During Christmas time, the crowds gather around the squares in the towns around our house when the parades are scheduled to meander by. As they march by, scouts and dancers, cadets and clowns, politicians and DJ's throw candy at the people. This is how they demonstrate the Spirit of Christmas to the masses.

When I sit down at my computer, my kids crowd around as if I am going to throw candy at them. Sometimes I'll find a video on the net or maybe play some fun music for them. Mostly, I'm just trying to do something I have to finish.

Regardless of what I am doing, they pack in around my chair like sardines. Have you ever sat in chair packed around with sardines? It smells like fish.

Sometimes a crowd of children who have been sweating profusely all day in the humid southern summer heat smell like fish.

Sometimes fish smell like children. Sometimes adults smell, too. In fact everyone and everything has a smell, even if there is no smell at all, which probably stands out all the more because everything else does.

So my children gather around my chair and I'm afraid if I move, the casters will roll over some unexpecting toes. Not that toes have expectations. Though if they did, I doubt that being rolled over by casters would be high on their list. I think a toe's greatest expectation would be to spend more time out on the open rather than sweating inside a dark sock pinched in with several other toes by uncomfortable shoes, festering in bacteria and starting to smell.

Come to think of it, being a toe must be very much like being a sardine.

And that is my point. You really can't escape finding yourself in tight, dark, smelly places. When you do, perhaps the best you can hope for is that a clown will throw candy at you.