The Yankee Weeps

This morning I was checking Facebook for a reply to a message I had sent when I saw the first indication of the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. Shortly after that I began receiving a series of phone calls from friends and colleagues here to ask about Mom and my family in general. While Connecticut is not a big state, Newtown is about 45 minutes or so from where my mother lives. Even so, it was taking place in an area where friends live, where I have been many, many times.

For the remainder of the day I kept a local Connecticut TV station on the Internet to hear what was going on whenever I was in my office. The news continued to get worse with each passing hour. The only thing worse than the facts was the speculation. Worse than the speculation was the erroneous information. And then came the unwarranted social media attacks on anyone with the same name as the misidentified shooter.

Before we have even begun to grasp the full extent of what happened the traditional and social media are falling all over themselves to try and figure out what motivated the alleged shooter to do what he did. Before we have even begun to have all the facts traditional and social media are ramping up the gun control debate.

STOP IT! Just stop all of it. There are more important things to do first.

Thus says the Lord: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. [Jeremiah 31:15]

The Yankee Marks the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Shortly after I moved down here I received a small package from my friend Rachel. It contained a card and two small items: a magnet that reads "General Manager of the Whole Universe", which graces the door of my freezer, and a rubber stamp of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I used the stamp to make my Christmas cards this year. I colored each card individually using crayons, colored pencils and watercolor pencils. Because of the image, it made today the perfect deadline to mail/distribute the. December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

This year December 12 falls on 12/12/12, the last time this kind of repeated date will happen in this century. You can find all sorts of information about today's date all over the Internet, including ties to the Mayan calendar and the supposed end of the world nine days from how. Lots of nonsense for the superstitious. Of course, many people, including Christians, would call belief in appearances of the Virgin Mary superstitious. Is it superstition, or is it faith? I don't believe it much matters. This particular visitation by Mary has a significance for the Americas, and probably the world, that should be noted. She appeared to Juan Diego, a mestizo--a person of mixed race--as a mestizo. In fact, Our Lady of Guadalupe is the only depiction of Mary as a person of color in all of Latin America and even the world. If you want to learn a bit more about Our Lady of Guadalupe, you can read my sermon given at Grace Church Norwalk two years ago.

That year the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe fell on a Sunday, which is why I was preaching that day. This is the first Advent in a number of years that I will not be preaching on the Third Sunday of Advent. This is the first Advent in almost 30 years that I have not had a church community to walk with through this season of waiting and watching. I'm doing a lot of waiting and watching as I search for a new parish in my new community.

Some things that I'm accustomed to doing will take place this year. The group of friends with whom I've celebrated the Winter Solstice/Christmas/Hanukkah/whatever for the last few years will be gathering again on Saturday. While I won't be there in person, we will be having dessert and opening presents via Skype. It seems appropriate that Rachel and I spent time this evening, December 12, 2012, testing out the Skype app on my smart phone. It's not perfect, but it should do the trick. Now if we could just develop Transporter technology...

And now for a small bit of fun. Take a look at the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on my cards in the photo above. Do you notice anything? Below is another picture of the icon done in sand. I found it in several places on the web with no attribution. Compare it to the rubber stamp image, and you should find the answer. Hint: It's not the colors. Some of my cards are done with the more traditional colors, and some are not.

The Yankee Celebrates St. Nicholas Day

Early in Advent the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Nicholas of Myra. It's also the day I decorate my home for the Christmas season. I run the risk of drawing the wrath of the Advent Police for calling any portion of December before Christmas Day the Christmas Season. So be it. The date of Christmas is highly suspect to begin with, and most of our holiday traditions predate the appearance of Christianity. In the dark days at the end of the year, we can all use some brightness. This evening that included playing Christmas music and lighting a pine scented candle while I decorated. It brings back memories of childhood when we'd spend one weekend in the middle of December baking Christmas cookies and decorating the house. Although we didn't put the tree up until much closer to Christmas Eve, and most of the time on Christmas Eve itself.

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care. This is another tradition that comes from St. Nicholas Day celebrations. In Germany and the Netherlands children put their shoes out to be filled with treats by St. Nicholas. Or coal for those who did not behave throughout the year. The red one is nearly 30 years old. It is one of two I made for Brian's and my first Christmas together. I made one for each of my brother's children for their first Christmas and also for him and his wife when he asked a few years ago. The green one, which I also made, is probably 15 years old. It's the one I often take with me to my brother's when I spend Christmas with his family.

I also put up my collection of nativities--all 16 of them with baby Jesuses and Wise Men on full display. Some of them are constructed so that everything is part of a whole that can't be separated. The retablos from South America are prime examples of this. I hung one of the retablos on a wall in the entry area of the apartment and will probably leave it up when the rest of the nativities get put away. It is a nice work of art and fits nicely on that wall. I added two new ones to the collection this year. The first is a Celtic style nativity that I find intriguing.

I say Celtic style because it was manufactured in China. It is hard to avoid products made in China. Many people complain about that and how Chinese manufacturing takes jobs away from hard working folks in the United States. But I don't remember a time when a lot of what we bought wasn't manufactured overseas. For a long time it was Made in Japan and Made in Taiwan. Our economy has larger problems than things made overseas and sold here.

This one comes from Vietnam and is made from paper. Forty years ago Vietnam evoked an entirely different set of thoughts and emotions steeped in news reports from a war torn and divided country. But that's a blog for another time.

For now I'll sip my glass of egg nog and enjoy my decorated apartment.