Memory Lane Monday
Oct 31st, 2005 by aBhantiarna Solas

My very favorite part of Halloween has always been the jack o’lanterns. I love them. I loved helping my dad pick out the pumpkins when I was little. He always carved. Always. There was quite a ceremony involved. First we had to help design. There wasn’t much to that back in those days. You know … two triangle eyes, a triangle nose and mouth with some teeth. The design elements were in the placement of the teeth and deciding on squares or triangles for teeth. That was kind of … it. Then out came the knives and the sharpener. First we had to sing while he sharpened, “shirah … shirah … smoked meat for dinner.” Don’t ask … that’s just what you sing when you sharpen a knife in my house (when I was growing up anyway). Then that first stab, deep into the meat, top down, making sure to cut out a little triangle so you always know how to put the top back on. Very careful and methodical. Then the eyes. Then the nose. And finally the mouth. We all (my two brothers and I) sat in a semi-circle in chairs, while my dad kneeled on the floor of the kitchen to do this. I suspect this was to keep us out of harm’s way. And he would talk to us and laugh and peer at us over his glasses, with one eyebrow up.

Then when they were all three done, Mom would produce the candles. I still can’t get candles to stand up in a pumpkin the way my mom could. She had the touch. We tested them in the kitchen, got the candles just so. Then all three marched our pumpkins out to the front porch and found our positions. And … the grand lighting. And stand back and look. Who has bigger grins? Children or pumpkins?

It was quite a rite of passage, albeit unspoken, when we were finally old enough, responsible enough, strong enough to carve our own pumpkins. To not sit in the ring anymore. Old enough to join my dad on the floor with the knives. What joy to take that first stab myself and feel the bite of the knife into pumpkin flesh. Ahhh … and make the design elements my own. To finally understand why it can’t have a curvy mouth, but maybe I can make it? Maybe I can.


For years I looked forward to the day when my children would sit in a ring while I carved the pumpkins. And today for the first time … we did. They helped me decide what kind of eyes and nose and yes, a curvy mouth (because … I can!). They sat with me while I took that first bite with the knife and carved the special little triangle in the top. While I carved out first eyes, then nose, then curvy mouth.

Now … who has bigger grins? Children or pumpkins? Or Mom?

A Tale of Two Attitudes
Oct 31st, 2005 by aBhantiarna Solas

So it didn’t make the news … at least not much, but Wilma actually took two bites at our apple. She swung through the southeast, went out to sea and ran back ashore in New England as a dreaded (or beloved) nor’easter and dumped a literal ton of snow in Vermont last week. It was really heavy wet snow and it took down a lot of trees and the powerlines that they surround. Both LightHusband’s parents and my parents still live in Vermont and so they had stories to tell us of how they survived and thrived the October snow of aught five! I had separate conversations with our moms this weekend and was struck by how vastly different our parents are and wondered (yet again) … just how do we make this marriage work?? Here it is in a nutshell, the two very different worlds that LightHusband and I come from. I won’t tell you which parent was whos’ … I’ll see if you can guess.

Parent Set T – heard the nor’easter was coming and they prepared!! They filled the bathtubs with water. They filled the larder with canned foods. They filled the racks with wood for the stove. They purchased replacement oil lamps and mantles. They battened the hatches. They found the propane stove and ensured that it was in working order. They found the battery operated, black&white television and the ham radio. In every way that they could think of … they were prepared. And then, they settled in, lit the fire in the wood stove and got cozy. When the story was told, they knew exactly how long the power was out: “twenty-six and a half hours.”

Parent Set O – may or may not have heard the nor’easter was coming, but sometime around eleven o’clock on Tuesday night the lights went out. This caused the wife to think that perhaps there would be a problem in the morning … you see, they grind their coffee each day. Hmmm … what to do? Well, that would be something to face in the morning when there was more light … and perhaps the power would be back on by then anyway. In the morning, the power was not on. So, the wife dug around and discovered that it was their good luck to have over-ground on enough occasions to have enough coffee to make one pot. … Alas … they use an electronic percolater. Hmmm … what to do? Oh, yes. They do have an old stove-top percolater … hmmm … it’s somewhere around here. So that got dug out. But now there’s the problem of getting some water. The husband managed to bring some up from the basement cistern. And so it went. When asked how long their power was out, the response went something like this: “Well, I think it was 36 hours but it might not have been, but well, I couldn’t wash my hair Wednesday, but I had a hair appointment, so it got washed then, but then I couldn’t wash it on Thursday ……..”

