dual personalities

Category: Christmas

December 8, 2016

Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling, “Yoo hoo”

by chuckofish

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How’s the Christmas shopping coming? Got those Christmas cards addressed?

Me neither.

But take heart. You know everything will come together and all will be well by Christmas.

Need a great gift idea? Here’s one from Mockingbird:

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or this:

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Who knew there was such a market for Episcopalian swag?

But let’s try to regain our perspective. Seriously, this woman was the real deal! She didn’t need a t-shirt to validate her way of life.

Hang in there.

(The t-shirts are available here.)

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December 5, 2016

Look toward the east, O Jerusalem*

by chuckofish

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Call him a stick-in-the-mud, a dinosaur, a fusty throwback, but indeed, jumping into the fray the day after Halloween was akin to hitting, and holding, high C for a couple of months, while a bit of patience saved Christmas for Christmas morning and kept the holy day fresh and new.

I re-read Shepherds Abiding by Jan Karon over the weekend and enjoyed it thoroughly. Although I agree with Father Tim about getting ahead of ourselves in regards to the Christmas season, we did go ahead as usual and buy our trees. They’re not up yet–they’re in the garage for now. I’ll try to get the little one up in the dining room this week, but I’m not going to stress about it. At least I don’t have a bad cat to deal with like the boy does.

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In between getting organized for Christmas, doing laundry and sundry household tasks, and going to a baby shower for daughter #3,

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I watched Donovan’s Reef (1963)–a film which the New York Times described at the time as “sheer contrivance effected in hearty, fun-loving, truly infectious style.” I would agree with that assessment whole-heartedly.

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It takes place at Christmas and includes an amusing Polynesian Christmas pageant, so I count it as a Christmas movie.

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Directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Lee Marvin, it is heavy-handed in the Irish humor department, but if you’re in the right mood, it can really hit the spot. (Shot in Hawaii, the scenery is beautiful as well.) I was in the mood.

I also went to our Advent Service of Lessons and Carols on Sunday night at church. I read lesson five, from Baruch:

Look toward the east, O Jerusalem, and see the joy that is coming to you from God…

We sang quite a few of my favorite Advent hymns and the choir sang and the bell choir played. Then I went home and ate chili, which the OM had made, and we watched Gregory Peck as King David in the technicolor extravaganza David and Bathsheba (1951).

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Despite GP’s awesome presence, it was pretty bad and not surprisingly, as it is based on one of the Bible’s more sordid stories.

So back to Christmas movies already.

*Baruch 4:36

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December 1, 2016

Lighten up

by chuckofish

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“I hear that in many places something has happened to Christmas; that it is changing from a time of merriment and carefree gaiety to a holiday which is filled with tedium; that many people dread the day and the obligation to give Christmas presents is a nightmare to weary, bored souls; that the children of enlightened parents no longer believe in Santa Claus; that all in all, the effort to be happy and have pleasure makes many honest hearts grow dark with despair instead of beaming with good will and cheerfulness.”

–Julia Peterkin, “A Plantation Christmas,” 1934

Today is the first day of  December. Let’s try not to get all stressed out.

Remember that Jesus is the reason for the season–not some unattainable perfection of decorating or entertaining. Relax. Pay attention. Have fun.

And listen to this:

I feel better. Don’t you?

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March 8, 2016

“O Piece of Bunting, flying high and higher That next October it shall flutter here: This is the end of every fan’s desire.”*

by chuckofish

John Mozeliek, Bill DeWitt and Mike Matheny in Jupiter, FL (photo Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports)

(photo Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports)

Spring is just around the corner. I know this because we see a lot of these guys–the GM, owner and manager of the STL Cardinals–on the local news these days.

Which is okay with me. I much prefer Redbirds to political commentary. And I should mention that our baseball team owners are like gods compared to our former football team owner. I mean really.

Ah, Fans, let not the Quarry but the Chase
      Be that to which most fondly we aspire!
For us not Stake, but Game; not Goal, but Race—
      THIS is the end of every fan’s desire.

*Franklin Pierce Adams, A Ballad of Baseball Burdens

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January 4, 2016

“It’s alright, Ma”*

by chuckofish

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Well, the holidays are officially over.

It was a busy long weekend. First I took down the little tree.

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Then the mantle.

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Then I moved on to the big tree.

