Ailantha - Blog

How Can I Keep From Singing?

1/20/2021

0 Comments

Hallmark meets the Sopranos
"Equal and Opposite Reactions" by Patti Liszkay
http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa

HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING?

Today my life goes on in song,

Above earth's lamentation.

I hear the real though far-off hymn,

That hails a new creation.

No storm can shake my inmost calm,

While to that rock I'm clinging,

Since love is lord of heaven and earth,

How can I keep from singing?

Through all the tumult and the strife,

I hear its music ringing,

It sounds an echo in my soul.

How can I keep from singing?

While though the tempest loudly roars,

I hear the truth, it liveth.

And thought the darkness round me close,

Songs in the night it giveth.

When tyrants tremble, sick with fear,

And hear their death knell ringing,

When friends rejoice, both far and near,

How can I keep from singing?

No storm can shake my inmost calm,

While to that rock I'm clinging,

Since love is lord of heaven and earth,

How can I keep from singing?

"How can I keep from singing?"
By Robert Wadsworth Lowry

0 Comments

The Donald Made Me Do It

1/19/2021

0 Comments

Love is a Physics experiment gone crazy.
"Equal and Opposite Reactions" by Patti Liszkay
http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa

Were these people really thinking that they could go to Washington one day, riot, smash into the Capitol, break into the Senate, zip-tie members of Congress, hang Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi, overthrow the United States government, then go home and go to work the next day?
The above question was pondered by my son-in-law Miguel,

...in the days after the Washington D.C. riots as the FBI began showing up at the doors of rioters and making arrests, much to the surprise and distress of said rioters.
But if the insurgents were so unaware that there would be consequences for the damage, destruction, violence and terror they wreaked and the injuries they caused when they stormed the Capitol building,

...then what in the world were they thinking?
Apparently this was a terrorism day trip. A democracy-overthrow outing. A attempted assassination afternoon. The rioters posted selfies, tweets, instagrams, photos, videos, slathered themselves all over social media while committing acts of violence and Federal felonies.

Then when Federal agents were waiting for them as they stepped off their planes or came to their houses days later, the FBI having gleaned their identities from tips from friends, family, and by all the social and news media postings,

...they were caught like deer in the headlights.
However after these people were arrested, charged, and able to avail themselves of the counsel of lawyers, clarity finally emerged and they came to the realization of why they had thought and behaved as they did: Donald Trump made them think it. Donald Trump made them do it.
They acted, so they claimed, not of their own volition, but were following the command of their beloved President, who told them to "march down Pennsylvania Avenue" to the Capitol and to "fight like hell."

...which they subsequently did. And took plenty of pictures of themselves doing it.

And now:
― Jenna Ryan, a Texas realtor who was arrested for taking part in the siege said she was answering the call of her President and that now, "I just want people to know I'm a normal person, that I listen to my President who told me to go to the Capitol."

This self-described "normal person" is now pleading for a Presidential pardon from Donald Trump.
― The lawyer for the man who invaded the Capitol wearing horns, fur, and face paint said that President Trump was culpable for his client's actions.

“Does our President bear responsibility?” said the man's laywer. “Hell, yes, he does.” The horned warrior, now in prison, is also begging Donald Trump for a pardon.
― A retired firefighter charged with injuring Capitol Police officers with a fire extinguisher said he went to the Capitol following “the President’s instructions.”
― A New Mexico county official and founder of Cowboys for Trump who was charged with with breaking into the Capitol pled that he merely became "caught up in the crowd."
Et cetera.
And so, if the hundreds of rioters who are now facing punishment for their crimes and the hundreds or thousands more who will be brought to justice knew not what they were thinking at the time, now they do. They're thinking that it wasn't their fault. That their President made them do it. And that, sometime before noon tomorrow, they want a Presidential pardon.

Good luck to them in getting one.

References:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/nyregion/protesters-blaming-trump-pardon.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/capitol-rioters-trump-told-them-123643116.html

0 Comments

21,000 If By Land, But What If By Air?

1/15/2021

0 Comments

"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Buy them on Amazon.

21,000 IF BY LAND, BUT WHAT IF BY AIR?

If everybody in America is as anxious as I am tonight then we are one anxious country.
Our nation's intelligence sources predict that this weekend and likely for days - possibly weeks - to follow there will be armed and likely violent pro-Trump agitators converging upon every state capitol building in the country in protest of the outcome of the Presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.
It does not help my jitters that I happen to live in one of the cities, Columbus, Ohio, wherein is located one of the soon-to-be-besieged state capitols.

