Gakked from Gileswench
Nov. 12th, 2005 12:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fabrisseStep One
- Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fun ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.
- If you wish for real possible things, make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.
- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ, or link to this post (it'll be public) so that the holiday joy will spread.
Step Two
- Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:
- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it. You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call.
There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive, and you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.
My List:
1) OK, it's a cliche and all that, but I'd like World Peace. Seriously. Most people don't know that I missed a Master's degree in International Relations by one question on my Comprehensive Exam. It wasn't even the tough question that counted for half the Comprehensive grade. I aced that.
But on my first day of my first class for the program, I had a professor ask two questions. The first was whether or not one person could change history. I was the only person who came down on the side of one person changing the world. The second was to provide a definition of peace. Mine was, "Freedom from the threat of war." Ironically, that happened to be the main theme of our textbook -- Michael Howard's The Causes of War -- which hadn't come into the library yet. The professor stated then and there that Howard was wrong and I was naive.
Now he may have been right about my naivete, although by that point I had missed two IRA bombs in London by a hair's breadth, so I'm pretty sure I wasn't. But I still think that's the right definition. I want every child whose parent(s) are missing because we're in Iraq to have that parent home for the holidays.
I want a peace that hasn't come because humanity has destroyed itself, but because we recognize that there are more pressing problems for all of us -- hunger, deforestation, biodiversity, ... -- and that maybe it's time we worked together instead of blasting each other with bullets "yea, even unto the seventh generation."
Think about it. Find one thing you can do, I'm planning to join a river's project and help clean a couple of miles of river of litter and debris. Decide how much you can give financially and contribute. My favorites are Doctors Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, World Wildlife Fund, the Boys and Girls Clubs, and Habitat for Humanity.
2) I want to find a well-paying, intellectually and spiritually challenging job someplace far enough north of here that the seasons change. The leaves don't turn color in LA they just desiccate. Most of the time they don't even fall off. I'm a northern climes girl (yes, Virginia counts). I want to be whereever it was that I saw in my dream with the Pilot whale.
3) A scholarship, work-study program, or grant to do MA/Doctoral work in Sociology because that might get me number two on the list. *G*
4) A weekend exploring Balboa Park in San Diego.
5) A chance to cook (and share in the eating of) a fancy dinner every month to six weeks for 6 to 16 people. I miss cooking, even just the simple meals that I did with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jerminating and eanja. But the dinner parties with siderea, and John and Eithne or occasionally moria923 and thorbol etc. are what I miss most. I should be cooking Venison or Pheasant or Goose right now. There should be a first course and side dishes and salad. I should be trying to perfect a frangipane tart recipe for siderea or making the panna cotta that jerminating and Snow liked or the chocolate mousse that eanja, moria923, and thorbol enjoyed. I miss the food and I miss the companionship.
6) Anything off my amazon wishlist.
7) A monitor for my computer.
8) A month long Eurrail pass and enough money to get there and enjoy it.
My contact information is fabrisse@hotmail.com
- Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fun ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.
- If you wish for real possible things, make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.
- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ, or link to this post (it'll be public) so that the holiday joy will spread.
Step Two
- Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:
- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it. You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call.
There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive, and you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.
My List:
1) OK, it's a cliche and all that, but I'd like World Peace. Seriously. Most people don't know that I missed a Master's degree in International Relations by one question on my Comprehensive Exam. It wasn't even the tough question that counted for half the Comprehensive grade. I aced that.
But on my first day of my first class for the program, I had a professor ask two questions. The first was whether or not one person could change history. I was the only person who came down on the side of one person changing the world. The second was to provide a definition of peace. Mine was, "Freedom from the threat of war." Ironically, that happened to be the main theme of our textbook -- Michael Howard's The Causes of War -- which hadn't come into the library yet. The professor stated then and there that Howard was wrong and I was naive.
Now he may have been right about my naivete, although by that point I had missed two IRA bombs in London by a hair's breadth, so I'm pretty sure I wasn't. But I still think that's the right definition. I want every child whose parent(s) are missing because we're in Iraq to have that parent home for the holidays.
I want a peace that hasn't come because humanity has destroyed itself, but because we recognize that there are more pressing problems for all of us -- hunger, deforestation, biodiversity, ... -- and that maybe it's time we worked together instead of blasting each other with bullets "yea, even unto the seventh generation."
Think about it. Find one thing you can do, I'm planning to join a river's project and help clean a couple of miles of river of litter and debris. Decide how much you can give financially and contribute. My favorites are Doctors Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, World Wildlife Fund, the Boys and Girls Clubs, and Habitat for Humanity.
2) I want to find a well-paying, intellectually and spiritually challenging job someplace far enough north of here that the seasons change. The leaves don't turn color in LA they just desiccate. Most of the time they don't even fall off. I'm a northern climes girl (yes, Virginia counts). I want to be whereever it was that I saw in my dream with the Pilot whale.
3) A scholarship, work-study program, or grant to do MA/Doctoral work in Sociology because that might get me number two on the list. *G*
4) A weekend exploring Balboa Park in San Diego.
5) A chance to cook (and share in the eating of) a fancy dinner every month to six weeks for 6 to 16 people. I miss cooking, even just the simple meals that I did with
jerminating and eanja. But the dinner parties with siderea, and John and Eithne or occasionally moria923 and thorbol etc. are what I miss most. I should be cooking Venison or Pheasant or Goose right now. There should be a first course and side dishes and salad. I should be trying to perfect a frangipane tart recipe for siderea or making the panna cotta that jerminating and Snow liked or the chocolate mousse that eanja, moria923, and thorbol enjoyed. I miss the food and I miss the companionship.6) Anything off my amazon wishlist.
7) A monitor for my computer.
8) A month long Eurrail pass and enough money to get there and enjoy it.
My contact information is fabrisse@hotmail.com
