Happiness & Kris Kringle

THIS IS NOT A NEW POST, but technology can get the best of me and did so today. I opened this thirteen-year-old post, intending to update the labels (key words used in internet search engines). Somehow I failed to process the tiny change correctly, so now Google Blogger thinks it's a new post. I would completely delete the post except that, for whatever reason, it remains statistically one of the most read posts I've ever shared on the blog, and I wouldn't want to disappoint. :)

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HAPPINESS & KRIS KRINGLE

Happiness is getting positive feedback about my writing--stuff on this blog, an essay published in a newspaper, or even, as happened this morning, a rave about a press release I wrote for my Senior Center Exercise class.

But the phone call that just came in will be a highlight of my year. When the caller, identifying himself as Kris Kringle, told me how much he liked my Christmas letter, I nearly swooned. You see, I recognized his voice immediately as belonging to John Doty, my high school Creative Writing teacher. He and I have exchanged Christmas cards for a number of years. This was the first year, though, I included my annual letter in his card. I felt fluttery when I sealed the envelope, as if I were turning in a writing assignment in which I revealed too much of myself.

The call this afternoon felt like the equivalent of getting an A+ on a class assignment. I'm walking on air . . . while doing the laundry. Not bad for January 4, 2010.