The Ohio State Capitol

True, our Governor, Mike Dewine, has ordered so far several hundred national guard troops to assist the Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers and Columbus police officers in warding off the thousands of marauders who may descend upon the city, which would not have calmed me half so much had Governor Dewine not assured us at his press conference yesterday that he will round up more troops to protect the Capitol building and the city if need be.

Therefore I do not begrudge the 1,000 Ohio guardsmen and women our Governor has dispatched to Washington to assist the other guard troops, 21,000 strong, who will be protecting the United States Capitol. No, I'm glad for every boot that will be on the ground.
But here's what worries me: what if the domestic terrorists, along with attacks on the ground, are planning air attacks?
   Who's to say that a small private plane - or an army of small private planes - couldn't fly over the U.S. Capitol or over state capitol buildings and drop home made bombs or incendiary devices on the buildings or the people protecting the buildings? Who's to say they couldn't fly low and strafe the guard troops and police officers? Who's to even say there might not be some unhinged holy-war-zealots out there who might be planning to fly a plane into a building?
What I want to know is, with all the thought and preparation that's gone into defense strategy against land attacks, has anyone planned defense against air attacks?
"Oh, I'm sure they've planned for air attacks," said my spouse Tom.
"But have they?" I said. "I haven't read or heard of any plans in case of air attacks."
"Don't worry, they're ready," said Tom.
"I'm going to send an email to the FBI, just in case they haven't thought of an air attack," said I.
"Don't send the FBI and email," said Tom. "They might show up at the front door."
"Maybe I'd like for them to show up at the front door so I could make sure they've thought about an air attack."
Anyway, I ended up not sending an email to the FBI. But I did send one to Governor Dewine the other day warning him to be prepared for a possible air attack by Pro-Trump protesters. The Governor hasn't responded to my email. Which is fine. I just hope he saw it. And then passed it on to the FBI.

0 Comments

Mike Pence, You Putz, JUST DO IT!

1/12/2021

0 Comments

You know you need something good to read.

"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Buy them on Amazon.

MIKE PENCE, YOU PUTZ, JUST DO IT!

Do it, Mike Pence, JUST DO IT!
Four years you've been Donald Trump's Gunga Din, the most loyal of lackies,

...creeping along behind him with your goat skin water bag slung over your your back like a limping lump of brick-dust, then scurrying ahead to sprinkle your water on the fires he set and your fairy dust on his lies and actions that were enough to make your eyebrows crawl.

And in return, Mike Pence, he's belted you and flayed you,

...but now, by the livin' Gawd that made you, has come to your chance to show that you're a better man than Trump is, Mike Pence!
For you are finally to have your day, Mike Pence (as does every dog), your chance to throw off your water bag and stand tall, to be a man instead of Trump's gummy worm,

...multiple mixed metaphors be hanged!
And so do it, Mike Pence, JUST DO IT! Congress is offering you your manhood on a silver platter, the opportunity to lead the country and save us from whatever destructive mischief Donald Trump might be cooking up in the coming days, and you'd get to be President of the United States, to boot. (President only for a few days, but still. You'd finally be The Man. Or at least a man).
Listen, Mike Pence, and hear me well: on this very day the United States Congress is voting on a resolution to call on you to invoke the 25th Amendment of our Constitution, which, with a majority of the President's cabinet in agreement, would require the Vice President (that's you, Mike Pence) to take over the duties and powers of the President and, in this case, for the President to be removed immediately.

After Congress votes today on the resolution, you will have 24 hours to invoke the 25th Amendment.
Do it, Mike Pence, JUST DO IT! And do it now. Get Donald Trump out of the office of President, don't let another sun set on this man still sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
Do not follow behind Donald Trump another minute with your water bag, don't follow him down, down, down, lest you end up spending eternity squattin' on the coals givin' drink to poor damn souls.

You've been given the opportunity, the chance, the gift to do the right thing for your country and to break free of Donald Trump. So please, Mike Pence, cease being Trump's putz, his Gunga Din, his gummy worm. Do it now, Mike Pence, JUST DO IT!

References
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/12/politics/house-vote-25th-amendment-trump/index.html

"Gunga Din" by Rudyard Kipling, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46783/gunga-din

0 Comments

Donald Trump, Me And The Widget

1/9/2021

0 Comments

"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Buy them on Amazon.

