. and then he does something clever and i wonder... then i think about all of the people in the world that have nothing - where survival is a struggle. i think about all of the children that are living in the u.s. that have far less than we do. and i feel selfish and shallow. battle, battle, battle. everyday it seems, for close to a month now.

some moments ago, i was sitting in the living room with bebe as he was drawing and the phone rang - a call from a pay phone. on the other end, a man's voice was bellowing, "ho!ho!ho! merry christmas! go check your front porch!" i don't even remember now what i said, but i started laughing. he repeated himself. then he hung up. i opened up the front door to find a big box of presents, wrapped, just sitting there, at the top of our stairs! i hauled it in as a flood of tears came. much like the tears that have started once again.

gimmee a second.

there are presents in there, not just for bebe, but for all of us! there's also a card attached from secret santa. bebe keeps pointing at the box and clapping his little hands, saying "riley gift! riley gift!"

i have no idea where this came from. i've not even really spoken about our situation with but a few people. but santa, if you somehow find this and read this, thank you so much. so much. i'am touched and moved beyond what i can even describe. and i promise you that when we can, we will pay it forward. it will be the very first thing that we do.

i can't write anymore right now. i can hardly see the screen and keys through my tears.

thank you. t h a n k y o u.

Labels: santa

Name: supergirlest

"if you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito." ~african proverb

View my complete profile

the spot is best viewed with mozilla firefox

get firefox!

syracuse cultural workers

Your Power Bird is an Owl

You are beyond wise. You are so smart, you're almost prophetic. Your inner voice always speaks the truth, and you take the time to listen to it. You are good at seeing who people are... including the darkness of others. As a result, you tend to have a rather dark - yet realistic - outlook on life.

What's Your Power Bird?

Get your own calendar

Global Voices Online - The world is talking. Are you listening?

IRAQBODYCOUNT

Cost of the War in Iraq

(JavaScript Error)

To see more details, click here.

GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE!

Q: What causes global warming?

A: Carbon dioxide and other air pollution that is collecting in the atmosphere like a thickening blanket, trapping the sun's heat and causing the planet to warm up. Coal-burning power plants are the largest U.S. source of carbon dioxide pollution -- they produce 2.5 billion tons every year. Automobiles, the second largest source, create nearly 1.5 billion tons of CO2 annually.

Q: Is the earth really getting hotter?

A: Yes. Although local temperatures fluctuate naturally, over the past 50 years the average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate in recorded history. And experts think the trend is accelerating: the 10 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1990. Scientists say that unless we curb global warming emissions, average U.S. temperatures could be 3 to 9 degrees higher by the end of the century.

Q: Are warmer temperatures causing bad things to happen?

A: Global warming is already causing damage in many parts of the United States. In 2002, Colorado, Arizona and Oregon endured their worst wildfire seasons ever. The same year, drought created severe dust storms in Montana, Colorado and Kansas, and floods caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage in Texas, Montana and North Dakota. Since the early 1950s, snow accumulation has declined 60 percent and winter seasons have shortened in some areas of the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington. Of course, the impacts of global warming are not limited to the United States. In 2003, extreme heat waves caused more than 20,000 deaths in Europe and more than 1,500 deaths in India. And in what scientists regard as an alarming sign of events to come, the area of the Arctic's perennial polar ice cap is declining at the rate of 9 percent per decade.

Q: Is global warming making hurricanes worse?

A: Global warming doesn't create hurricanes, but it does make them stronger and more dangerous. Because the ocean is getting warmer, tropical storms can pick up more energy and become more powerful. So global warming could turn, say, a category 3 storm into a much more dangerous category 4 storm. In fact, scientists have found that the destructive potential of hurricanes has greatly increased along with ocean temperature over the past 35 years.

Q: Is there really cause for serious concern?

A: Yes. Global warming is a complex phenomenon, and its full-scale impacts are hard to predict far in advance. But each year scientists learn more about how global warming is affecting the planet, and many agree that certain consequences are likely to occur if current trends continue. Among these: 1. Melting glaciers, early snowmelt and severe droughts will cause more dramatic water shortages in the American West. 2. Rising sea levels will lead to coastal flooding on the Eastern seaboard, in Florida, and in other areas, such as the Gulf of Mexico. 3. Warmer sea surface temperatures will fuel more intense hurricanes in the southeastern Atlantic and Gulf coasts. 4. Forests, farms and cities will face troublesome new pests and more mosquito-borne diseases. 5. Disruption of habitats such as coral reefs and alpine meadows could drive many plant and animal species to extinction.

Q: Could global warming trigger a sudden catastrophe?

A: Recently, researchers -- and even the U.S. Defense Department -- have investigated the possibility of abrupt climate change, in which gradual global warming triggers a sudden shift in the earth's climate, causing parts of the world to dramatically heat up or cool down in the span of a few years.

Q: What country is the largest source of global warming pollution?

A: The United States. Though Americans make up just 4 percent of the world's population, we produce 25 percent of the carbon dioxide pollution from fossil-fuel burning -- by far the largest share of any country. In fact, the United States emits more carbon dioxide than China, India and Japan, combined. Clearly America ought to take a leadership role in solving the problem. And as the world's top developer of new technologies, we are well positioned to do so -- we already have the know-how.

Q: How can we cut global warming pollution?

A: It's simple: By reducing pollution from vehicles and power plants. Right away, we should put existing technologies for building cleaner cars and more modern electricity generators into widespread use. We can increase our reliance on renewable energy sources such as wind, sun and geothermal. And we can manufacture more efficient appliances and conserve energy.

GLOBAL WARMING LINKS:

message moi!

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We have posted it here in an effort to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, social justice and other issues. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The material in this site is provided for educational and informational purposes only.

my Thinking spot

12 December 2006

there IS a santa!!!!!

About Me

but wait! there's more! blogs i heart

active interest links

good biz

daily a-musings...

as we speak...

OUT OF IRAQ BLOGROLL

send me email?