One More Day Closer

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another. ~Thomas Merton

No, I haven't abandoned my notion of keeping the Christmas theme throughout the year.  It's just that I've had a liking for the works of Thomas Merton and came upon this quote early today, or actually yesterday as I'm looking at the clock and realize that as I'm typing this, it's Wed. morning.  Yikes....where, and how did I let the time get away from me.  That'll be another discussion for another post at another time.  But, as I read this quote and was applying it to a situation that I was faced with late in the afternoon with one of my students, the idea of compassion and the interplay of ALL people sort of struck home.  And, while my student and his interaction with another student was foremost in my mind, the harmonious bonds that our people in our country and the world should allow to ferment became very clear.  So, in keeping with the Christmas theme, I leave you with those famous words as he sprung into his sleigh...."Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight"

23 Days

My most recent posts and theme has been associated with Christmas and it's relativity to light, space, time and how far we move away from Dec. 25th and/or how close we'll eventually get to it again.  And the title of this post would lend one to think in terms of 23 days from Christmas Day.  But, it's hasn't been 23 days from Christmas if we do the math.  It's actually been just 13 days.  So, where is he coming up with 23 days?  I'm looking at 23 days from the Sandy Hook Tragedy.  The shock and sorrow of it's occurrence hasn't left me yet.  We returned to school this week and seeing the faces of the kindergartners in the room I'm assigned to has brought it all home.  I think of the parents of those 20 children so mercilessly slaughtered in what they so innocently believed was a safe haven, creates for me such a moral injustice that defies description.  I think of their worlds so disrupted in the blink of an eye, the stir of a moment, and how they're defining life (and death) in these last 23 days.  But life is a continuum and not matter what direction it occurs, they're sorrow and grief has been confirmed.  Words of consolation, prayer, discussion, and the absence of their children unfortunately does not minimize what has happened.  It's only been 23 days.  When my best friend died several years ago, I attempted to  chronicle his death by defining it in terms of the days since he had died.....10 days.....25 days.....60 days....  It was a bleak register of telling myself when that grief had occurred and how my life was progressing (or not) from it.  And even to this day, I can think in terms of Feb. 15, 2011 or Aug. 16, 2011 at being well over 800 days.  And while the time has certainly left me, the sadness and it's impact on me has not.  I think of these parents and how they may look upon next Dec. 14th, 2013 with the misery and anguish they will come to feel then; and not just on that day, but how they will discern this each day of their lives.

I know there has been an out pouring of compassionate and empathetic response for these families and the community of Newtown.  Here's mine.

A SOALIN'

It has been several years since I last decorated my house at Christmas.  The last two years were somewhat beleaguered and the mood wasn't supported by general festivities that usually accompany Yuletide joy.  However, I felt somewhat intimidated by neighbors efforts at fun and frolic this season so I joined in the decorative spirit.  The practice of putting up decorations at Christmas has a long and storied past.  In the 15th Century, London custom showed every house to be "decked with holm, or ivy," (hence, where we get the song "Deck the Halls with boughs of ivy") and the custom of putting lights on our homes, it is thought to have originated with a Roman Emperor who was of the Invictus Sol religion which worships the sun, and the winter Solstice was their greatest celebration.  Many cultures that were subject to deep darkness and cold, would light candles, or build fires, bonfires to lend strength to the waning power of light....to help light triumph over darkness.  The idea of putting a candle or light in each window lends to the Judaeo/Christian belief that Christ as the light of the world will triumph over evil or sin.  The time frame when the lights will come down was typically the 12th Night after Christmas or Jan. 5th.  So, I guess I have until the weekend to decide.  I know as I look about my neighborhood, that most of the lights on homes have already come down, but there are a few of us "holdouts".  

