Merry Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve this year found us visiting back in Michigan with the extended families rather than home with just the little group residing at The Mole Hole. The plan on where, and with whom, we spend the Eve and the actual Day with, must remain flexible with the day of the week Christmas actually falls, and how that interacts with school and work vacations.

We spent the Eve with one "side" and had a wonderful get together that broke up around 9:00. We had a half-hour ride home, but extended it a bit with a detour through the little town that that I spent my teenage years in. We had heard that they had a really neat, new "tradition" of lighting all of the downtown buildings with miniature lights, and that it was a must-see.

Almost to Main Street, we passed by one of the homes that I had lived in there, this one for my 13th and 14th Christmases. I pointed it out to my daughter and she thought the old house, an all brick, slate-roofed Tudor built in 1919, looked pretty "cool". I'm sure that I'd shown it to her before, but probably three or four years ago, thus not remembered by an 11-year old mind.

Next came the rows of neighborhood streets branching off left and right, and I was delighted to see that the real tradition of lighting the curbs of each street with real luminarias was still there. That is the one thing I remember most fondly about Christmas in this little suburban village. My sisters and I would walk some of these streets on our way to Midnight Mass at the Lutheran Church that was near home. In the cold and snowy Christmases that were more commonplace back then, it was a heart-warming sight to see and experience out in the December night.

We finally got to Main Street and it was a indeed a sight to see. Lights of every color covered every building and business downtown, and hung in every tree. Nothing that I think is all that original, but definitely a lot of work for the folks, I'm sure, and very pretty.

So notching up fifty-some Christmases this year with a chance to see something old and something new. No snow, unfortunately, but there's a plus to that too, considering we are traveling by car!

We lay our heads down after a long, tiring, but joyful day. No sugarplums dancing in our heads, but thankful for health, family and for the ultimate gift of the Christ-child on this night, long ago.

Sounds of the Season

'Tis the season, and once again the music that makes Christmas so special is everywhere.  In fact, in some places out on the FM dial, it was playing before our jack-o-lanterns started to mold!  Even for me, that's a tad early.

Late this afternoon I had some work to do on the computer.  Daughter was on the sofa next to me snoozing after a day of Christmas shopping and I just felt like I could use a little of that great music in the background.  Fortunately, I have my wonderful little ipod loaded with lots of various artists and their interpretation of the holiday sound.  So, I strapped on the headphones to enjoy and not bother another soul.

One of my most favorite Christmas albums of all time is a recording of a dozen of the classics by the Hollywood Bowl Symphony orchestra.  The original recording was done in 1964.  I first heard it in 1966 on an LP that my mom owned.  I think she still has it.  I was eight years old, absolutely geeked about Christmas, and played that album endlessly on her walnut Magnavox console stereo. 

Back then, when everyone else in the house would tire of my endless playing of it, I would plug in the Christmas lights on the tree, put the album on softly, and sit down, hunched against one end of the console and put my ear close to the big speakers behind the fabric grille. 

What struck me tonight was how, 45 years later, I can sit and listen to that exact same recording, lost in that wonderful music and the spirit of the holiday that it brings, and do it on a little device that contains about 1500 other songs and weighs less than one vacuum-tube from that old Magnavox!

This is Christmas tradition defined:  A thing, a place, or a memory that transcends decades of progress and change, to remain forever in our hearts.

Hello Again!

All right; it has been a while.  I know.  Apologies to those few who drop in now and then to read my humble jottings, only to have found some mighty sparse offerings this year.

There are a lot of different reasons I could offer, but there are really only two that I'll put out there:  First, I had the good fortune to return to work after so many months off.  Second, that new job forced the family to move to a new home.  These two major events contribute a lot of lesser things too, and the result was that I kind of got out of the habit of writing, or even thinking about writing.  And that's not good for me. 

So now that winter is starting to set in, the long hours of darkness and cold weather have forced me into my easy chair earlier in the evenings with more time to ponder everything.  Those thoughts need to go somewhere, and the Mole Hole will be the spot once more! 

