A Christmast Surprise for Gramma Essay Example for Free

A Christmast Surprise for Gramma Essay A Christmas Surprise for Grandma by Gloria J. Shuttleworth Grandma lived on Sugar Creek Mountain all alone. It was a beautiful mountain, with tall cedar trees all over the mountain top. In the middle of the mountain was a crystal clear lake. The water in the lake was the prettiest blue youve ever seen. When the water was calm, you could see the fish swimming around in the lake. I loved sitting by the lake when I was a little girl. Grandma would pack us a lunch, and we would sit at the lake for hours on end. Hour after hour, grandma would tell me stories about her life on the mountain. I remember the day that grandpa drowned in the lake. My parents had tried to talk grandma into moving into town, but she wouldnt hear of it. My parents knew not to argue with her, because they knew that grandma was set in her ways. Ive been on this mountain for so long that Ive forgotten which is the oldest, me or the mountain, grandma had said, with a twinkle in her eyes. I knew my parents worried about her being alone, because grandma was the only person who lived on Sugar Cliff Mountain. Today I was going to visit grandma, and the excitement grew inside me at the thought of spending time on the mountain once more. After all, it had been ten years since I had seen grandma. Its hard to believe that my career had kept me away for so long. As I approached the top of the mountain, I could see grandma staring out the window of her little log cabin home. Grandma greeted me at the door with a big hug. I am so happy that you could come to visit with me, said grandma. This Christmas is going to be so wonderful! I have a special surprise for you dear. Little did grandma know that I had a very special surprise for her as well. Well, we cant stand around here all day, said grandma. Theres a lot of work to get done. I have invited the people from the village to come to my Christmas party on Saturday evening. After I had freshened up a bit, we spent the day baking all sorts of cookies and candies. Grandma had a story to tell as we baked the goodies for the party. She told me about how she used to bake apple pies for grandpa. He loved apple pies, said grandma. Those were his favorite. She said that after the pies would cool off, that grandpa would send her into the living room, under the pretense that he would clean up the kitchen. Grandma knew what he was really up to, but she never let on that she knew. Grandma would go into the living room and sit in her rocking chair. She would sing some of the songs that she knew grandpa loved. About an hour later, grandma would wander back into the kitchen. Why Henry! she said kitchen, grandma retired for the evening. I made myself a cup of tea and sat down in front of the fireplace. Sitting alone in the quiet house, I pondered my childhood memories of my grandparents. They had always been such a fun loving and happy couple. Shortly after they were married, grandpa built the log cabin home for his Little ole Emmy, as he called her. Just before Christmas, almost twelve years ago, grandpa was outside gathering firewood, when grandma heard a horrible scream and a terrible noise. She ran outside to find that an area of the ice on the lake had fallen through. She yelled for grandpa over and over but no reply ever came. They searched the lake for over a week, but no trace of grandpa could be found. Finally, they called off the search. One of the men who had helped in the search said theyd probably never find grandpa now. Just then, as my thoughts were still racing around in my head, my grandmother brought me back to reality. We have to be up very early in the morning dear, so off to bed now, she said. I slowly walked to my grandmothers room, and kissed her goodnight. Morning came early at grandmas house. As I entered the kitchen I could smell the homemade biscuits and gravy cooking on the stove. Whats on our list of things to do today? I asked. The men are coming from the village this morning to put the lights on the trees, and we have lots of presents to wrap for the children, she said. Just then, there was a knock at the door. It was the men from the village ready to start putting up the lights. Grandma was so excited as she stepped back to watch them. Lets wrap those presents now Laura, said grandma. As I watched grandma wrap the presents and tie the ribbons, I knew that so much more was being placed around them. With each piece of wrapping paper grandma was also wrapping them with love. After the last present was wrapped, we realized that wed been wrapping presents all day! It was now getting dark outside and grandma wanted to go outside to view the lights. As we stepped out onto the porch, we gasped. The sight that met our eyes was so beautiful to behold! The snow was glittering and the reflection of the lights on the snow was beyond words! It was breathtaking! That night I went to bed with a heart full of love for my grandmother. I knew that someday I wanted to be just like her, full of love for others. Saturday evening the village people started arriving just after dark. Grandma always waited until evening to have her Christmas party, because she loved the lights. All the guests gathered around in the front yard and began to sing Christmas carols. Oh, how grandma loved that! Ole Ben was a jolly fellow who worked at the village store, and he was chosen to help Santa hand out the presents. The children shouted with glee, as they unwrapped their gifts. Grandma said, Laura, come here dear, I have a surprise for you. As she handed me the present, I could see the love and pride in her eyes. I love it grandma, I said, as I bent down to kiss her cheek, I will cherish it forever. Grandma had made a quilt out of some of my dresses that I had worn as a little girl. Grandma, if you could have just one special gift for Christmas, what would it be? I asked her. Without even stopping to think, she replied, I would like t o see your grandfather just one more time, so I could feed him the apple pie that the horses quit snatching when he left us. Just then grandmas face lit up like the lights on the Christmas tree! Everyone turned to see what grandma was looking at. Walking slowly toward her, with an apple pie in his hand, was grandpa! There was two slices missing from the pie that he was holding. The village people were speechless, as they thought they were seeing a ghost. Grandpa chuckled, as he yelled out, Emmy, those darn horses snatched the pie and got away with two pieces. Difference to me, but slowly my memory started to return. I remember now going out to gather firewood. There was a nice piece of wood on the lake. I thought the lake was frozen over so I stepped out on the lake to get the piece of wood. I remember hearing the lake crackle and thats the last I remember about the accident. Laura, how can I ever thank you for bringing grandpa home to me? asked grandma. Laura replied, Seeing the happiness and the love you have for each other is all the thanks I need. As Laura retired to bed that night, she couldnt help but think about the surprise that she had given to grandma for Christmas. She knew in her heart that it was the best surprise present that grandma would ever get. What a warm and wonderful feeling came over Laura as she fell asleep, thinking of her grandparents.

