A Most Excellent Christmas Thought

At Our Lady of the Scapular, they have one of those trees were you select a sort of tag off it- and you get a "needy urchin" along with a gift suggestion under $15. Now, I always take the blue tags- as the pink ones invariably mean a trip to "American Girl Place".

Okay, so I'm in the sporting goods store this morning- as the tag read "soccer ball". I follow the rules; I pick this ball for $14.99. Then at the last minute, I think "to heck with that"- and I go back and get the nice, expensive one with "official" and "World Cup" on it.

You know why? I'm not saying the kid who gets this ball is going to grow into the elite striker who, one bright afternoon a decade from now, rifles a rocket in a World Cup Final past some hapless keeper from Gelsenkirchen named "Helmut" or "Juergen".

But you never know.