{"id":3412,"date":"2011-12-22T19:02:35","date_gmt":"2011-12-22T23:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedockchurch.org\/blog\/?p=3412"},"modified":"2011-12-22T19:08:01","modified_gmt":"2011-12-22T23:08:01","slug":"the-dock-round-robin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dock Round Robin…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Another early start in Dock-World yesterday – as you were treated to my ‘thought’ again this week on Radio Ulster\u00a0(it’s quite stressful having at least one thought per week!) \u00a0(For the next few days you can find it 1:24:30 into Good Morning Ulster on iPlayer here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

The topic this week was the wonderful Christmas tradition of the Round Robin – those info-packed little update letters that sometimes accompany your Christmas cards (and to everyone who has sent me one this year, I love <\/em>them. \u00a0 I really do. \u00a0Yours is the exception that proves the rule.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Simon Hoggart has collected together a brilliant book-full<\/a> of especially excruciating Round Robins. \u00a0Sometimes the problem is too much detail – one letter gives a month-by-month account of the year, with gems like \u201cFebruary – a peaceful month punctuated by dental check-ups\u201d.\u00a0 Some people write Round Robins from their cats, or give surreal insights into their pets\u2019 lives – like the dog being treated by a healer for barking at passing cars.\u00a0 And all the spectacular, high-achieving children; one proud mum recounted how she had asked the teacher if there was any room for improvement in her daughter\u2019s performance, only to be told: \u201cNo, you\u2019ve given me a little diamond, and all I have to do is polish it\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sometimes all the stories of swimming certificates, trombone lessons and trophy-laden mantlepieces get too much.\u00a0 One of the most fascinating things about Simon Hoggart\u2019s book is the outpouring of pent-up anger and frustration from the people who send in their letters for publication. What\u2019s behind such a strong reaction?\u00a0 The general agreement seems to be that the world of the Round Robin is too perfect, a world for those who are living the dream, succeeding, achieving, excelling.\u00a0 And there are sad stories in the book, too, of Round Robin senders whose Christmas letters stop when their lives are affected by tragedy or failure.<\/p>\n

Which is upside-down in a way – the twist at the core of Christmas is that God is with us even when – especially when – we are not remotely glamorous or successful.\u00a0 Mary and Joseph were not exactly living the dream.\u00a0 Imagine Joseph\u2019s Round Robin: \u201cThis year I took my pregnant fiancee on a tortuous journey to an overcrowded town, where we were alone and homeless…\u201d.\u00a0 At Christmas God chose to enter a world, to dwell with people, who hadn\u2019t succeeded, achieved, excelled.\u00a0 \u201cImmanuel\u201d means \u201cGod with us\u201d – with us as we really are – not as we sometimes pretend or wish to be. \u00a0This Christmas, as at that first Christmas, God is with his imperfect people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another early start in Dock-World yesterday – as you were treated to my ‘thought’ again this week on Radio Ulster\u00a0(it’s quite stressful having at least one thought per week!) \u00a0(For the next few days you can find it 1:24:30 into Good Morning Ulster on iPlayer here.) The topic this week was the wonderful Christmas tradition … Continue reading The Dock Round Robin…<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chris-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Dock Round Robin... - The DOCK - Life in the Titanic Quarter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Dock Round Robin... - The DOCK - Life in the Titanic Quarter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Another early start in Dock-World yesterday – as you were treated to my ‘thought’ again this week on Radio Ulster\u00a0(it’s quite stressful having at least one thought per week!) \u00a0(For the next few days you can find it 1:24:30 into Good Morning Ulster on iPlayer here.) The topic this week was the wonderful Christmas tradition … Continue reading The Dock Round Robin… →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The DOCK - Life in the Titanic Quarter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-22T23:02:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-12-22T23:08:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.thedockchurch.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/IMG_0470-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/\",\"name\":\"The Dock Round Robin... - The DOCK - Life in the Titanic Quarter\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.thedockchurch.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/IMG_0470-150x150.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-22T23:02:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-12-22T23:08:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/fbe9b30eaa8f15b156483fad5aa41982\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.thedockchurch.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/IMG_0470-150x150.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.thedockchurch.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/IMG_0470-150x150.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Dock Round Robin…\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The DOCK - Life in the Titanic Quarter\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/fbe9b30eaa8f15b156483fad5aa41982\",\"name\":\"Chris\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a80a50a5b23e38480e5c7963fb589dce?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a80a50a5b23e38480e5c7963fb589dce?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Chris\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.thedockchurch.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/author\/chris\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Dock Round Robin... - The DOCK - Life in the Titanic Quarter","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Dock Round Robin... - The DOCK - Life in the Titanic Quarter","og_description":"Another early start in Dock-World yesterday – as you were treated to my ‘thought’ again this week on Radio Ulster\u00a0(it’s quite stressful having at least one thought per week!) \u00a0(For the next few days you can find it 1:24:30 into Good Morning Ulster on iPlayer here.) The topic this week was the wonderful Christmas tradition … Continue reading The Dock Round Robin… →","og_url":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/","og_site_name":"The DOCK - Life in the Titanic Quarter","article_published_time":"2011-12-22T23:02:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-12-22T23:08:01+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.thedockchurch.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/IMG_0470-150x150.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Chris","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chris","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/","url":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/","name":"The Dock Round Robin... - The DOCK - Life in the Titanic Quarter","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.thedockchurch.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/IMG_0470-150x150.jpg","datePublished":"2011-12-22T23:02:35+00:00","dateModified":"2011-12-22T23:08:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/fbe9b30eaa8f15b156483fad5aa41982"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.thedockchurch.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/IMG_0470-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.thedockchurch.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/IMG_0470-150x150.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/2011\/the-dock-round-robin\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Dock Round Robin…"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/","name":"The DOCK - Life in the Titanic Quarter","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/fbe9b30eaa8f15b156483fad5aa41982","name":"Chris","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a80a50a5b23e38480e5c7963fb589dce?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a80a50a5b23e38480e5c7963fb589dce?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Chris"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.thedockchurch.org"],"url":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/author\/chris\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3412"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3418,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3412\/revisions\/3418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-dock.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}