Poll regarding Christmas letters

I was reading something today about conserving resources, and it suggested sending Christmas letters electronically instead of using paper products to mail them. I am torn on this (pun not intended). On one hand, it saves a lot of time and paper to send them electronically, especially considering most will be thrown away. On the other hand, it's exciting to receive them in the mail and watch them stack up throughout the month of December. In the electronic age, the personal touch is particularly appreciated.

I have historically mailed a Christmas letter to friends and family who live far away, particularly those who only hear from me once a year. It has always seemed a little silly to me to send cards to people I see regularly. To those, I usually email the letter I have mailed to the others. I mean, I send 20 or 30 cards a year anyway - I can't imagine how expensive and time-consuming that would get if I sent them to everyone I know. And YET, I enjoy receiving these letters from certain friends I see regularly.

Of course, that's another thing... cards versus letters. Cards are pretty, but they don't communicate a lot to me. The thrill of getting Christmas letters is in reading about my friends' lives and putting myself back into their lives for that moment, remembering times we've had together and appreciating the ways God has blessed them. I'm afraid I don't really understand the tradition of sending cards that are simply signed with no personal touch other than the signature itself. What is the point?

So, anyhow, I am especially interested in hearing your perspective on this. Please share!

Look out.... political commentary!

This is an interesting case.
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/cheesesteak-shop-owner-defends-policy/20071215115009990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

I agree with the business owner. It's not discrimination to ask patrons to order in English.

Someone commenting on this article posted the following quotation from Theodore Roosevelt:

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."Theodore Roosevelt 1907

I verified this quote on snopes.com, where they also provide additional quotes along these lines from T. Roosevelt. http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/troosevelt.asp.

Diversity is a beautiful thing - it is something that makes this country extra special, but for different peoples to live and work together, they must have something in common, too. Historically, we have shared similar values (i.e. the Bill of Rights) and a common language. Many immigrant families have held on to their heritage and language, and rightly so, but they also learned the ways and language of the land they chose to inhabit. They embraced certain things that unified them with their new countrymen. Our society cannot endure if there is no common thread binding its many cultures together. Human nature just doesn't work that way.

Why is it considered discrimination to ask restaurant patrons to order in English? The menu is written in English... he's providing the words. His ethnic patrons are there to eat American-style food. If they are willing to embrace that aspect of American culture for an hour or so, why not 2 minutes of speaking the local language to order the food? Presumably the restaurant owner would not have created the sign if this had not already been an issue his servers were facing.

I value cultural diversity, and I don't believe in discrimination, but I also don't think asking people to learn a little English to facilitate basic communication in public venues is discriminatory. Tourists do it; why not immigrants?

Things change

Well, now that I've graduated, I have to update my blog profile. Until now, it has read: "I am a Christian, happily married, and the "mother" of four wonderful cats. I am privileged to have one of the best jobs - I teach singing, piano and music theory. I am presently pursuing a master's degree in Music Education at the University of Northern Colorado. And I own every episode of "I Love Lucy" on both VHS and DVD."

I am presently trying to sell the I Love Lucy VHS collection at the insistence of my husband. 60 VHS tapes (3 episodes per tape) take up a LOT of space, whereas the same collection on DVD takes up very little space. That's when it occurred to me that I really had something unique that is no longer special. I had the complete set of I Love Lucy long before they started releasing entire television series on DVD. Now everyone and their cousin seems to own every episode of "Friends" on DVD, but when VHS was still the media of choice, owning an entire series was a considerable novelty. How things change!

Graduation

Graduation was fun. I enjoy historic formalities like that. My husband and his parents were there to cheer me on. Dad wasn't able to come out because of the weather -- and it did snow all day yesterday -- and Mom accidentally scheduled a trip to the Bahamas to coincide with graduation, but they were there in spirit. :-)

My most prominent emotion yesterday was gratitude. I am immensely thankful for all the professors, friends, and family who have encouraged and supported me through this challenging endeavor. I hope all of you know just how much I treasure you because I don't think there is any way for me to adequately express it.

Now, I just wish someone had told me my mortar board wasn't level so I could have fixed it!

The big day

Today's the big day... I graduate in 8 1/2 hours. It's here already - it seems surreal. Life looks very different going forward. I will be devoting my time and energy to different things, and I will be responsible for choosing what to devote my time and energy to rather than having it dictated to me through class syllabi. This sounds very elementary, and I spent 6 1/2 years doing this between my degrees, but I've been out of the habit for a year and a half. I'm so used to not having time to do anything but school work.

Oddly enough, even though I graduate tonight, I have to go back to Greeley on Tuesday to give the presentation I was supposed to give this last Tuesday. It was postponed because the weather was unsafe for driving and a good percentage of our class commutes from outside Greeley.

I'm ba-ack!

Whew! What a marathon it has been the last month. Spending two and a half weeks on my comps put me that far behind in everything else, I have finally caught up. I have presentations to deliver on Tuesday and Wednesday, but as of today, those are prepared and ready to go. All that's left is to study for my Baroque seminar final, which is Monday and promises to be a devil of a test. But that's all that's left, and I'm actually starting to feel it. I even had time to drag out most of my Christmas decorations today, although incessant snow has delayed my hopes of bringing home a tree.