A little over a week ago I was loafing in the hospital (a place with which I have become way too familiar over the last five years) when I saw the ad recruiting bloggers for GlockTalk.com. It intrigued me to say the least. I clicked on the link and read the traffic requirements and what they were looking for. My mind began to race as I thought of all the different articles and subjects I could write about. A huge part of my career up until my illness had been writing and speaking. Perhaps this...

I had a Christmas post in mind, but then I read GioaJack's entry on Santa Claus (highly recommendable--go read it if you haven't already) and lost some momentum. My brain has difficulty writing tongue in cheek following something with honest substance in it. And oh was my post theoretically fraught with cheekiness! Oh well. Maybe next time.

For now I'll leave you with one of my favorite Christmas music videos.

Straight No Chaser--12 Days of Christmas
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'The more things change, the more they remain the same'. This adage is never more true than around the Christmas season when children, on the cusp of discovering awareness ask their parents, "Does Santa Claus really exist?"

Eight-year old Virginia O'Hanlon asked that question of her father and not knowing how to answer he suggested she ask someone wiser than he.

Her simple question...

When my daughter started school in Tulsa I had my first confrontation with the establishment. The first day she brought home a list of needed supplies that should have balanced the national budget. Everything you could possibly ever need for school work, up to and including paper for her graduation diploma, I don't know which one.

The item that caused the first confrontation was a box of crayons. I sent one of the 72 count boxes so she would have crayons for her entire school career....

Are we killing the American Dream?

Those who chronicle their life in these United States in multiples of decades rather than the post-internet era well remember being taught that the American Dream was a spouse, a good job, a house with a white picket fence and 2.33 children. Certainly an idyllic vision for many and the basis of variation for others.

As the years pass however the truth slowly reveals itself until one day, with the stark clarity of a blue...