If you are reading this post then it means a couple of things. 
First, the world did not end. In fact, today is December 23rd so the Mayans must have been wrong or maybe their math was. What do they know? Didn’t their people basically die off? If you can’t avoid that fate then why would I put stock in anything you have to say or predict. Second, if you are reading this, then you’ve clicked past the Google warnings that this site will give you malware or herpes or something nasty or Google has removed that warning and you arrived here safely without being redirected elsewhere to an offer of online porn, Viagra, or something else you may or may not want. I won’t judge.
Remember my last blahg and how I asked for World Peace as my number one Christmas present request? Maybe I should have requested that sooner than Christmas. It seems the world has become a little less peaceful given the recent killings in Newtown, Connecticut. We still don’t know the reasons behind the killings but it makes the world a sadder place. Our thoughts are with everyone there; especially the family who have to try and carry on. More has been said in the media than I care to say here. I will only add that I too agree that guns are a bad thing and the NRA can rub salt. Yes, people kill people but they do it with guns. It’s a lot easier to disarm a maniac with a knife than one with repeating rifles. Enough said.
The other part of this blahg is partly dedicated to the idiot who hacked my website and inserted malicious code. That’s the real reason why Google is warning people away from my website. It isn’t because of anything I said or did. I found the code that was redirecting people to those questionable websites and I removed it. I’ve requested a review from Google to remove me from their quarantine and I hope that will happen before the end of 2012. Why would someone do that to me? Get out of your parents’ basement and find a girlfriend or boyfriend or do community hours. Get back into the world and try and make it a better place rather than trying to tear it down website by website. That’s enough on that too.
So what can we do to make this world a better place? Speak out! Everyone has an opinion and a voice and it’s your duty to speak out against injustice and stupidity. Many voices raised in song have done better to heal than those who sit at the back of the room and just mouth the lyrics. Recently, a Minister in my area spoke in favour of Wind Farm development. His message was boiled downed very simply to a point that we are ruining the world by our reliance on fossil fuels. We can’t go on this way. Yes, there are some problems associated with windmills but wouldn’t it be better to work to make them better than to issue a hue and cry against them as evil and keep polluting the skies with old technology? Unfortunately, the anti-wind people spoke out against this Minister and told him to stick to spirituality rather than environmental issues. The last time I checked, we are all free to be. Free to be whatever we wanted, believe what we wanted, worship how we wanted, love how we wanted. You get the message. I think that Minister is right. We don’t want our legacy to be that we ruined the planet because we were unwilling to move past the old “not it my backyard.” Look at your loved ones, your relatives, your friends, and tell me you wouldn’t want more time with them if it meant giving up your stubborn opinions. I think we all know the answer to that. Let’s move on.
I don’t want this blahg to be all that sombre. There are some good things in this world. There is love and family and laughter and we need to embrace it during these troubling times. I don’t want to be preachy but sometimes we forget to think of all we are blessed with. As I read the letters to the editor responses to the Minister’s energy thoughts, my eye was also drawn to another editorial that was reprinted from a long time ago. The message is simple and in light of Sandy Hook, I want to reprint it here:
“DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
“Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
“Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
“Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?“VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
“115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.”
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
Maybe it’s me but that Editorial is true for many things wrong with our world. We’ve lost that wide-eyed wonder about many things and we’ve grown cynical. It’s no longer neighbour looking out for neighbour but neighbour spying on neighbour. Maybe some of that’s necessary. Maybe if we checked in with neighbour a little more to see how they are doing or what they need then we’d avoid all the tragedies. Again, maybe it’s just me but that’s what I believe.
Now for that laughter we all need. I think I have mentioned before that I once co-wrote and co-starred in a radio sketch comedy show called “Dead From The Neck Up.” The title comes from Archie Bunker and “All In The Family” when he would call his son-in-law a meat-head. He would explain that a meat-head is someone that is dead from the neck up. Maybe that’s not all politically correct and maybe some of our sketches weren’t either. I recently went through some of our show’s Christmas specials (we only had three) and thought I would post them here complete. Maybe they haven’t held up as well over the years but maybe you’ll find something to laugh at in them nonetheless.
The first up is the Christmas show we did from the first season:
I didn’t say we sang well. Next up is the third season Christmas Special:
I know, some of you are probably wondering what happened to the second season Christmas special. I don’t know. I can’t find it. I did however, find two sketches from that season. The first is from Stan The Welcome Mat Man:
The second is from Stan’s sidekick Teddy The Topless Dance:
Well, I guess that tells you how twisted or how even more twisted I can be. That’s it for 2012! I’ll be even more politically incorrect and say Happy Holidays. Celebrate what you celebrate but may peace and love be with us all!
Tags: Christmas, Dead From The Neck Up, Happy Holidays, Peace On Earth, Sandy Hook, Scott Henderson
[…] with the world do get a sequel. The day before Christmas in 2012 I wrote a blahg with the title WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE WORLD? and thought I would not need to revisit the theme. Little did I know that almost 9 years later I […]