It's time for a little fun. Here's our annual visit to Santa's private reserve, designed and curated by a talented elf named Kevin at the Cambria Garden Center.
The ability to change is a great human skill, perhaps the most powerful tool to survival. Intellectual growth, physical strength, psychological, emotional or spiritual maturity are necessary for the person and for the tribe or culture. Change is a constant, a process.
Reminders of that came in a recent series of things; the passing of a brilliant mind and public servant, seeing a film, thinking about the changing of the guard in America and the power of this time of year.
Bill Hudnut who served as Mayor of Indianapolis longer than anyone in history, who also served in Congress, as Mayor of Chevy Chase, as the senior Pastor of major Presbyterian churches and as an academic passed recently.
As his health devolved and his heart failed over the last couple of years I was among those who read and responded to his reflections on a gifted and serving life. One cannot watch the demise of another and not reflect on your own temporary lease on life. Great and profound understandings can be found along that ridge line on the edge of the great mystery.
Bill wrote in his valediction-"I leave this earthly life at peace, with
faith and trust in a future that will carry me beyond the bourne of space and
time, but also with wariness of plotting the furniture of heaven or the
temperature of hell. There is much I cannot fathom about the afterlife. Will
there be recognition? What part of me, if any, survives? Forever, or just until
I am forgotten? A little reverent agnosticism seems to be in order, because “now
we see through a glass darkly.” More positively, “we walk by faith and not by
sight.”
...by the sea...
Kenneth Lonergan's elegy to grief, love and family, Manchester By The Sea is brilliant clarity. His film is so honest you find yourself between the characters in a reality that beats with your own heart. Much has been said about Casey Affleck's performance. There are insufficient superlatives to give him his due. Lonergan's directing makes film making, logistics, acting and all of that disappear and he gives you more than 2 hours worth of honesty that crawls into your mind and heart.
...by his words...
It comes late in his life though the President-elect needs to learn the power of truth and the measure of words.
The trouble with big talk and obvious lies is that it diminishes the worth of words. He must be made to realize that his behavior up until now is not suitable for the role he will assume. Hype, overstatement, lies, ego enhancement and predatory behavior may have been condoned in life before, but his life is no longer his own. Words matter. Context of words in a complicated world of diplomacy and subtlety and subtext are tools and strategy.
Those who voted for the man do not like to read this type of analysis, but they must know it matters. If they voted for him, they must own what they bought.
...by the light...
Those of Jewish faith will soon move into Hanukkah or the festival of lights. It is a time of reflection and re dedication.
Christians are deep into Advent-awaiting light in the darkness or peace in chaos. The heart of Advent is the Christmas story, the birth of pure innocence, the Christ child, the Prince of Peace. The object of the season is to prepare room in the heart for the Christ to be born and dwell.
These celebrations of light come as the cosmos dances its annual move of deep darkness, followed by the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night. Then days lengthen and nights shorten. A natural cycle. Faith traditions see it as cosmic poetry. In light there is hope.
Transformation. Change, alteration, metamorphosis, modification, evolution, conversion, progression. And it seems an implication on the purely human scale is that we adapt and evolve or we perish.
...forbidding mourning...
As my friend Gary Pedigo says, "No one gets out of here alive." More transformation work to come.
In his Valediction Forbidding Mourning Bill Hudnut wrote-
"I would not have chosen a long, slow
slide into complete heart failure, but I tried to cope with it with “gaiety,
courage and a quiet mind,” to borrow from my mother who in turn was quoting
Robert Louis Stevenson."...I depart this life believing with St.
Paul (I Cor. 13): “Love can outlast
anything; it still stands when all else has fallen.”
As Cardinal John Henry Newman wrote, “O
Lord, support us all the day long, till the shadows lengthen, and the evening
comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our
work is done, and then in Thy great mercy, grant us a safe lodging, a holy
rest, and peace at the last. Amen.”
Their off and on romance engaged us and once they managed to get past all the obstructions we took delight in their marriage. The birth of their child brought us no end of joy and then suddenly and shockingly Matthew was killed in a freak auto accident leaving Lady Mary a widow with a baby.
Apparently many of us told Godfather Julian Fellowes we were unhappy with the plot-line he had crafted for his inhabitants of Downton Abbey, but in serialized drama, even elegant British Drama, soap operas need a few twists to keep us tuned in.
The promotional season is underway and we countdown to the beginning of 2014 to see how our characters from the early 20th century transfer into the 1920's. It is after all a century ago that we are so engrossed by. Downton Abbey is a hit in 200 nations and is translated widely.
Though it is all fiction, Downton Abbey teaches history in a marvelous and rich way. The British Empire is fading as the English aristocracy bumps into changing mores and social values and even technology. Ideas of liberation, freedom, class discrimination, wealth transfer and management all perk along in the intricate script and plot turns. I was one of those guys who loved history back in high school, but oh how I wish teacher Donald Foreman could have played a few videos, as engrossing as Downton Abbey.
Yes, it's only TV, but such good TV! A masterful opiate for we masses. But still, did they really have to kill off Matthew?! And yes, we'll be there to see how poor Lady Mary copes.
OOPS
Well, I goofed and apparently a few hundred of you also missed it. Last week in a Thanksgiving post, I paid tribute to these "Turkeys." Trouble is, I am told, they are Peacocks. Sorry about that. Now, how is it that so many of you didn't catch me on it? I guess we all need an editor, eh?
OF THE REASONS WE COUNT
MY MOTHER AND FATHER AND THEIR PEERS A Last Stop on the Gratitude Trail
Americans have rightly embraced Tom Brokaw's acclamation of the WW II generation as "the Greatest Generation." My father Karl and my mother Mary Helen played their part. Dad was in the infantry in the South Pacific. Mom was like thousands of other women, waiting and praying for their men to come home from war. When I made my first visit to the World War II memorial, I was there to pay respects to my parents and their peers, most of whom are gone. More than 16 Million Americans were involved, in some way in World War II.
At first I felt a shudder of loss, seeing the 4,048 gold stars. Each star represented 100 deaths. More than 400 thousand American service personnel died. After the shudder I felt an inexpressible sense of gratitude.
This is a place you'll want to visit, next time you are in DC.
And so we transition from the season of gratitude to the merriment of the "Holiday Season."
I hope you have a wonderful and meaningful season of Advent, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice or even bah humbugging. Remember,'... you better not pout or you better not shout..."