I'm also including in this post one of my favorite Christmas tales.  Well, it's not exactly a Christmas tale but a traditional English song popularized by Peter, Paul, and Mary.  The song is called "A Soalin'" and the soul cake was traditionally made for All Saints Day or All Souls Day to celebrate the dead.  The "cakes" were simply referred to as "souls"and were given out by mourners-typically children and the poor would go from door to door, not on Christmas, but on Halloween singing and praying for the dead.  Each cake eaten would represent a soul being freed from Purgatory.  This practice of giving and eating of the soul cakes is often referred to as the origin of Trick or Treating.  The video I've posted here is the version where Paul does his now famous comedy routine about American children and their "custom" of trick or treating.  Enjoy

357 Days Until Christmas or Wed. Night-Jan. 2, 2013

As I sit down at the "pearlie whites" and get into a fierce debate with myself about what to write for my next blog post, I question my rationale in how long I'll be able to keep up this pace in keeping this Christmas theme in my posts.  The local radio stations have abandoned the Christmas music already.  Odd in that most of them started their "theme" music just before Thanksgiving.  I always scoffed at this as I tended to bastardize this idea believing it would become ad nauseam far to early and that by the time Dec. 25th rolled around, listening to "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" would lead most of us, including me, into serious reflection on how much cymbalta it would take to bring us back to reality.     And surprisingly, (at least this year), I haven't felt that way at all.  In fact, I continue to listen to several of the Christmas CD's I made as they're in my car CD player.  I mentioned in a previous post that a couple of songs have or are my favorite Christmas tunes, "My Grown Up Christmas List", "Where Are You Christmas?", and "Mary Did You Know?".  And the theme or message in these songs aren't just for this time of year, but for the remainder of the year as well.  I think of the words in Grown Up Christmas List and how can one not be absorbed by the words, "not for myself, but for a world in need", no more lives torn apart, that wars would never start", or as Faith Hill charms us with, "where are you Christmas, why can't I find you, why have you gone away?" Christmas doesn't have to change as long as we validate in ourselves that this spirit must refuse to die.  "Christmas is here, everywhere, Christmas is here if you care, if there is love in your heart and your mind, you will feel like Christmas all the time".  This is the theme I refuse to let go.  Whether I'm 357 days until Christmas, or 45 days until Christmas.  I know this particular post is very similar to my post a few days ago as I use this same song.  For me, it's about the impassioned precept of not just a world where we can live in peace, but in your neighborhood, your workplace, your home. Please join with me in sharing this love with each other.  In light of the horrific tragedies that occurred so close to Christmas this past year, or even the shameful behavior of our governing bodies, I think of all people-Rodney King may have said it best, "Can we all get along"?

359 Days Until Christmas, or The Last Day of 2012

This day began like any of the other 364 that went before it; without fanfare, no parades billowing out their untold musical notes, no press conferences to obliterate the public of unmitigated gall.  Ahhh, such is the solitary life of the 62yr. old suburbanite living precipitously on the edge!!  Where is the bantering wit that so often betrays me that on this, the last day of 2012, that some philosophical vintage can not grace these pages and impress the masses?  I think it's simply that as I look back on those 364 days and this one in general, that looking gloriously for some form of "splendor in the grass" is not necessary anymore.  I look at what took place in this last year and reflect on it's significance in my life and how it has changed me or more so, have I effected change in someone else's life.  I had one such encounter several months ago and it had been one of those, "if I ever get the chance again" moments that fortunately did occur.  It is by far and away the most important encounter that occurred for me and while I'm so thankful it happened, it taught me a valuable lesson.  I rely on a Buddhist teaching on this one: "The secret is to want what you have and not want what you don't have." It showed me how love can span the test of time and that what we believe was once lost can be certainly found again.  And Tennyson's oft quote, "Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all" certainly has an element of equivalence here.  And so, I think not of a missed opportunity of years gone by, but the very grace that it happened at all and that the love still exists today after all this time.

I think also of those that aren't here with me; those who have gone before and await my arrival.  I think of Mom and how she'd be eating herring in just about an hour.  It was one of those superstitions that warranted her a look into the future and she'd have good luck for the upcoming year if she'd only eat those silly stinking fish at midnight.  Dad would be bar tending and I'd be waiting for him to walk through the door, just to know he made it home safe.  I'd wander around the house looking for Piper and Dancer to come bounding up the steps ready to jump in bed.  But, I'll look at my Buddhist saying, and "want what I have" and be so very thankful for them.  So, Kody, Remy, Riley, Georgy, and Re-Re, Happy New Year, Love, Dad

361 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS

As in yesterday's post, I mentioned a I sometimes will adhere to a somewhat jocular frame of mind and pass on some amusing stories.  A good friend of mine passed this one to me (thanks, Sal)  You've know doubt heard the expression, "shit for brains"....here it is!  Enjoy the day!

