Re: Viewing "The List": a last minute update.

Self-Inflicted: Prior to re:gathering and sharing my additional thoughts on attending a gathering (see December 17/18 for a partial re-view), due in part to the incessant ringing in my ears, I just had to get this out, on your behalf, hope-fully in time for some adjustments, as needed. To see if you measure up. OK, so this was prompted by my re-sponse to ad, by the well-known and respected org, "Salvation Army" who re-minded me that even in times where most folks do donations electronically, bell ringers "still matter", if only to set the mood, stir up some spirit of the season. I thought that I was simply doing something "nice" just before Christmas arrived, just in time to gain a few points for the Big Guy, just in case...Well, it sure turned out to be other-wise, something bigger and grander than I could have ever expected -- what I thought to be a bit of a self-less act became quite self-enlightening, and gave me a whole new lens into people's psyche, a whole different angle than what I see in my up-close-and-personal professional encounters. As they will tell you a whole different story when you don a partial Santa get-up, start ringing a bell, stand next to a red kettle. The minimalist instructions included "have fun!" and this was the only encouragement my inner child needed, to start telling people, especially if they donated, "You just made Santa's nice list".  The following out-takes of the various donators' responses reflect the current state of this whole "naughty and nice" thing, and offers you some categories of where you might fall, now and throughout the entire year...

"Oh yeah, well it's gonna' take a whole lot more than I have on me..."

"Well thanks, but would you please tell my wife?"

Wow, that's a list I've never been on, as I'm usually on somebody's #$^% list"

"You mean I'm finally, after all these years of writing him, going to get that toy train?"

"Well, thanks but I identify with naughty"

There were a few who I recognized who just walked on by without even offering a "hello" (perhaps they did not recognize me with the Christmas camouflage, or perhaps they did but preferred they didn't)

And the elderly woman I saw on two consecutive Saturday mornings, challenged to simply walk, upon hearing she had made "the list" responded, "I just can't pass one of these kettles up without donating a little..." 

In good company: After two rounds of this and the foregoing experiences at my back, I confronted yet another scene which may have in and of itself summed up where we are on this "list": A Santa's helper donning a t-shirt with the meme "Naughty is the New Nice"  Now, that's Nice.