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Soon all that was left was a pile of pine needles, some of which will still be around next year when we put up the next tree.

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In between we celebrated the New Year with friends and had the boy and daughter #3 over for dinner on New Year’s Day. We watched 3 Godfathers (1947), my favorite movie about the three wisemen, with them.

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I also watched Bridge of Spies (2015)–pretty average–and A Walk In the Woods (2015)–pretty disappointing.  I was hoping it would cheer me up, but considering it is based on a book by Bill Bryson, it was remarkably devoid of humor. Furthermore, Robert Redford is way too old and tired looking to play Bill Bryson, who wrote the book when he was 47. Redford is 79 and, despite what he may think, he looks it. His boyishly cut, dyed red hair looks ridiculous. Nick Nolte looks every one of his 74 years and more. Indeed, he appears to be at death’s door and like he wouldn’t make it 100 yards on the Appalachian Trail in real life. Cleary their backpacks were filled with bubble wrap.

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There was a lot of great scenery, which I appreciated, and the music featured songs by the band Lord Huron. (My dual personality gave me one of their CDs for Christmas and I had coincidentally been listening to it a lot over the weekend during my clean up efforts. BTW the CD is really good.) But, boy, it could have been so much better if it had been cast differently.

Anyway, I am now ready to face the new year at work today. The holidays were great fun, and I will miss my girls. But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only.

*Bob Dylan. (Yes, I would have spelled it “all right”…)

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December 25, 2015

Pleased as man with us to dwell

by chuckofish

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“The nativity mystery “conceived from the Holy Spirit and born from the Virgin Mary,” means, that God became human, truly human out of his own grace. The miracle of the existence of Jesus, his “climbing down of God” is: Holy Spirit and Virgin Mary! Here is a human being, the Virgin Mary, and as he comes from God, Jesus comes also from this human being. Born of the Virgin Mary means a human origin for God. Jesus Christ is not only truly God, he is human like every one of us. He is human without limitation. He is not only similar to us, he is like us.”

–Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline

Merry Christmas!

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December 24, 2015

“Hey, unto you a child is born!”*

by chuckofish

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But as far as I’m concerned, Mary is always going to look a lot like Imogene Herdman – sort of nervous and bewildered, but ready to clobber anyone who laid a hand on her baby. And the Wise Men are always going to be Leroy and his brothers, bearing ham. When we came out of the church that night it was cold and clear, with crunchy snow underfoot and bright, bright stars overhead. And I thought about the Angel of the Lord – Gladys, with her skinny legs and her dirty sneakers sticking out from under her robe, yelling at all of us everywhere: ‘Hey! Unto you a child is born!’

Happy Christmas Eve. We are going to the early service this afternoon which includes the Pageant. It always reminds me of the book by Barbara Robinson and takes me back to my own Christmas Pageant experiences at school. How well I remember going to the Inn to ask for a room and my friend Trudy Glick turning me away. We had a moment where we nearly burst into nervous laughter, but we didn’t.  I sang a tremulous solo to my wife Mary. The Angel of the Lord fainted…or was that a Wise Man?

Keep the faith!

*Barbara Robinson, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever; the painting is by N.C. Wyeth.

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December 23, 2015

All she wants to do is dance

by chuckofish

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Tradition says we must play 1980s 45s and dance at Christmastime. Who are we to mess with tradition?

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December 22, 2015

Flyover good times

by chuckofish

“He saw clearly how plain and simple – how narrow, even – it all was; but clearly, too, how much it all meant to him, and the special value of some such anchorage in one’s existence. He did not at all want to abandon the new life and its splendid spaces, to turn his back on sun and air and all they offered him and creep home and stay there; the upper world was all too strong, it called to him still, even down there, and he knew he must return to the larger stage. But it was good to think he had this to come back to, this place which was all his own, these things which were so glad to see him again and could always be counted upon for the same simple welcome.” (Kenneth Graham, The Wind in the Willows)

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Hope you are enjoying your countdown to Christmas! Try to slow it down and enjoy the simple things.

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December 21, 2015

What fun it is to laugh and sing

by chuckofish

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Phew! The weekend was crammed full of holiday fun. Haven’t had time to distill it all yet. But in case you didn’t know, DIY photo props are the newest thing. More on that tomorrow.

3 Comments