DONALD TRUMP, ME AND THE WIDGET

What do Donald Trump and I have in common?
The answer is, we've both been denied by Facebook.
Now, granted, Donald Trump was offed from Facebook for using it to help cause an attempted insurrection against the United States government,

...whereas I was just trying to hawk a couple copies of my book.

Lest you get the wrong impression, Facebook did not nix me because of the image on the cover of my book, nor should it have, what one perceives on the cover being a suggestive silhouette, but then silhouettes are seldom what they seem, which is what the novel is about. Facebook obviously picked up on that much.
No, Facebook liked my book's cover well enough. What Facebook apparently didn't like was the fact that I wanted to run an ad that included a brief excerpt from the novel that, ironically, Facebook felt - or rather its computer, algorithm, or whatever robotic widget calls the shots felt - was a rank attempt to influence the Presidential election against Donald Trump.
Hence Facebook rejected my ad for my book. Multiple times. Facebook continues to reject my ad even though the election is unequivocally over and Donald Trump is on the verge of getting the heave-ho less than two weeks before the end of his term, and for good reason.
Now, I'm quite sure that if my ad had been adjudicated by a live human, said human would have understood that a writer could hardly have influenced the outcome of the election just by using the words "Trump," "Donald," and "lard arse" in the same paragraph. But the widget that read my excerpt obviously didn't get those words in context. Or maybe the widget that read my ad was a Trump-supporter widget.

But anyway, I figure maybe in a few weeks, if things transpire in such a way that Donald Trump's political future ends up with as much lift as a Macy's balloon the day after Thanksgiving, then maybe I'll try floating my excerpt by the Facebook ad widget again.
However in the meantime, the heck with that widget, you can read the excerpt for free if you want. Take your mind off everything for a minute.

An Excerpt from "Hail Mary"
By Patti Liszkay
Darren pulled off Oregon Avenue into the lot of Angelo Barbieri’s warehouse.
He was buzzed into the warehouse and greeted by Dina, Barbieri’s receptionist, who smiled at Darren then buzzed for the elevator from her desk. Darren took the elevator to the second floor then knocked on the mahogany door of Barbieri’s office.
“Come ii-in,” sang a voice from the other side.
Aw, screw me, Darren thought. He pulled in a deep breath then opened the door to see his step-brother Geoffry behind Angelo Barbieri’s desk, lounging back in Barbieri’s chair, his stocking feet on the polished desk as if he owned it.
“What are you, nuts?” Darren gasped. “Where’s Barbieri? He sees you like that he’ll grab your tongue and wrap it around your balls!”
Geoffry laughed and removed his feet from the desk. “He’s down the hall in the can.”
“What do you mean down the hall? His bathroom’s right there,” Darren pointed to a door next to a far corner of the office, “he’s got a shower in it and everything.”
Geoffry shrugged. “He likes to take a dump in the other bathroom down the hall. Go figure.”
“Yeah, well, that’s great, but you better get your butt out of his chair.”
Geoffry stood, pushed the chair back closer to the desk and rubbed his sleeve on the desk where his feet had been. “There,” he said as he put on his shoes, “you happy now, Mom?”
“I’m not your damn mom,” Darren mumbled.
“What?” said Geoffry.
“Whadja do to your hair?” said Darren. “You look like Donald Trump Junior.”
“Hey that’s just what I said!” Angelo Barbieri was standing in his doorway tucking his pale blue checked Brooks Brothers shirt into his expensive tan size forty-two husky Regent-Fit trousers. “His hair all slicked back like that, doesn’t he look like Donald Junior now? Or wait, not Donald Junior, but the other kid, the blonde guy, what’s-his-name, the one looks like there’s nobody home, you know who I mean?”
“Yeah, I don’t know,” said Darren. "Jason, or something,”
“That’s who you look, like,” Angelo Barbieri said, walking over to the men and slinging an arm around grinning Geoffry’s shoulders, “Jason Trump.” Barbieri lightly poked Geoffry’s stomach where it bulged over his belt. “Gettin’ a little grassone, there, huh, Jason? You don’t lay off the pasta fazzoule you’ll have a lard arse on you like your daddy Donald.” Angelo broke into a loud guffaw shared by Geoffry. Angelo pointed to Geoffry. “You see, Bobby Darren?” he said, calling Darren by the nickname he’d pinned on him, “Jason Trump here’s got a great sense of humor, that’s why everybody loves the guy.” Barbieri turned back to Geoffry. “Whataya say, J.T.? Can we get your brother here to loosen up a little? He’s standing there looking like he’s got a Popsicle up his can.”
“He needs to warm it up in his wife’s hot cooch,” replied Geoffry.
“This guy,” laughed Angelo, again poking Geoffry’s stomach, “is he a paisan’ oobatz, or what?”
Darren stood with a tight forced smile stretched across his face while Angelo and Geoffry yucked it up.
Barbieri released Geoffry’s shoulder then said, “Aw, J.T. what are we gonna do with Bobby Darren, here? He just doesn’t like to make the battut’. You gotta work on this guy. Hey you got that cash ready for him? And the checks?”
“Yeah, it’s in my desk, there,” said Geoffry. “You want me to go get it?”
Angelo looked blankly at Geoffry for a moment then he ran a hand over his bald head and said, “Yeah, Jason Trump, go get it.” While Geoffry was pulling the envelopes of money from the desk drawer with his back to the room Angelo leaned close to Darren and said softly, “You musta got all the brains in the family.”

