Finally, Passing the Mantle of Responsibility to the Next Generation
Years ago I got tired of store-bought cards and cards with pictures of the family taken at Disneyland or skiing or whatever, so I created my own holiday card. We got positive feedback, so I did another (past examples here, here, here). I kept on with it, though over time it became a burden -- the weight of it would hit me about November 15: What am I going to do next year for a card?
But this year my daughter, who is off to art college in Pasadena this January, picked up the mantle and drew our family portrait for our card. Wow, what a relief. I feel like a tired 16th century farmer whose son just grew old enough to do the plowing.
So Merry Christmas, or happy whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year.
PS -- OK, I don't want to nitpick, but I guess the 16th century farmer probably criticized the straightness of his son's furrows. She made the drawing square, which necessitated a square envelope, which in turn cost us 20 cents extra in postage for each since square letters take special handling at the post office. But it was a small price to pay.
Update: To the comment that the choice of 16th century for my farmer analogy was sort of random, I happened at the time to be listening to yet another in the Great Courses series (love them) and it was just discussing agrigulture in the 16th century.