The Little Girl on an Airplane

An atheist was seated next to a little girl on an airplane and he turned to her and said, "Do you want to talk? Flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger."  The little girl, who had just started to read her book, replied to the total stranger, "What would you want to talk about?"  "Oh, I don't know," said the atheist.  "How about why there is no god, or no Heaven or Hell, or no life after death? as he smiled smugly.  "OK," she said.  "Those could be interesting topics but let me ask you a question first.  A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff-grass.  Yet  a deer excretes little pellets, while a cows turns out a flat patty, but a horse produces clumps.  Why do you suppose that is?" The atheist, visibly surprised by the little girl's intelligence, thinks about it and says, "Hmmmm, I have no idea."  To which the little girl replies, "Do you really feel qualified to discuss why there is no God, or Heaven or Hell, or no life after death, when you don't know shit?"  And then she went back to reading her book.

Ahhhhhh, the wisdom of a child....can't say enough about them!!

AND, ON WE GO-362 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS!!

We received our first dusting of snow today....nothing of Glacier Park proportions, but it's covered the ground (not the streets), and as I gaze out my window and watch the last remnants trying to deplete itself from the wayfaring clouds, my mind still is engrossed by the failing days of Christmas.  I had received an email from a dear friend across the country yesterday and the "subject" of the message, she had entitled, "Two Days After Christmas".  I briefly told her of my latest blogging entries and how I am steadfastly yearning not to divorce myself from the Christmas season or spirit.  Jokingly I said maybe subsequent emails to her would be entitled as such: "360 Days until Christmas, or 359 Days until Christmas......"  So, in keeping with this theme is why I've named this blog entry, "362 Days Until Christmas".  If you're a regular reader of my blogs, (can't see why not : >)))-there's wisdom, entertainment, good photography, and some humor) you'll know how much I love snow.  And, what better way to assimilate the Christmas season than with snow.  I mean, isn't this how Santa makes it around the world so quickly?  It's much easier to land on our roofs, get out of his sleigh, and have Rudolph and Co. get a flying start with snow on the roof.  Granted, our snow was a few days late, but I've got it on good authority that he's been still delivering presents in our area.  There was a dastard comment he heard called "Fiscal Cliff" and didn't want to disappoint any of the children.

But getting back to this snow thing and it's absorption into the folklore that if it must be Christmas, there must be snow.  As my last several blogs have had this Christmas theme, they've also touched upon the understanding that if it's Christmas, there must be snow, and so, there must be Christ.  In previous blogs I don't disguise my unrelenting belief in Faith and how it sustains me now.  And as I watched the undiluted ice crystals fall helplessly to earth, the serenity of His promise to all, "Come to me all you who are labored and burdened, and I will give you rest" lulls me into muted tranquility.  It's this element of Christ that we so inexcusably take from this season.  And maybe this is what I'm trying to vigorously defend....keep Him not just now, but for the rest of the year as well.

IF YOU JUST "BELIEVE"

Since we're only a day after Christmas, I wanted to continue on this theme of "believing" in Santa Claus before the notion begins to slip away.  I don't want to diminish or have some form of miscarriage that just because Christmas has come and gone, the idea of Santa Claus has to go as well.  I love this song, "Believe" because it summons not just the children and their unfailing wish to see this cherub, jolly, rascal, but the adult as well.  How often to the parents put up the guise for their children, and yet take them each year to sit on his lap and pour out their heart in the hopes that he will deliver.  Don't we just take this idea on faith as the central theme in the movie "Polar Express"?  It is one of faith that leads us not to just Santa Claus but our Creator as well.  We "believe" without seeing and yet we so much want to see and believe those most important things that we can't see-Santa Claus and God.  Maybe because of that very importance, we must believe.  As a child, and even as an adult, aren't we challenged daily by our core belief system and rely on faith, hope and awe in a Higher Power?  If we're to lose this, what becomes of our world?  Do we lose that sense of expectation and excitement and life begins and turns boring?  But, by fostering these elements we not only nurture and preserve them, we garner them for our very existence.  We continue to scrutinize, question our faith and our belief system for this is what challenges us mentally.  Not to lose this ability continues the childlike innocence of our youth into our adulthood.

