Planting a New Year's Dream

A friend of mind has a nice New Year's Day tradition. She, her husband, and their children all write a personal dream or goal for the New Year on individual pieces of paper. Then they bury their pieces of paper at the bottom of their now empty Christmas stockings. The following New Year's Day, each of them reaches down into the bottom of their stocking, pulls out the paper from the year before, and takes some time to reflect on what came to pass that year related to the stated dream or goal. Then they throw these papers into the fireplace and begin the cycle again by writing down a new dream or goal and planting it in their stocking.

Anyone want to share one of their New Year's traditions?

Is anything of meaning said? 2

Another program announcement made its way into my email inbox that made me go, huh??

"...once you complete our program, you'll attract financial abundance in ways that are completely in alignment with your highest spiritual principles. Finally, you will be firmly in control of your spiritual and financial destiny."

Gee, who knew that one's spiritual destiny could be locked in by one easy payment of $49 and heeding the advice of two guys I've never heard of before. With an opportunity like this, who needed Christmas? With these guys at our helm, why bother with He who would be called, "Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace"?

Crud, Crisis, and Christmas

One of the many versions of currently circulating crud came upon our house last week. Thankfully, it visited only me and has left my other family members unscathed, but for being in the unpleasant position of being in the same company as someone coughing and sneezing and surrounded with tissue. The crud started several days before Christmas and has loosened its hand a couple times, just enough to lure me back into a semi-normal engagement with life before it once again tightened its grasp to demonstrate its continuing authority. Yesterday was a loosening and last night and this morning have been another tightening. Yuck. I know many are going through the same thing.

Many are going through much more.

My sister-in-law buried her mother yesterday. The day before Christmas, the sister of my son's good friend gave birth to twin babies too early for them to live.

I realize a sermon, an essay, a book could be written about the theological meaning of bad things happening during the Christmas season. In the midst of such grief, isn't it wonderful that the most potent hope we have has entered our world? Aren't these the times in which God with us is never more important? That sort of thing.

But for now, I wish the rest of my sister-in-law's Christmas's didn't have to be covered by the memories of grief. I wish that young woman's babies were alive and well.

A kind woman in heaven

"As Protestants, we probably don't think about Mary as much as we should," said the pastor in his sermon on Sunday.

I think about her more and more. When my children were little, I resonated with the part of the Christmas story in which Mary "pondered all these things in her heart." Now that my children are older, I think about the letting go she must have forced herself to do over and over again from before her baby was even born to when she watched him die. I know, however, that there is much I don't know and understand about all the ways Mary can be thought of.

Late last summer I read Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather, a fictional story set in the mid to late 1800s about the first bishop in the New Mexican territory. There is a scene in this book that shows Mary in high regard. It gave me some new things to think about regarding Mary.

The scene is the middle of the night. Father Latour has just entered the church with Sada, a poor woman who is mistreated by the people she works for, whom he has found outside the church weeping.

Never, as he afterward told Father Vaillant, had it been permitted him to behold such deep experience of the holy joy of religion as on that pale December night. He was able to feel, kneeling beside her, the preciousness of the things of the alter to her who was without possessions; the tapers, the image of the Virgin, the figures of the saints, the Cross that took away indignity from suffering and made pain and poverty a means of fellowship with Christ. Kneeling beside the much enduring bond-woman, he experienced those holy mysteries as he had done in his young manhood. He seemed to feel all it meant to her to know that there was a Kind Woman in Heaven, though there were such cruel ones on earth. Old people, who have felt blows and toil and known the world's hard hand, need, even more than children do, a woman's tenderness. Only a Woman, divine, could know all that a woman can suffer...

'O Sacred Heart of Mary!' She murmured by his side, and he felt how that name was food and raiment, friend and mother to her. He received the miracle in her heart into his own, saw through her eyes, knew that his poverty was as bleak as hers. When the Kingdom of Heaven had first come into the world, into a cruel world of torture and slaves and masters, He who brought it had said, 'And whosoever is least among you, the same shall be first in the Kingdom of Heaven.' This church was Sada's house, and he was a servant in it.'

Once upon a time, on Christmas Eve...

A Christmas tradition that we started when our kids were little was getting a new Christmas book each year. The book would be brought out the first week or two of Advent and set out on the coffee table, with the previous years’ books in a basket on the floor. This has been a fun tradition that we all have looked forward to every year, even as our sons have gotten older and older. Most years the book is a picture book, other years not.

This year’s book is The Miracle of the First Poinsettia: A Mexican Christmas Story by Joanne Oppenheim. It’s one version of the Mexican folktale about the miraculously transformed gift of weeds that the poor Mexican girl brought to baby Jesus.

Last year’s book was Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien. This is a beautiful book made up of the letters Father Christmas (AKA Tolkien himself) sent his children every year from the North Pole. The letters appear in Tolkien’s handwriting with his color sketches throughout.