Narrative vs. Montage Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Each film has a distinct purpose associated with it. Whether this purpose is as simple as teaching children a valuable lesson or as complex as criticizing a society’s barriers, there are explicit goals which must be discerningly conveyed. There are specific elements to filmmaking which are designed to contribute to the goals set forth when making a film. Such elements include what would be considered â€Å"aesthetics of astonishment,† or striking images, editing conflict and other techniques associated with montage filmmaking. Each of these techniques imprint a thought or logic on a film – a kind of â€Å"watermark† – that pushes the film itself towards the accomplishment of the original goals. Regardless of the need for the completion of these â€Å"higher goals†, a director’s ability to keep a viewer’s undivided attention is crucial to the success of a film. Each viewer must remain fascinated from start to finish by the plot a nd characters, or he will lose interest in the film. So, when a film relies on a strong narrative base to keep its audience captivated, there is little room for variation from the elements which depict the story best. Striking montage images or techniques, if not carefully placed, can have a tendency to take the viewer’s eye from the progression of the narrative and turn their thought to something else.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Quite often, montage aspects of a film are deliberately placed to invoke specific thoughts or feelings. Such techniques can be employed to even go so far as to provide an alternate connotation to an event than what the average viewer would normally formulate. Parallelism is a method designed to do just that. This technique allows directors to have his audience associate a single action or event with a secondary action or event. The Strike parallels the slaughter of a cow and the execution of factory workers to generate a deeper emotion than one would normally associate with murder. The audience does not view the execution as merely mass murder, but instead they compare the soldiers to a butcher and connect the murder itself to something heartless and revolting – a slaughter. The Strike seems to tastefully use this method to strengthen the purpose of the film itself: a criticism of murder and execution. There is, however a fine line between what is tasteful and what is not. If this techniqu... ...en were sickened by the excessive visual conflict. Needless to say, these flashes took a significant amount of attention away from the narrative itself, and one can safely assume that such an event would tend to make a film rather unpopular.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If the aesthetics of astonishment are not employed whatsoever, the film loses its purpose and becomes an empty recital of the actions of its characters. This deems the striking montage elements necessary. If these elements are overdone, then the audience can and will lose sight of the narrative element. Should this cause the audience to lose interest in the film altogether, then the film is a failure and the director loses credibility. The most important aspect of creating a film is finding a healthy medium between completing the objective of the film and presenting the narrative. Directors are responsible for depicting the necessary montage elements in a film while avoiding creating what Gunning describes as â€Å"an excess of mimesis† (FTC). One could argue that this very conflict is what distinguishes films that find this medium as â€Å"great films.† Books used to support this paper: Film Theory and Criticism Film Art