Where Are You Christmas

This song is rapidly becoming one of my, if not my favorite Christmas song.  This, along with the beautiful song, "My Grown Up Christmas List" that I referenced several days ago.  But I look upon this song and its meaning of not letting the idea of what Christmas is all about fade away.  I'm not just referring to the idea that we so often take Christ out of this time of the year, but that random acts of kindness seem to take place at this time of the year.  The local radio stations begin playing Christmas songs usually just after Thanksgiving to get people "in the mood" and then will stop usually just a day or two after Christmas.  Why does Christmas, or at least the idea of what it is about leave us, Dec. 26th?  With the recent tragedy in Sandy Hook School, people are taking up the cause of doing 26 random acts of kindness.  This time of the year is also familiar with giving and sharing.  People are donating turkeys, volunteering at the local shelters, finding homes for the homeless, paying off the layaway balances for customers at Wal Mart.  Do we need a particular time of the year to remind us to do this?  I'm aware that there are isolated incidents that occur throughout the year but the awareness seems to be only heightened at Christmas.

"Where are you Christmas
Do you remember
The one you used to know
I'm not the same one
See what the time's done
Is that why you have let me go"

As Faith sings in this verse, is it Christmas that has "let her go"?  No, we've let Christmas go...on Dec. 26th or some time soon after.  If only we can keep that verve or sense of favor in our hearts the other 364 days during the year.  It's something that I try to impress upon my kindergartners, hard that it is, since their world revolves around an X-Box, or the latest video game, or Transformer.  But as I try to leave in their hearts that "Santa"doesn't just come once a year to deliver their presents but he sits deep inside of them each and every day as he looks out for them and that the love that exists there doesn't just fade away on Dec. 26th.  To keep it there, "the joy of Christmas stays inside us and fills each and every heart with love".

Merry Christmas, Mom and Dad, Piper and Dancer....I miss you

My Grown Up Christmas List

"And she brought forth her firstborn son; and she wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."

As I sat this evening at Midnight Mass and listened to these words like I've listened to them each Christmas evening for the last 50+ years or for the number of years that I can recall hearing them, my thoughts drifted some 1044 miles to the east to Newtown, Ct.  I still think of these young children whose lives were so inexorably stripped from this earth.  It is, as I have aptly named this post, "My Grown Up Christmas List"that the events that took place on Dec. 14th not be so forgotten in such a callous way that the path to change will not be given up so easily.  As the words to David Foster's song continue, "no more lives torn apart", reach out to not just the Newtown community, but the world in general.  Imagine the irony of my words; asking to remember such a tragedy and on a completely paradoxical flavor, that no more lives be torn apart?  One can whittle this inside their brain and wonder what has become of his thought process?  But what I'm asking is that this tragedy NOT be so easily forgotten as previous events as this that no change ever took place.  All of us in a small way are responsible to (I include myself in this endeavor) to take this to those that can effectively see that this is stopped once and for all.  Am I dreaming, as Foster continues in his song...."why is this illusion call the innocence of you?, maybe only in our blind belief can we ever find the truth".  Can we NOT see the innocence of these young children who will never see another Christmas?  And she "wrapped him swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger".  These mothers and fathers will never have that opportunity to take their Noahs, Graces', Jacks, and Daniels, wrap them in their clothes, carry them to bed, and tuck them in ever.  It will be one of the most agonizing traumas of their lives.  "No more lives torn apart, that wars will never start, And time will heal our hearts".  Can any of this occur for these people, for this world?  I recall the words of Fr. Dale's homily this evening, "let us remember these 3 words and apply it to our world; immensity, intensity, and intimacy".  This is part of my Grown Up Christmas List for 2013.