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Butch Furse
Turkey Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday, and the list goes on. The long list is a reminder of what has passed and what is still to come. In our household and many others Christmas season is now here.
That means in our household it’s time to write the annual Christmas letter and mail or e-mail holiday greeting to our out-of-town friends. Also in our household the debate between the two us begins as to who is going to write the annual Christmas letter. This year was no exception and as this column is being published our letter issue has been resolved.
As Paul Harvey said, “Here’s the rest of the story”:
This year in our in-home debate the Betterhalf agreed that the past year I wrote the letter, but argued I was the writer in the family. She fortified her stance by pointing out that she always printed (not wrote) the letter; addressed the letter; found envelopes and stamps; then mailed or e-mailed the greetings. “I am NOT the writer by trade,” she concluded.
In my rebuttal I made issue of the fact I was a busy man and had obligations at the animal shelter; had year-end commitments with year-end paper work as secretary of an organization; and she just had a stronger Christmas spirit. “Besides you can keyboard on the computer and use graphics better,” I added.
I knew I made a pretty weak argument, but had hopes it might hold up. I then adjourned to my TV chair in the family room. Later that day the Betterhalf entered the room and plopped down on my lap a rough draft of a Christmas letter. “She said, “There, I somehow ended up writing this year’s letter although I am NOT the writer by trade!!!”
I fulfilled an editor’s prerogative and made a couple of “pencil marks” to take away some of my guilt feeling, but still be able to feel that I think I may have won the “Battle of the 2020 Christmas Letter. Foolish me . . . there is next year’s Christmas letter!
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“Don’t worry: today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday.”
RL Furse is publisher emeritus of the News-Register