Thanks for hanging in if you're still out there.  If your new, welcome to my blog, on this my 400th post!  I hope you enjoy!

Guilty?

Almost without exception, Americans were shocked this week to hear the verdict in the Casey Anthony murder case in Florida. This is the Florida mother accused of killing her baby, because, according to prosecutors, she simply didn’t want the responsibility of being a mom. In fact, Casey did spend the month after the baby’s death partying with friends and certainly acting as if she enjoyed her new found freedom. It was the pictures and stories from this time period that more than anything else, had (or still has) us convinced this mom is guilty.

In the end, there was little else in real evidence that prosecutors could work with. The decomposed body of the baby was too long gone out in the elements, so no DNA or tissue samples were available to the forensic team. It is said today that the government just couldn’t connect all the dots for the jury. Only ten hours of deliberation would tend to support that.

The reactions from across the country are generally disgust and dismay. It is true that most of us, along with the media, believe more in “guilty until proven innocent” rather than the opposite. The only good thing about that, I think, is that it means that we have a lot of trust in our authorities, even though it is a trust that occasionally through history has been ill placed. Whether it was in this case or not may never be known. This trust we keep is not a small thing. Think about other countries where there is absolutely no trust in the law or prosecutors, and I’m convinced we are better off this way.

Casey Anthony will have a tough life now. There are protests outside of the court house, and she is already receiving death threats. Americans have little tolerance for a child killer if that’s what she is. The idea that this woman would take any action to end her own child’s life, and just because she was a burden to the lifestyle she really wanted, is abhorrent to us all….it would seem.

Yes, it would seem. Then again…

Last year in the U.S., 1.2 million abortions were performed. That’s 25%....one quarter….of all pregnancies. The vast majority of those were performed out of one major category: the mom simply didn’t want the responsibility for the child. Think about that.

So, we can react in disgust, turn off the news in anger, and curse Casey Anthony to a future hell that many would say she certainly deserves, because evidently she is different. She must be different than the other 3288 moms who ended their baby’s lives just yesterday. But think about it. What is the real difference?

I think it all deserves prayer. Future moms should pray about it. We should pray for them. There is an answer for all.

Peter Falk - R.I.P.

Peter Falk died today at 83. I enjoyed watching him in so many roles, and even as Lt. Columbo. Yes, I'm kidding a bit there. The Columbo character practically defined his entire career, as happens to many actors who succeed in a popular TV role. Such is the reach of the "small screen".

But he just seemed like a genuine nice guy, as much as I know about his personal life. All I know is that he felt like a good book to me; if he was on the screen, I didn't want to put it down.

R.I.P. Peter Falk....oh, and just one more thing....

Takers, Not Makers

You still don't know what all the fuss in Wisconsin is all about? You think Governor Walker up there is overstating the problem of public employee unions? Really want to understand why these employees and their democrat-enabled contracts are crippling his state and every other state and municipality? If so,, you need to read the article at this link. It is the best thing I've seen, heard or read, to put the problem in real perspective. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704050204576219073867182108.html

Two Righteous Men

Joe Biden has a very strong opinion on what should happen to a president who attacks another country that poses no imminent threat to us, or hasn't attacked us first. Take a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH5pSUJ2dKU

So I wonder how he feels today about this directive, which Chris Matthew's whole-heartedly agreed was so "constitutionally correct"? Let's get these two together again and have them comment on operation "Odyssey Dawn" in Libya, could we? That would even get me to watch Hardball.

Read It!

The greatest human conflict of all time, also had the greatest stories of the human condition. I've read quite a few books that were written around the personal accounts of heroes and victims, and just ordinary folks caught up in truly extraordinary circumstances.

But none that I've read were as compelling as the story of an American airman and his experience in the Pacific. His story of survival through the crash of his B-24, eight weeks adrift in a life raft and then almost two years in two of the most brutal Japanese POW camps, is a story everyone should read. Do NOT miss it.