Do you think it is unhealthy for family members to spend time away from each other during the Holidays? I ask this, because I would like to have a rip-roarin' good time during Thanksgiving and I want to share this with my bro's and sis's, but I d'not know if they share my same healthy enthusiasm. Also, I want to have a white elephant exchange, because I have been collecting a few white elephants and they are starting to take up too much room, plus they are eating me out of house and home. Please respond as soon as possible so that I can say "na na na na na" to my family naysayers.
Sincerely,
Gnome for the Holidays
2 comments:
Dear Gnome for the Holidays,
I would have to agree on the fact that I think the White Elephants from which you are referring to are the sacred white elephants kept by Southeast Asian monarchs in Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. The white elephant was regarded (and is still regarded in Thailand and Burma) as a sign that the monarch was ruling with justice and the kingdom was blessed with peace and prosperity. The tradition derives from tales in the Hindu Scriptures which associate a white elephant with the birth of Buddha, as his mother was reputed to have dreamed of a white elephant presenting her with a lotus flower, a symbol of wisdom and purity, on the eve of giving birth.
Because the animals were considered sacred and laws protected them from labor, receiving a gift of a white elephant from a monarch was both a blessing and a curse: a blessing because the animal was sacred and a sign of the monarch's favor, and a curse because the animal had to be kept and could not be put to practical use to offset the cost of maintaining it.
Subsequently the U.S. Navy's Alaskan Class battle-cruisers were described as "white elephants" because the "tactical and strategic concepts that inspired them were completely outmoded" by the time they were commissioned – the Japanese heavy cruisers that they were designed to hunt down had already been destroyed.
All that being said, it is my professional opinion that the tradition of getting together on the holidays is a very unwise practice. Crowds spread germs. All that hugging and touching is very unhealthy. There is always some snot nosed kid with a cold that one of your siblings couldn’t stand to leave home and then everyone spends the holiday aftermath 10-20 pounds heavier and sick in bed.
Combine all that with a two thousand pound white elephant? You tell me, do you think any of that sounds in the least bit good for a person’s health? Does anyone think about the elephant going do-do, or am I the only one? I mean seriously. Where would you put all that dung? And with elephant dung there is always that huge dung beetle, so you would have to deal with that pesky problem.
Not healthy. Not in the least bit healthy.
PS,
There might be a type of surgery to take care of your problem. Let me look in to it, because surgery solves everything.
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