It all made me laugh with glee. We’re so fortunate to have such healthy parents at this stage of our lives. On one hand, the organization of the T’s was impressive and I imagined them riding out the storm, cozy in their snug preparation. On the other hand, the adventure that the O’s experienced sounded like a lot of fun too. I don’t know that I’d necessarily pick one over the other (and I used to think I had to), but I really enjoyed it all from both of their perspectives.

Breathing Again
Oct 30th, 2005 by aBhantiarna Solas

“Tomorrow is Halloween!!”

LightBoy announced this with joy, glee, enthusiasm and many decibels as we left our breakfast buffet this morning. It made me long for the days when I could control when the children knew what day was when. They didn’t know it was Halloween (or Christmas or Easter or whatever) until I was ready for them to know. It was much easier back then. Now … I just ride the wave.

BUT … this year. The costumes are ready. I am not spending the “day of” in a mad sewing spree trying to beat the clock. LightBoy will be some Bionicle (Makuta, I believe). He found his choice on eBay and we bought the costume earlier this month — it’s hanging in his closet (or it should be). LightGirl will be a witch ala Hermione of Harry Potter fame. And … I am pleased to announce, the dress …

… is ….

COMPLETE.

TA DA!

The wand has been purchased.

And all that remains are appropriate, tasteful hair and makeup choices.

Which (no doubt) will be hammered out during long, procrastinatory discussions over grammar, math, spelling, etc. tomorrow. Because we must have some pain to go with our pleasure on Halloween.

Rich Young Ruler
Oct 28th, 2005 by aBhantiarna Solas

So the other day my BrickFriend wrote a post in which he mused about Jesus’ command to a rich young man to “sell everything” and follow Him. You should read the post because it’s quite good and there are several comments after it which are also good. They led me to do a lot of thinking. And then I went back to the text and did some reading because I wanted to read the story again and see just what was going on, who was Jesus talking to and what exactly did He say to him. It’s in the Gospel according to Mark (chapter 10) and it’s pretty short … so here it is:

17As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18″Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good�except God alone. 19You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.”
20″Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
21Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
24The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
26The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
27Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
28Peter said to him, “We have left everything to follow you!”
29″I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields�and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. 31But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

You know, I’m sorry, but Jesus comes off sounding sort of like a mystical lunatic in this passage. If we’re really honest here, this is not a passage where Jesus sounds particularly sane or makes a lot of sense to our Western, 20th century ears. And I love Him. I really do.

I struggle with this. Because it looks like Jesus is saying, “Sell everything and follow me. That’s how you do the Christian thing.” And there are certainly some people who do that. Catholic priests, nuns, monks and others like that come to mind. But after having walked this Christian walk for some 15 years now, I’m not certain Jesus was laying down a command here. I’ve got several reasons for this.

First, the few times that Jesus laid down commands, he was very clear about it. He said things like, “This command I give to you …” And then the command he gave was fairly broadly brushed. Things like love God and your neighbor. He wasn’t into narrow brushes. Which isn’t to say his commands are easy. They are difficult. Have you ever tried to love your neighbor as yourself? HONESTLY now. Have you? It’s hard and if you’re truly honest you’ve got some kind of pyramid scheme going in your head, where you and your family are at the top and get the best stuff and then maybe your extended family and your bestest friends and then the pyramid extends down from there … and where does your “neighbor” fit into that scheme? Shouldn’t everyone get the best stuff? Why should it be ranked and reserved for you and yours? See what I mean? We all do it … that’s human nature and it’s what Jesus was asking us to work against when he lay down that commandment … but I digress.

Second, if you read the story above again, you’ll notice something about the rich young man. He was rich. That’s really the only thing we know about him. We can surmise some things about him from that statement. Primarily from that we know he loved “stuff.” Jesus knew what he loved and Jesus knew that that “stuff” was going to get in the way of the young man’s relationship with Him. That the “stuff” was going to prevent the young man from following Him. There are some people who can have stuff and it doesn’t tie them down, because they don’t particularly care about it … they hold it loosely. There are others for whom it is an anchor.

