Cranks My Tractor

The Office Christmas Party

From my December 12, 2016 newspaper Column...  Maybe you can start getting ready early...  It's just 11 months away.

It’s that time of year. A couple of weeks before Christmas, everyone gets to together for the Office “Holiday Party.” I call it the Christmas Party, because I celebrate Christmas. But I do understand that others have different beliefs than I. These are important beliefs like needing to be the first one in line to eat, on the front row of the group picture and not being able to go home without a door prize.

We have our party during the day and stretch lunch out for an extra hour. The best I can figure, the planning for this party takes a great deal of effort. Why? Well, they start sending us messages in October about meetings to plan this party and who is going to bring what and how much everyone needs to kick in. No one ever goes to these planning meetings, so the same person gets stuck making decisions it seems.

Watership Down and Out

Do you remember Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig and Blackberry? Maybe you didn’t have to read “Watership Down” in school, maybe you’ve never seen the animated movie. Well, it’s a tale about a group of rabbits in search of a new home.

Fiver was a small young rabbit with the gift of being able to tell when something bad (or good) is going to happen. Fiver’s brother is Hazel, who is a little bigger and kind of looks out for him. These rabbits, along with a lot of other rabbits decide to leave their warren. A “warren” is the network connecting all the rabbit burrows or holes.

You know rabbits, where there is one, there are many. Fiver got this feeling if they left the security of their home, they would be in grave danger. He told the Chief Rabbit this to no avail; the Chief Rabbit just didn’t believe him.

They go on journeys and end up living happily in their warren after a lot of themes, motifs and symbols. In the book, various folks have determined that the author was hitting on home, leadership, nature and how we deal with adapting, trickery and humanity in general.