A Little More Glurge, Please

It's 3:45 in the morning and I am awake. Our youngest son moved out yesterday and I awoke feeling a little sentimental. Although we have had three other children grow up and move out, he is our baby. He has left before to live in a dorm, but this is different. He has a one year lease on an apartment followed by a wedding date in August 28, 2010. He won't be back.

When I woke up I wandered into his almost empty old room and said, "Oh, sonny boy...". He woke up and said, "What?" I guess he isn't quite gone. He was still sleeping in his old bed. He wasn't here when we retired for the evening but must not have gotten unpacked and settled yet in his new place. In the morning he probably won't remember his mom waking him.

The house is quiet. The yard is full of moonshine. Nothing illegal, just those deep shadows and the brightness of a world highlighted by the full moon. This display of God's nightlight follows last night's spectacular sunset. It was a sunset like you see in pictures found in National Geographic of India with a lavendar sky and a fiery red sun. (Red sky at night: sailor's delight! )

Anyway, I am awake reading email. I got another outrageous one and checked authenticity on Snopes. Their screen opened with category choices. My eyes stopped at the category of "Glurge". http://www.snopes.com/glurge/glurge.asp I chased down that rabbit hole wondering what glurge was and decided a lot of the email that circulates on the Internet is glurge. Look for yourself, but the brief definition is supposedly true stories that are "sweetened" to go down better. Some of these tales are true but embellished. Some are sentimental fiction that have a moral. Some have little truth.

If stories that are sweetened to go down better are "glurge", is there a term for the opposite? What do you call stories that are enriched to be more bitter and mean? What do you call the current situation in this country when we can't to accept at face value a president who wants to encourage school children to do their best? Are we living in an age of "Rush" to judgement?

I read a book by one educator who espoused parents & teachers "Catch Them (children)Being Good". He wanted parents to notice a child's good behavior. Give attention to the good and you will get more of that behavior. Change your focus. There will be plenty of things a kid does that you don't like. Catch them when they don't screw up and encourage them.

Maybe it is time to put politics aside and show respect for the office of the president even if you don't like his politics. Maybe we can catch him being good. Maybe a little sweetness would be in order.