




POSITION :
Mom, Mommy, Mama, Ma
Dad, Daddy, Dada, Pa, Pop
JOB DESCRIPTION :
Long term, team players needed, for challenging,
permanent work in an
often chaotic environment.
Candidates must possess excellent communication
and organizational skills and be willing to work
variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends
and frequent 24 hour shifts on call.
Some overnight travel required, including trips to
primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in far away cities!
Travel expenses not reimbursed.
Extensive courier duties also required.
RESPONSIBILITIES :
The rest of your life.
Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily,
until someone needs $5.
Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly.
Also, must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule
and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat
in case, this time, the screams from
the backyard are not someone just crying wolf.
Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges,
such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets
and stuck zippers.
Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and
coordinate production of multiple homework projects.
Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings
for clients of all ages and mental outlooks.
Must be willing to be indispensable one minute,
and embarrassed the next.
Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a
half million cheap, plastic toys and battery operated devices.
Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.
Must assume final, complete accountability for
the quality of the end product.
Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and
janitorial work throughout the facility.
POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION :
None.
Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills,
so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE :
None required unfortunately.
On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.
WAGES AND COMPENSATION :
Get this! You pay them!
Offering frequent raises and bonuses.
A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because
of the assumption that college will help them
become financially independent.
When you die, you give them whatever is left.
The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that
you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.
BENEFITS :
While no health or dental insurance, no pension,The Young’s are very poor; a point that the narrator quickly establishes by describing the shabby estate of their apartment and by the mention of a salary that has shrunken from $30 a week to $20 a week. Della has humiliated herself by haggling at the shops and managed to scrimp away 60 cents of the $1.87 in pennies.
Della has a fit of self-pity as she tries to determine how to buy Jim a worthy gift when suddenly she jumps up and views herself in the pier glass. She lets down her glorious hair; hair that is the pride and joy of both Della and Jim. According to the narrator, Della and Jim have two possessions that are the treasures of the household, Della’s hair and Jim’s watch, which is an inheritance from his grandfather. The narrator underscores the value of these treasures by saying that King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba would be jealous of them despite their own immense wealth.
Quickly, before she loses her nerve, Della leaves the house and sells her hair to Mne. Sofronie for $20. Then she races around town looking for the perfect gift. She finds it in a platinum watch chain, which she pays $21 for. She hurries home and suddenly realizes what she has done. Della prepares supper and tries to fix her hair so that Jim will not be too upset by her appearance.
When Jim comes home, his response is none of the responses, which Della had anticipated. He seems dumbstruck but Della cannot figure out why. Finally, after assuring her that he loves her no matter what, Jim gives her the gift he bought for her. It is a pair of tortoise shell combs that Della has long coveted. Della is thrilled but her joy is quickly followed by sorrow as she realizes she has no hair to wear the combs in. She resolves her feelings by telling Jim that her hair grows fast.
Suddenly, Della remembers her gift to Jim, which she quickly presents to him. Jim’s response is to smile and tell Della that he sold the watch to buy the combs and that perhaps they should put their gifts up and save them for a later time.
The narrator closes the account with a short homily about how the gifts of Della and Jim are as wise as the gifts that the magi brought Christ (the magi being the first givers of Christmas gifts) because their gifts were given out of surrendered treasures and a loving heart.
1 Corinthians 13 Christmas Style
©By Sharon Jaynes
If I decorate my house perfectly with lovely plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights, and shiny glass balls, but do not show love to my family - I’m just another decorator.
If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals, and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family - I’m just another cook.
If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home, and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family - It profits me nothing.
If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties, and sing in the choir’s cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.
Love stops the cooking to hug the child.
Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband.
Love is kind, though harried and tired.
Love doesn’t envy another home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.
Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of the way.
Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return, but rejoices in giving to those who can’t.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
Love never fails. Video games will break; pearl necklaces will be lost; golf clubs will rust. But giving the gift of love will endure.