Have A Hopping Happy Holiday

 Hopping Happy?

Well we’ve probably all heard the expression “hopping mad” right?  So angry we couldn’t stand still?  However, given we also celebrate “Happy” Easter and the mascot of that holiday since created by the Germans in the 1700s has been a rabbit/bunny, it seems reasonable to suggest we might be Hopping Happy as well.  

Certain folks are probably happier than others at Easter.  Depending upon your spiritual beliefs of course  it is a day of celebration, but that’s not all.   If you like candy eat candy or sell candy or if you fix the damage done to your teeth by candy.  Then you should be happy.  Americans alone buy over three billion dollars worth of candy for Easter including 200 million Cadberry eggs alone.  Also if you make cheap baskets out of “real” or plastic Easter is your jam… oh and that plastic grass?  Who came up with that idea?  I bet it was the tinsel people sitting in a marketing meeting and somebody said :we’ve done this in silver, gold, and some other colors and Marvin in the corner chomping on the last candy cane three days after Valentine’s Day said let’s try green.”  Now Mary pulled out her world famous eye roll but just before unleashing  a smart Alec remark licked her lips and said “Yep.. let’s do it.. let’s go green and put it in Easter baskets so parents trying to convince kids a bunny brings this stuff can make it look like there is more stuff by filling these baskets up with something they will call grass.”  We’ve already  got people buying eggs and someday they’ll believe the price of them is economically significant so they won’t buy as many to color them for the baskets… and so we have cheap baskets with plastic grass and we hide some of the candy to watch our kids search around  for things that will rot their teeth…but it’s fun right?  There are a number of apps that include Easter Eggs hunting in them so you can avoid the baskets and grass, however maybe that isn’t really in keeping with the spirit of the “hopping happy” holiday?  

Seeking Peace and Joy for Hopping Happy”

Well… maybe a hopping delivery bunny doesn’t make sense.  Maybe mounds of candy in a cheap plastic basket filled with plastic grass isn’t practical when you stop to think about it?  On the other hand or other foot —aren’t rabbit’s feet lucky?—and maybe the candy we give to kids and others are little shots of colorful happiness?  Maybe peace and joy comes in small doses.  Maybe we should imagine carrying these small gifts around with us and quietly distribute them in unexpected places?  Maybe people should be able to open up a hard shell and find something sweet inside?  In short maybe we all should go for a little hopping happy now and the? 

The world is out of order, perhaps

 A segment to be found in the upcoming “book” effort—

Table of Objects—

Warning!— This table (and the book itself) May Be out of order

So it is expected that written materials, well all lengthy materials will include a table or index to guide folks  to specific chapters, pages, sections, images or whatever.  When your organizing metaphor is a junk drawer  do you really expect traditional organization devices?  Well.. there will be a table of objects with a grouping label.  Just for fun a somewhat serious attempt will be made to present objects and experiences in alphabetic order.  Well not exactly.  You see when something is “in order” people generally don’t give the order of things much attention.  If, instead, you put a sign on something  that reads “out of order” it gets immediate attention.  We aren’t saying positive attention, however, it’s attention  none theses. Like for instance when you’ve had too much soda or coffee and you pull into the rest stop and walk quickly to relieve your bladder and you scout out the restroom only to see the dreaded words—“Out of Order”  that will get your attention.  When you have a craving for M&Ms  and a moderately large handful of change  and you find a vending machine next to that noisy ice machine at the hotel and then spot the nasty taped on half sheet or paper taped over the coin slot… well you get it—out of order  makes you take notice.  

The intent here is not to be annoying yet why not take advantage  of the out of order organization principle?  

Hmm?  

Actually sometimes compromise is the best route.  So If you look really closely to the objects table you might figure out that within the “categories” the objects are listed in order—reverse alphabetical order.  

Why “reverse?”  Generally because it will slow the reader down a bit and let things get a breath.  From the youngest  of ages we teach children the alphabet in alphabetic order  usually by singing that song.  We can recite A to Zed in record time, however doesn’t it take a bit more time and thought to do that in reverse order?  The objects in here mean enough that taking a bit more time is warranted.  Therefore, the section on “keeping Things Together” will start with Zip Ties and wander through to Athletic Tape.  

Before moving forward or backward maybe we should demonstrate that the traditional alphabet  isn’t getting completely disrespected.  After all, it has a long celebrated  developmental history starting way back in the ancient middle east and is sort of known to actually settled a bit by the time of the Roman Empire.  Of course the letters and the word alphabet come from ancient Greece  and speaking of ancient grease I just smelled some Mcdonald’s fries.  Anyway, after J became the final letter added to the modern alphabet  around the 16th century and the & sign didn’t hold onto the 27th spot, we had a system which could be used to “order” everything.   There are more things to be known about this and when you get to the “education” category you will learn more about writing, reading, math, and yes the alphabet and numbers too.  For now we will move ahead and simply acknowledge that the topics here might not fall into an easy order yet if we think about it we might ask—“Does life, time, and/or our experiences and the meanings we give them follow a lock step linear scheme?   

For now remember this

ZY X W V U T S R Q O N M L K J I H G F E D C B A —  Oh where’s the P?  Running down your leg.. didn’t we tell you the restroom was out of order?