So I finally realized that “stuff” wasn’t really the issue in this story. Nor were riches, or parents, or children, or camels, or needles. Altho they all could be. What Jesus was really saying and it took me so long to get was that we need to drop the things (whatever they may be) that keep us from following after Him. And we need to do it in a bold way. For the rich, young ruler in this story that meant selling his stuff and giving the money to the poor … for that guy, that was a shock, but it might not be a shock to the next guy (and it obviously wasn’t a shock to the disciples … they were pretty pious about it, don’t you think?). So I now have the job of figuring out what’s keeping me back, what’s tying me down. How do I drop it? How do we all?

Gas Prices?
Oct 27th, 2005 by aBhantiarna Solas

Anyone wondering why we are paying such high gas prices since Hurricane Katrina? Well … the wait is over. Now we know. The answer came today. We are paying high gas prices so that the large oil companies can post the largest quarterly profits in history. They tried to say it was because their operations had been disrupted because of the several hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico this late summer and fall. But now we all now it’s a load of so much hooey.

Poetry Thursday – Stevenson
Oct 27th, 2005 by aBhantiarna Solas

The Swing
by Robert Louis Stevenson

How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside–

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown–
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

I know that’s a children’s poem … it’s one of my favorites from my childhood. When I was little my father would recite it to me when he pushed me on a swing. My Grammy Charlotte used to recite it to me just for fun, with a delighted twinkle in her eyes. Imagine then, my joy, that my lovely daughter loves to go up in the air and down even more than I. She’s a real sparkler!

Courage
Oct 24th, 2005 by aBhantiarna Solas

Those of you who know me well, know of my long addiction to the Law & Order franchise. There was a time when the theme music to the original was the only sound that would bring calm to LightBoy’s crying as a baby. There are episodes that I have memorized. Some would call it a sickness … including me on my better days. But I keep watching. I think I watch, because I know the character’s voices so well that I can listen and sew.

In any case, a new season of television has begun. And the new season of Criminal Intent has been really good. But last night’s episode should win awards. It won’t. But it should. In the beginning an older nun was murdered and inwardly I groaned. I thought, “oh … and how stupid are they going to make people of faith look this time?” But I was in for a pleasant surprise. As it turned out the episode turned on the sins in the past of a young nun. She had lured a black man to a severe beating that left him slightly more than vegetative, but not much more. His younger brother cared for him and was looking for the woman (now a nun, but he didn’t know this) who could give evidence against the men who had administered the beating. It was the younger brother in a passion to find this woman who had killed the older nun that sparked the investigation. Get it? Okay …

In the climactic scene where two detectives question the younger nun about her troubled past, I was struck by how sensitively the producers handled it. She was clearly struggling with what to tell, how much, whether or not to trust God, trust the police, and how to clear her conscience. In the medium of television where thoughts must be depicted with pictures, her eyes wandered to a painting of Jesus struggling with through the streets of Jerusalem with the cross … the crowd pressing in on him. And she clearly drew strength from knowing that her God had walked down the same path that she was about to. And I thought, “wow … this can’t really be on tv, can it?” This sensitive portrayal of courageous faith doing the right thing. Faith that was only courageous with the support of a community of others. Faith for the moment and in the moment. Faith that lived with open hands in a tight-fisted world.

I wept with that television nun as she found her courage, confessed her part in evil and rid herself of its shame. I wonder if those producers know that they were really showing us a little glimpse of God’s Kingdom last night. But I did. And I’m glad.

Pet Peeve
Oct 21st, 2005 by aBhantiarna Solas

Last night LightHusband and I (along with several thousand other fans) watched our favorite rock musicians play and sing. We went to the MCI Center and saw U2 play. It was a good concert. Not quite as wonderful as the concert we saw in May in Philly … but still … most excellent. I was glad we went, I have a feeling that they’re not going to be doing this for too much longer. I don’t think they’re going to do the “dinosaur tour,” like Rolling Stones or Yes. At least I hope they don’t.

