Month: December 2012

The Lydster, Part 105: Mariah and Elizabeth

The Daughter expects her parents to remember the name of her dolls. Her male parent is not as good at this as she would like.

I am interested in the Daughter’s affinity for her toys. A couple of years ago, she was really into her stuffed animals, to the virtual exclusion of her dolls.

More recently, though, the trend has switched. While she still has her stuffed toys, she is now more inclined to play with her dolls, especially Mariah (above) and Elizabeth (below).

I think there are two primary reasons for the switch. One is that, as the Daughter has become more interested in clothes, she’s been making apparel for her dolls. She’s getting rather good at it, too, thanks to her grandmother. The other is her allergies to her stuffed creatures, so she can usually have but one at a time. Usually, it’s her large unicorn named Unicorn who makes the cut.

I learned that my daughter can keep track of all of her dozen and a half dolls. Moreover, she expects her parents to remember them too. Her male parent is not as good at this as she would like.

I wonder how Mariah and Elizabeth will feel about yesterday’s newcomer?

X is for eXcitement

Even though the Christmas eve service is pretty much the “same” every year, it always manages to feel brand new.

eXude eXcitement

I think that, as I’ve gotten older, the thing about Christmas that excites me has changed. For one thing, “stuff” doesn’t have the same impact; not that I don’t love my Hess trucks, or whatever else I get. What I’ve discovered, though, that the more items you have, the more you have to deal with.

eXpectation

What I DO love, though, is the Daughter’s feeling of anticipation about the holiday. Watching her enthusiasm is actually better than my own feelings.

eXplore

That said, I appreciate the opportunity to sing music of the season, mostly familiar, but some not.

eXplanation

And even though the Christmas eve service is pretty much the “same” every year, it always manages to feel brand new.

eXtra special day

So I wish for you and yours, a happy/merry/joyous holiday.

eXtreme eXhaustion

And I hope you leave the wrapping paper on the floor, or the dirty dishes in the sink, a little longer today.
***
The Bells of Christmas by Julie Andrews, from an old Firestone Presents album that I still own. My first favorite popular Christmas song. (And my album pretty much sounds like this one!)

Getting Ready For Christmas Day by Paul Simon. Most recent favorite pop Christmas song. Built around a sample of pastor J.M. Gates preaching in 1941,

A film: The Night Before Christmas 1913 – Ladislas Starewitch

ABC Wednesday – Round 11

Christmas is A-Comin’ by Leadbelly

Polite Scott’s Comic Book Cover Advent Calendar – 2012

My father had, and I currently own this album, pictured. It came out in 1960, I believe because I listened to it a lot.

The LP came out well after Leadbelly died, in 1949. I’ll have to write about him sometime. And it got me thinking about the song Christmas is A-Comin’ [LISTEN], which is very short, well under two minutes. There’s a much longer album, Leadbelly Sings For Children, which including all the songs on my album, plus several more; Amazon says it came out on CD in 1999. And it’s the cover of that album that shows up in the video.

And I have to wonder how the parents of those children would have felt if they knew the man entertaining them was a convicted felon. Wouldn’t happen today, but then, the man had a shot of redemption.
***
“Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.”
~ Oren Arnold

Jack Benny Goes Christmas Shopping

Christmas Miracles

Potpourri of tunes

Hey, I know one of those guys in the front row

A flashmob medley.

Peanuts Christmas 1960 and 1961 and 1962 and 1963 and 1964.

Polite Scott’s Comic Book Cover Advent Calendar – 2012

There’s very little that Muppet videos cannot fix..

End of the world postponed; date TBD

What if it were the last day. What would I do?

I had made light of all the end of the world stuff. Then I started to take in some information that made me rethink it. The stories in Metroland, for instance, were quite informative.

Seriously, I think the Mayans are getting a bad rap. A lot of what OTHER people said they said doesn’t appear to be true. The NBC News story I saw suggested that December 21, 2012, wasn’t apocalyptic in their tradition; it was just another cycle.

It appears that others have superimposed their own dystopian values on the Mayans. It made for not-so-clever comic fodder, of the “How can they predict the end of the world when they couldn’t even foresee their own elimination?” variety. Though JibJab had some fun with it, and this picture WAS rather humorous.

There’s also the issue that these end-of-days pronouncements, and particularly the one for December 21, 2012, actually have an effect on people. I’ve seen educated, otherwise rational adults express uneasiness over the predictions; it just gives off a negative vibe. Children are particularly vulnerable to the noise. I think it’s probably like how kids of my vintage fretted about the Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) of the Cold War, US v. the USSR. I DO wonder, though, if we’ve hit a global warming tipping point.

Cheri of Idle Chatter mused about what if it were the last day. What would I do? Wouldn’t bother bearing grudges, but would make sure that as many people I knew were aware of how much I cared for them, especially those I didn’t tell often enough.
***
The End is Nigh, Look Busy

R.E.M.

Is God that much of an S.O.B.?

On the bus the other day, I wrote a poem in my head. It’s a tad vulgar, but so is the behavior of certain religious leaders.

For at least the last dozen years, there have been a handful of religious “leaders” who, after some tragic and horrific event, will proclaim that it happened for some reason related to that place somehow offended God. We heard it after 9/11, and Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, among others, and now after the murders of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee blamed the school shooting on failure to have compulsory prayer at school; damned that inconvenient separation of church and state! Others have blamed disasters on the acceptance of abortion and gay marriage. A Tennessee pastor specifically said the mass shootings take place because schools teach evolution and “how to be a homo;” I shan’t link to it.

For sake of the argument, let’s assume that God is the spiteful, vindictive entity that some religious leaders say God is. Still, how do they KNOW it’s THESE particular activities that’s ticking off the Deity? How do they have such an accurate Pipeline to the sky?

Might not God be annoyed by our lack of compassion for those who are impoverished? Or our greed that allows people to work at sweatshops so that we can have our modern conveniences? Jesus talked a LOT about the poor, not so much about people’s sex lives. As Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw write in Jesus for President: “If we applied Sabbath law today, the bank owner would be as much of a criminal as the bank robber. And a lot of credit card companies…would be in really big trouble.”

Maybe THEIR God cares more about who is loving who; MY God cares more that we love one another. Their God is a bit of a jerk; my God is a God of love.

On the bus the other day, I spontaneously wrote a poem in my head. It’s a tad vulgar, but so is the behavior it addresses:

When there is a disaster
And you are a pastor,
There is one of two things you can do.
You should show great compassion.
But, if that’s not your fashion,
I’m pleading, please STFU.

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial