That time of the year

Well it is that time of the year - the crazy season where everyone wants to meet for a drink and to catch up. I don't really see the point myself - it is nice to catch up with friends, but it seems to get so busy, and I get very tired and frustrated.

And there are presents to buy. I found this nice book by Ian 'Macca' McNamara from Austrlalia All Over and I bought it as a gift for ... someone special (I hope they don't read this). Anyway, I was having a flick through the book and I wondered if I should be doing this. Did it make the book second hand if I read it first? I was careful not to bend any pages, and I didn't open it up too far so it still looks neat and bound, like it did in the shop. But I felt a little guilty, like it was the wrong thing to do. And then I thought, who will know? Does that make it OK to do the wrong thing if no-one will know? And if the gift receiver did know that I had already read the book, would they mind? That helped - I thought that the gift receiver wouldn't mind that I had already read through the book and that helped me feel a bit more comfortable.

Let me share this poem with you. The poem is by Brian Powell of Queensland and published in the book called, 'Song of the Thong':

Ode to 'I'm on a Committee'

Oh, give me your pity,
I'm on a committee'
Which means that from morning to night.
We attend, and amend, and contend, and defend
Without a conclusion in sight.
We confer and concur,
We defer and demur,
And re-iterate all of our thoughts,
We revise the agenda with all our addenda,
And consider a load of reports.
We compose and propose, we suppose and oppose
And the points of procedure are fun,
But through various notions and brought up as motions
There's terrible little gets done.


Ah yes - I have been on many a committee like this. It is a great way to get a message across - using poetry, humor and a bit of fun. I am drawn to poetry and I think I will have a go at using poetry with reflective practice and see how this works. If I am feeling really brave, I will post some here.