The American Health Care System is Most Expensive but not the Best in the World

No doubt, the United States has gained enough attention on the amount it spends on health care every year. Ten years ago, it was documented that America spends $4,178 per capita per year on health care (Chua 5) with the second greatest spender spending almost just half of what this country spends. Switzerland, which then held second place in health care spending, spent only $2,794 per capita per year on health care. Up to the present, 15% of this country’s GDP goes to health care while most of developed countries spend only an average of 8.6% of their GDP on health care (Chua 5). By far, the United States is the greatest health care spender among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. In spite of the whopping amount that goes to health care each year, it could be argued that Americans spend a lot on health care without providing the best possible health services to Americans. This is the position that shall be defended in this paper. To be able to show that the American Health Care System lags behind in spite of spending, it will be best to first establish certain standards.For this paper, the standard set by the World Health Organization (WHO) should be used. In 2001, WHO pegged the goals of world health care into three: good health, responsiveness, and fairness in financing (WHO in Bureau of Labor Education of the University of Maine 1). By good health, WHO simply refers to having desirable health for the citizens within the expected life cycle. This would mean the availability of health services that could aid the citizens live a flourishing life from birth until death.Responsiveness, on the other hand, refers to â€Å"the extent to which caregivers are responsive to the client/patient expectations with regard to non-health areas such as being treated with dignity and respect† (Bureau of Labor and Education o the University of Maine 6). Fairness in financing refers to a health care system that makes the less privilege also spend less. This means probably having payment caps or similar services that relieves the less privileged of health expenses. Given such, we could now look at how the American Health Care System measures up to such a standard.In spite of America’s big spending on health care, more than 50% of spending is still done by private entities: 35. 8% are paid for by private insurance (American Hospital Association 6). Consumers’ out-of-pocket spending on health care account for 13. 7% of the 2003 health care expenditure, while other private expenditure account for 4. 8% of the expenditure (American Hospital Association 6). In spite of the very large per capita spending of the state on health care, out-of-pocket spending and other private expenditure are still big.This probably may not be a very bad thing, but in spite of all the money going to health care, a large 15% of non-elderly adults do not have access to health care since this population is uninsured (Ch ua 1). Converted to numbers, this amounts of millions of non-elderly American adults who through some reason were unable to get either a publicly or privately funded insurance. This puts this population at risk, millions of potentially or actually productive Americans whose health is at risk because of some faulty health care system.If millions of non-elderly adults are at a health risk due to lack of access to health care, the elderly also have their own share of problems in health care. It is true that the elderly aged 65 and above have access to Medicare. This means that the seniors have access to hospital services, physician services, as well as prescription drug services (Chua 2). This sounds all good but there are geriatric needs that are not covered by Medicare. This forces the elderly to avail of premiums that would make their Medicare account more useful for geriatric needs.The premium account would make the senior citizen have access to nursing facilities; preventive care coverage; and coverage for dental, hearing, or vision care. As such, the elderly would have to spend a total of 22% of their income for the cost of health care (Chua 2). It could be noticed that the premium account covers services that should be basic for the elderly. These services may be optional for younger populations but these become real needs for people aged 65 and above.As such, it becomes a source of wonder why an insurance card that is designed for the elderly and the disabled requires an account upgrade for services like nursing facilities, dental, hearing, and vision care. The United States ranks poorly in infant mortality rate compared to other OECD countries: it ranked 26th in infant mortality rate among the industrialized countries (Bureau of Labor Education in the University of Maine 5). This speaks of a big problem somewhere in the health care system that fails to save infants in instances that ought to be curable.America also ranked 24th among the OECD countries on disability-adjusted life expectancy rate. This means that many Americans are expecting to live a part of their lives as disabled. This should not come as a surprise since millions of Americans do not have good access to health care. Given the above reasons, America spends too much but inefficiently. We may have the biggest spending rate on health care but America is far from being the best health care service provider in the world. Works Cited American Hospital Association. 2005.Overview of the US health care system. Database online. http://www. aha. org/aha/issues/CBHCS/index. html. Bureau of Labor Education of the University of Maine. 2001. â€Å"The US healthcare system: best in the world or just most expensive? † Chua, Kao-Ping. 2006. â€Å"Overview of the US Health Care System† under the AMSA Jack Routledge Fellowship. http://www. amsa. org/uhc/CaseForUHC. ppt. 2007. â€Å"Health Care in the United States. † http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Health_care_in _the_United_States.

Perpetua s Defiance Of The Young Christian Martyr

Throughout the life of the young Christian martyr, Vibia Perpetua, she was placed under strict expectations based on her gender by the Roman society. Perpetua defied the expectations placed upon her since birth by converting to Christianity, yet she still showed ambivalence towards her role as a woman in the new community. This essay will analyze Perpetua s defiance of the gender expectations of both the Roman community and Christian church and the way Perpetua defined her own role as a woman in conflicting societies. In Perpetua’s time, the Roman culture had strict views on gender and the role of a woman in society. Early Roman society families had a patriarchal structure meaning the father was the head of the family. The strongest tie within the family was that between a father and a daughter. Daughters were expected to â€Å"[forge] political and social ties† for fathers (Salisbury 6). A Roman daughter was favored the most; they received the best education overseen b y their fathers. The purpose of a strong education was â€Å"to pass on to their sons the values of Rome† as well as help her to be a good mother in the future (Salisbury 7). A woman’s purpose in the Roman culture was reproduction in order to continue lineage. In addition to strict family and social rules, Roman women joined cults with specific rituals for females to perform. A woman’s role in Roman society was â€Å"defined by cults†¦to preserve social order† (Salisbury 12). Women joined a specific cult depending on theShow MoreRelatedGender Roles Of Civic Duties And Raising Children1466 Words   |  6 Pagesof civic duties and raising children in her community because she was female. Perpetua defied the expectations placed upon her since birth by converting to Christianity and used the freedom of the Christian religion to show her independence and create her own role as a woman. This essay will analyze Perpetua s defiance of the gender expectation s of civic hood and motherhood of the Roman community, and how the Christian community allowed her to define her own identity as a woman on her own terms in