Holiday greetings

This Week In The HSI Healthier Talk Community

If someone wishes me something good, or merry or happy – whether it’s a merry Christmas, happy holiday or simply a good weekend – I take it at face value. They’re clearly offering a kind word that would seem to come from a generosity of spirit.

The recent debate over what type of greeting should be shared during this season gets a humorous send up in a posting that appears in the General Health Topics forum of the HSI Healthier Talk community. A member named Jim13 offers this item, titled “Holiday Greeting (After the Lawyers are done).”

“Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at alland a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2006, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great, (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only “AMERICA” in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishee.

“(By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.)”

And to that I’ll add: Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Peaceful Kwanza, and the very best wishes for a happy New Year.

Other topics being discussed this week in the Healthier Talk community forums include:

• Heart: More cholesterol, please
• General Health Topics: Deodorants and breast cancer
• Dental: CoQ10
• Allergies: Diagnosis of asthma at 48?
• Vision: Eyes tear when out in cold
• Auto-Immune Diseases: Another option for fribromyalgia