C's Circumvented ~ Life Lessons from Wrapping Paper ~ A to Z Blog Challenge

When I began thinking about the A to Z challenge, I thought for a long time about what I wanted to write. I tried to think of ways to find neat things about the English language with each letter. And then I thought, what if that letter didn’t exist? So I am doing an abbreviated version of my Life Lessons series that I normally do on Fridays, but without using the letter of the day. What would life be like without that letter? Let’s find out...

I like wrapping paper. It’s pretty. I have to make myself not buy enormous amounts of it. Unfortunately, it often happens that I don’t have enough time to properly wrap a gift and I end up throwing it in one of the many, many bags I have gathered over the years. (Between getting married and having three babies, I have gotten a lot of bags...)

But, when I have time , I like to make a present really ornate. Ribbons that make looping spirals, bows, and tidy edges really make a gift look good. Sometimes I let my kids adorn the present with images and waxy marking rods. (Really! You try to refer to ... those things without using the letter of the day!)

Then I have to ask myself why. Why does it matter if the bow is angled the right way or if the seam is properly aligned? The really good stuff is under the paper! Most people are going to rip my hard work up in 2.5... small portions of a minute, ball it up, and throw is away. Those that painstakingly remove the wrapping and set it to the side only think they’ll ever use it again. Most won’t.

The same is true in life. We waste huge quantities of time making sure that a person’s first impression of us is favorable. That we have the right friends, the best image, and the most important links. But what do they get when they really get to know us? Is the gift inside better than the wrapping outside?

I spend a lot more time buying the present than I do wrapping it. I need to spend more time      polishing what’s inside me instead of the image I project. What types of wrapping do you hide behind?

Plus, let’s hear your versions of “crayon” that don’t involve using the letter C.