Lost Words

 TALKING TO MYSELF: 21 Dec 2011 . . . James spotted him first, a bit of light streaking the winter sky. I peered through the snowflakes and began to cry because I couldn't make him out. "Look here," James said, pointing. "See?" And then -- oh it was wondrous -- I saw him too, Santa for sure, flying with his reindeer across the night. -- from “The Night Santa Lost His Robe” by Georgia Green Stamper

Ernie Stamper

Our Christmas Card as it was supposed to look - before our computer abducted the quotation etched on the ceiling

Buy this photo

A software error erased this quotation from the front of our annual homemade Christmas card. It was supposed to be printed on the ceiling in this photo of our granddaughter and Santa Claus. In my grandiosity, I hoped to form a lyrical merger of image, words, and childhood wonder. The quotation's mysterious abduction by our computer on the final zip drive may be a metaphor in itself, however – perhaps a statement about postponing projects until the last minute and doing them with too little sleep? Or could it symbolize our computer’s distain for the abstract in general, and in particular for old English teachers' pretension? Why ever, my words are lost in cyberspace. Maybe, if we’re lucky, they’ll find their way to the North Pole, and give Santa a smile during this season that is even busier for him than for us.