Sports in Society

  Despite the fact that not everyone (including me) is overly fond of sports, they do play a key role in the unity of a country or other group- such as a city, province, or town. A sport doesn't need to be something such as soccer  hockey, or football. It can be checkers, chess, or something else that doesn't actually require much physical movement.

  Many things are needed to make a culture or society work together and become more united. Something that most people can come together to love, and just sort of forget their differences for a while. Sports is one of the things that allows that, because it lets people support the same cause, and brings them together in a sort of unity for the same team or sport. And as long as everyone can feel the same, like they belong to a certain group, the unity that comes with that feeling helps everyone-even a full country- feel like they are united.

  This kind of phenomenon is displayed in the movie Invictus, where a new government authority must bring together a separated country. The main way that he goes about this is by using the country's rugby team to unite everyone under a single cause, and make the country feel like one, feel like they all belong to one thing. Before the people came to feel like that, they were divided into two factions- the white people and the black people- and there was no end is sight of the hatred towards each other ending.

  The movie Invictus creates the perfect picture of how sports can help glue a community  no matter how large is it, together under a single cause and feel united.

Christmas Traditions

  Ah, Christmas. The time of year when basically the whole world goes a little nuts, trying to find the perfect gift for the people in their lives they care about. The time of year that nearly every religion has a celebration for. Even those that are Atheist seem to celebrate December as an opportunity to see family and exchange presents. 

  A trademark of this time of the year is traditions. Almost every family has at least one- some sort of ritual to recognize the season, to initiate the festivities. Traditions are abound for most holidays- but it seems that most of them appear around the Christmas season.

  In my family, every year we buy Chocolate Oranges, which are basically just chocolate strips in the shape of an orange. You always have to whack them against something, because we put them in the freezer. That's the job of my sister, because the rest of us "are weak and hit it too softly" according to her. After that, we all change into pajamas and gather around the T.V. with hot chocolate and our chocolate oranges. 

 

   Christmas movies are not of short supply in my house. Our most commonly watched one is a version of A Christmas Carol with Scrooge played Patrick Stewart. Most years we stay up late, until about midnight or a few times even one in the morning. 

   Usually before any of that starts, we all open one present, determined by my mother. Generally it's something that can used that night- fleece pajamas, a blanket, a stuffed animal, or something like that. One year I even got a music box. 

   Of course, after the movie or sometimes movies, we all go to bed. But it's a well known fact that no one actually goes to sleep for a long while. Most of the time, I stay up the latest, occasionally not sleeping at all. In retrospect, that's probably the reason that we generally go back to bed after the initial openings in the morning, before people arrive around noon. 

   The traditions that are passed down in my family can vary slightly from year to year, but they always stay essentially the same. 

   After all, what would Christmas be without traditions?  

Christmas Glog
http://www.glogster.com/musical123/christmas/g-6l32fjocfrkppg3lvpviea0

Frozen

Winter Poem
(Theme Winter, topic being cold)

Frozen

As the wind howls outside,
Screaming through the trees,
I realized about the temperature the news lied
And my lock is now frozen around my keys.
I shiver and keep trying

But any warmth in my body is slowly dying.
I think of the heated house before me
Where so many warm things await.
I imagine looking through the window and I see
All of the warm things I am being denied by fate-

Hot chocolate, a blanket, and so much more.
So here I sit, so very cold,
Oh, if only I could open the door!
If only I had something warm to hold!
I give the door one more try-

A victory must be nigh!
With a soft click the key turned,
And I am allowed in-
A winter patience learned-
Safe at last from the blowing, windy din.