Hump day random

* I get "Informed Daily Digest," right? Where you're shown a scan of (most, not catalogs and magazines though) mail you are to get in a day, and you get the tracking numbers of USPS packages. Two thoughts about this:

- It's really too bad that alongside the "I didn't receive this mailpiece" button (so: if something didn't come you can go back to the e-mail and report it missing) if there were a "I don't want this mail" button for some of the junk mail.

Yes, I've tried the various tricks to get it cut down. It's gotten less but I still get an awful lot of stuff I just plain don't want.

- One thing I've noticed? Very, very frequently, "real" mail (greeting cards or letters) do NOT show up the day they're scanned in, but junk mail ALWAYS does. So I assume the carriers are allowed to "hold" personal mail for a day but not junk mail? That seems backwards to me. I am pretty sure the bulk-mail rate is below that of regular first class. But multiple times I've clicked "I didn't receive this mailpiece" about a card only to have it show up the following day.

* Another one of those, "This is a problem, it's probably been a problem for a long time, but I don't know of a solution" - reports of students at a high school in my region saying they feel "unsafe" and don't want to come to school because of the fights that break out in places like the lunchroom. (That....may actually have been one of the underlying reasons my parents sent me to a private high school, now that I reflect on it. Not that I'd ever have been involved in fights other than maybe as an innocent bystander or something but that they didn't want me to have to deal with that).

I don't know what the answer is. Part of me wants to throw up my hands and go 'end compulsory education; make it seem more of a privilege. Kids who can't behave get thrown out and have to dig ditches or something for a living" but of course that doesn't really work. Or lower the age of school-leaving to 12 or something but that doesn't work either.

I just....I don't know, I feel like kids who want to go to school should be able to do so without worrying about stuff like fights or like their personal safety in the bathrooms. I know there were some bathrooms at my junior high you just avoided because the "bad girls" had taken them over. And I knew other kids - boys - who said the boys' rooms were, if anything, worse.

At least teaching on a college campus? If someone in my class starts to act up, I can tell them to leave, and if they don't, I can have security come and ask them to leave. I've absolutely never had to, probably because people in college by and large are there because they want to be there, but.

Just the whole school situation is difficult. Yes, we have to prepare kids to be able to earn a living but I also understand on some level schools are keeping kids occupied so hopefully by the time they're "out" during the day they are mature enough not to want to cause trouble.

But it's like bullying, or a sideline of bullying. And I don't know of any way of getting rid of bullying; to bully is unfortunately human nature. You can teach kids to be more compassionate but you won't get to 100% of them; sometimes I feel like a better move is to support the bullied kids and give them spaces where they can get away from bullies.

* Seeing people already talking about the run-up to what some deride as "Giftmas." I am ASSUMING, given some of the people are practicing (and fairly serious) Christians, that they don't want to, ahem, throw the baby Jesus out with the bathwater, but they would like less commercialism.

And I admit, in some ways, I agree:

- saw my first "car for Christmas!" ad today and I always dislike these. Perhaps the ONE time I could see one being justified would be if "We need a new car, and this will be our one big Christmas thing this year" but it seems the ads are more just "ridiculous luxury"

- there's a jewelry ad where they try to have....well, there's no other way to say it....a "hot" Santa who brings home a nice jewelry gift for the (pretty) Mrs. Santa. (Oh, they are both "older-ish" - they have grey hair and Santa has a beard - but there are few wrinkles there, and like I said, Santa was pretty buff)

And yeah.

But I don't want to totally dump the idea of giving gifts. I like giving (and receiving) gifts. For me, it's one way of showing love: "Look! Here is this thing! I saw it and it made me think of you because either it's something I know you need* or it's something I know you would like!"


(*I listen closely to people for whom I will be getting gifts in the future, if they mention "Oh, I need a new..." or if something they have breaks, I try to replace it)

And I do think there's a middle road we can take - yes, maybe don't buy a Brand New Car! or blow the mortgage money on a diamond. But there are a lot of nice small gifts, and a lot of times the small ones are the ones that make me happiest:

- some kind of nice tea that I like
- a new mug to drink that tea out of
- something to do with one of my hobbies
- a book I haven't read ESPECIALLY if it's a "local author" (who is not well known and not all over the bestseller list) and doubly-especially if it's signed by the author
- new pajamas or a t-shirt with something cute on it
- just something small and fun like a little craft kit that could be made in an afternoon or so

the best gifts, in my opinion, take more thought and knowledge of the person than they do money. That's what I consider a "good" gift - not something where it was chosen because of how expensive it was and if it would "impress" me because I tend not to be impressed by big outlays of money.

(Not that I have anyone in my life who needs to impress me  right now, and that might be part of my problems)

But I do like all the "impedimentia" of Christmas - decorating, and the music, and the movies/tv specials, and the baking, and the special foods, all of that. It's like stopping and trying to acknowledge the good things in life (good food, music, warmth and cheer, pretty things, the people you love) and I think we all do need that.

(And yes, other faiths have other holidays but I also have known people who didn't really follow any faith who still celebrated the secular parts of Christmas).

BUT... while I am up for paring down some of the more ridiculous commercialisms, I am not up for just totally stripping Christmas down to a rather bare celebration at church. Yes, maybe that's a more Biblical way of doing it, I don't even know any more. But I find I need the glitter and the twinkle lights and the warmth and whatever good cheer I can muster. Because it's the end of the year, we're all tired, it gets dark out early, bad things have happened in the world....

But I am bracing myself for the annual round of Holiday Nuffer articles. You know the kind I mean: that Christmas (and I guess, this year, Thanksgiving) are 'too wasteful' and "too expensive" because presumably most people travel and more food is eaten and stuff is bought and so forth and I just....those articles, I know they're clickbait and all, but their existence still makes me want to lie down on the floor.

the only time these days I really travel is to visit friends or family. I am not jetting around the globe, I am not taking cruises. Nearly all the presents I give - and the ones I request - are things that are needed and will be used (one thing on my want-list this year? A new pair of field boots to replace the 20-year-old ones that have gotten wet one too many times). I don't expect people to spend thousands of dollars on me; I am happy with a $20 craft-store gift certificate or something like that. I tell myself "those articles aren't aimed at you" but I admit if I let them, they steal a little bit of my joy ANYWAY, which makes me angry.

(And yes, again: it's like shaming single people for not being able to eat an entire 3-pound bag of spinach before it goes bad, while never looking at the grocery stores and (a) how they treat produce so it might not be so fresh by the time it gets to us and (b) their unwillingness to sell other than Family Packs of some things...)