"All I Want For Christmas..."

(This essay is going to be a little different from the others I've posted so far in that it has nothing whatsoever to do with my online experiences. But I originally created this area of the site so that I could talk about whatever was on my mind, so...)

December is now upon us, and possibly the most often-heard phrase now is "What do you want for Christmas?" You hear it everywhere now as people start scrambling to get their shopping done.

As it happens, that very phrase has been on my mind a great deal lately. In fact, for the last week, practically every hour of every day has been spent, at least in part, thinking about what I wanted my mother to give me for Christmas this year.

Sounds awfully selfish and materialistic, doesn't it? But it's true. I knew exactly what I wanted, and it was big-- really big. But it wouldn't take up any space under the tree, it didn't require any fancy gift-wrapping, no assembly required, one size fits all, and it didn't cost any money.

You see, I wanted a word for Christmas.

But not just any word would do. I wanted a very special word. A rather small word, actually, but getting it would be the biggest, most meaningful present I could imagine. Anything else I got for Christmas would just be icing on the cake.

Christmas came early this year. I got my word today.

The word? "Benign."

Thanks, Mom. It's exactly what I wanted. :)

(If you want to know what this essay is about, there's more info here.)