Other favorites that we’ve gathered over the years include

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, text abridged by Nancy Skarmeas.

The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore (the classic!).

Greatest Gift of All by Kimberly Rinehart.

The Christmas Tomten by Viktor Rydberg (Scandinavian tale best read in a whispery voice).

The First Christmas by Tomie de Paola (a pop-up book).

One Wintry Night by Ruth Bell Graham.

The Story of Christmas by Geraldine McCaughrean and illustrated by Helen Ward (beautiful illustrations).

Santa’s Favorite Story by Hisako Aoki and Ivan Gantschev (Santa tells the story of the first Christmas).

Do you have some Christmas books that you enjoy to take out year after year?

Boil up another pot of tea

I just made myself a cup of tea and sat down at my computer to work. Opened up the National Library of Medicine website (final destination, Medline/PubMed) and saw this headline under "Current Health News": Tea Drinking Linked to Lower Ovarian Cancer Risk.

Clicked through to Reuter's story:

Woman who drink two or more cups of tea every day may cut their risk of ovarian cancer in half, a new study shows.

Both black and green teas are rich in antioxidant chemicals called polyphenols, which have been shown to block cancer growth in lab and animal studies, Susanna C. Larsson and Alicja Wolk of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm note.

The paper was published in the current issue of Archives of Internal Medicine: Tea Consumption and Ovarian Cancer Risk in a Population-Based Cohort.

This Scandinavian study was large; 61,057 women participated with an average follow-up of 15.1 years. As with all studies--even large ones--confounding factors must be considered. In this case, tea drinkers also weighed less and ate more fruits and vegetables. Even considering these factors, however, the effect of tea on lowering the risk of ovarian cancer was significant in itself.

My tea tastes good--regular Lipton with milk, no sugar--even better knowing its health benefit. A good friend of mine died of ovarian cancer; in a couple of days it will have been ten years ago. I'll think of her when I make my second cup.

Magnolia

While the rest of the movie-going public was standing in line for, or in a theatre watching, the Narnia movie on Friday night, Dave and I rented "Magnolia" (1999) and we're still talking about it. Neither of us had seen it. Not long into the three-hour movie I realized that I was content to continue to "have not seen it". It was hard to watch. Most of the characters--particularly the men--were crude and abusive. Tom Cruise's character was particularly difficult to watch. There was lots of "sins of the fathers" visiting the kids sort of thing. I spent much of the first half of the movie cycling through thoughts of gratitude for the good man who is my father (and no, I'm not just saying that because he reads my blog--Hi Dad!). I almost turned to Dave and suggested we turn it off. But we hung in there with it, primarily because I'd heard repeatedly that there was something worth watching in this movie.

About halfway through, however, this kaleidoscope of horrendous lives shifted a bit and it became evident that the movie wasn't just going to accumulate damage until the last scene. Something was at work. The turning point involves each of the characters and a song, "Wise Up" by Aimee Mann

It’s not what you thought when you first began it
You got what you want now you can hardly stand it, though.
By now you know
It’s not going to stop, it’s not going to stop,
it’s not going to stop.
‘Til you wise up.

I'll mention again, as I did several posts ago, that Flannery O'Connor said every great story has in it a moment of grace. Well grace was at work in this movie big time and the last half hour, particularly the very last scene, was full of it.

It's a movie just ripe for discussion. I looked online when it was over and found a couple reviews and a discussion guide. Lots of the next day, as Dave and I were Christmas shopping, we talked about it--what some of the scenes meant, thoughts on the characters, wondering about symbols, etc. Lots left to talk about.

One of the reviews is by Jeffrey Overstreet (from 2000), who writes the "Looking Closer" blog. He said something in his review that I think is very true: "But I think Flannery O'Connor's philosophy—that a desensitized culture sometimes need exaggerated, loud storytelling to reawaken it—is the operating principle here." There was definitely some of the grotesque, as employed by O'Connor, but it served its purpose here as it did for her.

The other review and the discussion guide are from Ransom Fellowship, which makes many insightful movie reviews and discussion guides available on the movie section of their website. (Ransom Fellowship is the publisher for Critique magazine, which I've mentioned on this blog before and have a link to in the right margin.) The review article is by Steven Garber and includes some questions for reflection or discussion. The discussion guide is by Jeremy Huggins, author of the "junkmail for blankets" blog.

I'm glad we rented "Magnolia" and glad we stuck it out. Thankfully, the scenes that were hard to watch have been replaced in my mind's eye with the scenes of grace. There is a powerful scene in which two characters, the Tom Cruise character and one of the two truly "good guys" are standing side by side. No words, just standing, but the scene is full of things to think about. And that's just one powerful scene of many.

Please don't read this as my recommendation to watch the movie. If you haven't seen it, only you can decide if it sounds like something in which you'd want to invest three hours. Only you know if you want to watch what is hard to watch. If you do decide to rent it someday, or if you have already seen it, consider tying in the links I provided above with what's on the screen.

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