How to Own Christmas

Reblogged from Invisible Mikey:

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13,000 Santas in Londonderry - @Arthur Allison

Over time, the best and worst in people becomes concentrated and specified.  The dual nature of Christmas is a superb example.

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Since I'm getting a number of hits on this old article, I guess it's time to bring it back!

An Inclusive Border

Our front deck is 35 years old.  It’s been rained on often enough over the years to penetrate the paint and sealant and cause rot.  We considered how to repair and replace it, and talked with local carpenters over the past two years.

Into Sure Wood

(The best Robin Hood in movies was Errol Flynn’s, performed in 1938.)

I grew up loving stories about Robin Hood.  Were these tales based on the exploits of a real outlaw?  There might have been a number of Robin Hoods in the original region, including some women.  It’s an open question if he really lived or not, but what an inspiring symbol.

This One Starts Out Boring

Firing the big gun (1915)

My recent inability to access the most interactive features here on WP.com are producing interesting results.

To Our Honored Dead

A Memorial Day Observance

My feelings about holidays that commemorate and accept war as a historical inevitability are complicated.  I realize that millions have sacrificed their lives in acts of service to the nation.  That’s a deeply honorable choice, worthy of great respect.  However, wars aren’t really winnable, any more than executing murderers prevents murder.

Jenniconography

WordPress’ latest updates have somehow blocked my ability to comment on other people’s blogs, so although I would have preferred to pass this reaction on directly at http://becomingjennie.wordpress.com/ , I’ll have to do it here. Perhaps those of you who appreciate photography and design will enjoy this kind of analysis.

I don’t know Jennie personally, but the care and craft she puts into her highly confessional blog was instrumental in making me want to start writing again, after a 30-year pause.  Her memoir “I Am Jennie” will be out July 10^th.  The book’s cover portrays her in a manner that says a lot to me.  Have a look:

The Leavening

An extraordinary, miraculous effect occurs as one calendar year begins preparing an exit and the next one prepares for birth.  There’s a lightening of mood.

Black Pepper Friday?

The region of the United States I used to be from is well known for setting trends.  Folks there are the pioneers of all sorts of innovations, good and bad.  A couple of holiday seasons back, prospective customers in Palm Springs were shooting each other over the availability of some price-reduced TVs.  I’m glad to say that sort of dangerous behavior has evolved and improved since.

Letting Go of the Books

It has taken a week, but I moved 50 boxes of books from storage back to the house and put them in piles by subject.  In order to be freer from materialism, you have to free yourself of material (duh).

Understanding the U.S. Occupation

As often happens during a revolutionary movement, icons will be mis-quoted and appropriated and remolded for other purposes.

Uplifted

My neighbor invited me to go kayaking the other day.  It’s one of the things I’m pursuing more since I decided to work fewer hours.  I love kayaking.  Though it is an excellent workout, there’s no need to go fast.

Small Town Graded Down Blues

Miss Anne, an Uptown lady, told us how it used to be.

My little town had the blues last week.  The rest of the world has the blues too, something or other about debts and deficits, but we in the old port town celebrated having the blues with a festival.

Shapeshifting

La Belle et La Bete (1946)

There’s a tension that exists between natural and artificial order.  You can be creative by playing that tension as if it was a tuned string.  If you continue to play, you will undergo a transformation that unifies art and nature.  You merge with everything.

Are You In or Out?

There are two ways to attune your attitude toward the natural environment.  You can generally view it as an outside “thing” to be tamed, shaped, mastered and utilized for resources.  Or you can look at the whole as being an ecosystem, which you are a part of, not an outside agent to.

Here Are More Reasons

I like to leave my back yard wild.

My Point Is…

Table for four – just enough.

At one extreme is meat.  At the other is cake.  I consume neither.  Plants sustain my body.  They are in the middle.

Where There is Charity

Our bodies are instruments, the first ones that were ever played.  Rhythm comes from our awareness of the beat of our hearts.  Melody is the practiced pattern of chosen pitches, but it originates in the verbal interactions between parents and children.  Our baby squeals reached higher and higher pitches.  It gave us delight.  Our parents lulled us to sleep using peaceful vocal tones.

Here’s another example of a song that has managed the trick of time-travel.  Many of you just heard a bit of it last Friday, but didn’t know how ancient it was.  I’ll show you the trail from long, long ago.

As it Appears

My pastor during childhood was a man called Father Elmer.  Toward the end of winter he visited the Sunday school classes to teach the children something about the concept of resurrection.  Little kids aren’t interested or equipped to analyze holy texts.  We wanted to know how Jesus could die, but not stay dead.

What if There Isn’t?

TIME Magazine wimped out.  On the cover was the provocative question “What if There’s no Hell?”  The article inside hardly dealt with the question.

Free Yourself

When someone with more orthodox views about religion calls me a “Cafeteria Christian” I don’t take it as an insult.  It’s supposed to be a put-down to suggest that I pick and choose what I like about Christianity and accept that, and don’t buy other parts of it.