Anyway, during the opening act (Damian Marley – excellent by the way) I did what most women at the concert did. I “powdered my nose.” I “used the restroom.” I’ll try to be delicate about this … but there’s really no way to be. I don’t know who started the urban myth that you can catch diseases from toilet seats, but I want to find that person and torture them. Then I want to find the rest of the women who think it’s perfectly fine to “sprinkle when they tinkle” and LEAVE IT THERE and do NOT clean up after themselves. I would like to lock them in a room with their own pee … no, wait … someone else’s pee … for a day. I would like to find all the women who think it’s okay to leave long drifts of toilet paper wafting about the restroom without disposing of it properly and wrap them up like Egyptian mummies for a day. I understand that “using the restroom” in a public place puts one in a somewhat vulnerable position and so women like to take certain (howshallisayit) “precautions.” But then they need to CLEAN UP AFTER THEMSELVES. Honestly … most women enter a public restroom and turn into the Wicked Stepsisters from Cinderella. They act like they’ve never cleaned a thing, certainly not after themselves and they create a pigsty for everyone. It’s disgusting and I’m tired of it.

Any of you women have any ideas about how we can change this unfortunate social trend?

Memory Lane … Tuesday
Oct 18th, 2005 by aBhantiarna Solas

My BrickFriend’s “Song o’the Day” today sparked a memory for me. His song today is by James Taylor. I think it’s Fire and Rain … but it was seeing James Taylor’s name that sparked the memory. So … here it is.

The spring I turned 18, I was a senior in high school and had a really tight group of friends. We were all in the spring musical together. The musical that year was “Kiss Me Kate,” by Cole Porter. My two best friends had the lead roles and I even had a supporting role, and miracle of god-awful miracles I got to sing a song, out loud, in public, all by my self. It’s the only time I’ve ever screwed up the courage to do that … ever. And there are good reasons for it.

Any way …

All of my friends and I do mean ALL of them were in the play in some manner. We had a ball together. But it just so happened that year that my birthday was on a Saturday. The Saturday of the “Tech Rehearsal.” ACK!!

Oh well … so I got to spend the day with my friends sitting around in the high school auditorium, futzing with lighting and sound and props and etc.. That night one of my best friends hosted a party for me. I made my own cake (German Chocolate Cake). We had a ball. All my friends came.

Here’s the James Taylor part … one of my friends … well, really, two of them (a brother and sister), gave me what was obviously a record album. Yes, this was in the days before CDs. So, I eagerly tore off the paper wondering, “Would it be Styx? Kansas? Aerosmith? Jay Giles Band? Abba, the BeeGees, or even the Eagles?” What could it be? … I was excited!! So imagine my thoughts and disappointment that I had to try to cover when it turned out to be …

a used …

ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK album!! (make sure you have your sound on when you click on that link!)

WHAT the H … E … doublehockeysticksamisupposedtodowiththis?????????

Oh … we all had a huge laugh.

And then they pulled out the “real” gift. A brand new James Taylor “JT” album, that I treasured for many years. But I’ve treasured the memory for many more.

Salt? Light?
Oct 18th, 2005 by aBhantiarna Solas

On Sunday my little church continued it’s consideration of that passage in the Bible we now call The Sermon on the Mount (it’s in the gospel according to Matthew, chapters 5, 6, and 7). We were looking especially at this passage:

13″Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

14″Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. 15If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. 16Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand–shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

So we did something a little different. We actually tasted salt. Well … we tasted some food (curry and coffee cake to be specific) withOUT salt and then WITH salt. To see what the difference was. To see for ourselves what exactly it is that salt does to food when you use it in cooking. We called it “culinary worship.” What was interesting was that all the flavors were all there without the salt, you just couldn’t really taste them. They were flat, like flat soda. But when you add salt, just a little (like a quarter to half a teaspoon – depending on the recipe), the flavors just pop!

During the whole service, one of our community painted a painting in very dim light on the stage. At the end we got to watch as the light played on it. To see what light does to color. To watch as the colors that were already there came out as the light was added.

So I’ve been thinking since then about the last couple of sentences in that passage. “Keep open house; be generous with your life. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.” And thinking about how to be more generous – emotionally, financially, mentally, physically. That part fascinates me and makes me think it would be possible to live in Christmas morning all year round. What would the world look like if we all did that? What would the world look like if we all made all the little decisions in our lives through the lens of generosity towards others? Rather than making those same decisions based on how much money we’d save, or how many more “x” we can get for a dollar or how much more quickly we can attain the great American dream (whatever that is anymore)? I’ve just been wondering ….

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