Some of the finest people you’ll ever meet. The hands and feet of Christ.
In American idiom that phrase, carrying the water, indicates you are taking the load for someone, doing the real work – often “on the sly” with no acknowledgement.
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Yesterday I posted this video on my Facebook page. I wrote the paragraph below. And 38 people went to youtube.com to watch the video.
But, as any actor will tell… you – “It’s all good if the check cashes.” And it did. I had to really dig around to find this little gem, but I’d promised the Haiti Mission team that I’d try to post it as part of the ongoing inside joke about the tooth fairy. And here it is for your viewing pleasure!
Now I’m really curious. Would you please click through this link to go watch it on youtube? I’m trying to get a handle on how many people watch these things I put up on the site. When you watch the embedded video it doesn’t tickle the counters.
And in response to your question, no, I’m not embarrased – the check cashed. It as worth doing if for no other reason than to see how much the poor fellow in the Easter Bunny suit was sweating with every take. The fan in the suit couldn’t run because it would destroy our audio. So they baked under the lights with that thing and between each take they had to take the helmet off and drink water/be fanned. Heatstroke was a blink away.
What silly jobs have you taken on “to pay the rent?” What would you be willing to do to earn the money to live? And do you still believe in The Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, or The Tooth Fairy?
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Today’s bonus keyword bingo entry is: sinkhole.
It’s that time of winter – the “I might lose it” point. The point where Minnesotans eye their apple peeler and think, “With just the right motion I could remove enough of my frontal lobe where I won’t care about the snow. Trepanning, yeah – that’s the ticket!”
It will all be better with just a few turns of the handle…
This hasn’t been a “bad” winter in most regards. Not a huge amount of snow. But for those of you in more temperate climates it’s important to note that on Saturday morning it was 9 degrees. That’s the point where you die of exposure in under an hour if you’re just wearing your swimsuit. Which at this moment is not all that far fetched: we all get a little loony around the end of January and start telling ourselves that if we just “think spring” it will make things better. This is the only place I know of that you see people pumping gas into their cars wearing a stocking cap, a down vest, tropical shorts, and Sorel boots. And it’s not uncommon.
This is the main problem:
No longer fluffy. More nasty than nifty.
That is what you get when the snow freezes, melts, freezes, melts, and then freezes again. It’s no longer fluffy. It smells bad. It’s dirty. If you jump into the pile of snow next to your driveway you will get abrasions and broken bones. The stuff is the hardness of concrete. It is the frozen liquid that sank the Titanic. Don’t believe me? High-center your car on a snow bank and plan on replacing your transmission, gas tank, and exhaust.
Even the dogs hate this stuff. My old fellow, Edzell, cannot even lay down on the snow without struggling to get up again. Fall down and break things.
I console myself with the knowledge that I’m escaping for a few days down the road. And then it will only be a few weeks until most of the nightmare is over. Spring can arrive as early as two weeks from now. Or as late as mid May. I’m hoping for March.
I try not to let the “cabin fever” get me. But this year it’s grinding on me.
What provokes a “fever” in you? Is it winter? Is it the rainy season? Is it your boss?
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Today’s keyword bingo entry is: sequestration! Notice the world didn’t end with it?
I’ll be doing a lot of posting in the next week or two about Haiti. To start it off I would like to share the video that Michael Stoebner did for our mission trip with KTIS and Healing Haiti.
Some of the finest people you’ll ever meet. The hands and feet of Christ.
Please take a few minutes to watch and I’ll be back with some more about Haiti in the coming days.
I’ve often written about the love and admiration I get from children in my visits as Santa. There is another side to that coin – loss.
I never understood Jerry Lewis’ calling all of those children “My kids” when I was younger. But as I’ve gotten older and formed a paternal relationship with children in need I have grown to understand his possesive feelings about the children he was trying to help. I feel that way as well. They are “my kids” whether they are in an orphanage in Haiti or visiting me at a mall in Minneapolis.
Honored to wear the Red Suit.
I lost one of those kids today. His name is Jacob. He passed after a long illness. I’d gotten to know Jacob through Hope Kids and our annual “Cookies with Santa” event. It’s where we (the children and I) get together for photos, making cards, decorating cookies, eating snacks, and playing games in a controlled setting just for them. No long lines, no fees, everybody involved is cool with special needs, and they can just have a good time with Santa. We do it early in November so that they can have the pictures with them by Thanksgiving.
Jacob loved Santa. And Hope Kids reminded me of that when they let me know he had gone on ahead to Heaven. I cried. I prayed for his family. I was overjoyed that I had that little bit of time with him and that he found our visit to be the highlight of 2012.
Me. Santa. Honored as only a child could do it. It is humbling.
I’m not bragging. I’m just letting you know that children hold that kind of love in a special place. And I’m trying to remind my fellow Santa’s that we might only wear the Red Suit for a few months of the year but that memory and that love carries on 365 in many children’s hearts. I want to remind myself to be worthy of that love and emulate Nicholas of Myra in my actions.
And I want to thank Jacob and all the children who repose that trust and honor in Santa. You make an old man feel special.
Is there a Santa in your life? Are you Santa to someone else? Do you treat children with the love and respect that they deserve?