0 Comments

Do You Really Believe Donald Trump Is Through With His Mischief?

1/8/2021

0 Comments

Things are seldom what they seem.

"Hail Mary"
by Patti Liszkay
Buy it on Amazon:
https://www.amzn.com/1684334888

DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE DONALD TRUMP IS THROUGH WITH HIS MISCHIEF?

True, as of today Donald Trump has only twelve days left in office. But do you really believe, even with such a short time left, that he's through with his mischief?
And true, in the wake of the violent uprising against the United States government that Trump incited the day before yesterday,

...he has now promised to go along with a peaceful transfer of power.
But do you believe for one minute that Donald Trump's promise is anything more than another of his lies, empty words no more to be believed than the promise of a spoiled, chronically misbehaving child who's learned how to make the overly-permissive adults around him believe that he'll be good from now on?
Do you not believe that at the sight of the invasion of the Capitol building two days ago Donald Trump was exalting - and is likely exalting still - in his power to make tens of thousands rise up in his name? Do you think Trump won't continue to wield that power for as long as he's permitted to with every means he has at his disposal as President of the United States?
Do you think Donald Trump is any less determined today to keep his grip on the Presidency than he was yesterday? Do you think he's any less exclusively self-serving?
Do you think, if allowed to stay in office for the next twelve days, Donald Trump will not bring down more discord and chaos on this country?
If you don't believe that serious trouble is brewing still just take note of all the top-ranking White house staff members and members of Trump's cabinet who are in these final days quitting in droves,

...rats jumping from the sinking ship of their own construction.

They must know something that the rest of us don't, but that we will all know very soon if Donald Trump is allowed to last in the White House for twelve more days.

Reference:
https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-resignations.html

0 Comments

Yes, Are They Happy Now?

1/6/2021

0 Comments

The following was posted a little while ago by one of my Facebook friends:

...Jim Jordan being the loud-mouthed, rabid, right-wing Republican U.S. Representative from Ohio,

...who, after having been chosen by Donald Trump to receive the Presidential Medal of Honor, was leading the charge against the Congressional certification of Joe Biden as winner over Trump of the 2020 Presidential election.
As the whole world now knows, at the very moment that Jordan and his cohorts were about to turn the traditionally ceremonial counting of the electoral votes on the floor of Congress into a disruptive six-ring circus for the sake of currying favor with the die-hard supporters of soon-to-be-ex-President Donald Trump, tens of thousands of those very Trump supporters were outside storming the Capitol building.

After they broached the barriers they then smashed in the windows and doors,

...and broke into the Capitol.

Before the mob reached the Senate most of the members of Congress were evacuated, except for a few in the top gallery who were unable to escape in time.

The rioters then broke into the Senate, riffled through desks of the Senators, ambled around the floor,

...and took selfies of themselves lounging at the desk of the Vice President.

They broke into some offices, including that of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi,

...where one of the insurgents, a man named Richard Barnett, stole a document from Speaker Pelosi's desk,

...then left her a message.

Do these images of what happened today in the United States Capitol building, the seat of our democracy, make you sick, appalled, angry, frightened? Me too.
But is it not noteworthy that the thugs who broke into, vandalized and made a mockery of the United States Congress are the very people that Jim Jordan and all the other Republicans who made such a show of attempting to block Joe Biden's election claimed to be fighting for? Which begs the question for those particular members of Congress: Why, when these, your people, arrived at your door, did you flee for your life from them? Why didn't you stay for them, welcome them, express your solidarity with them?
And, of course, there rests one more question for Jim Jordan and the others who've spent the last eight weeks bolstering and propagating Donald Trump's lie that the election was stolen from him: Are you indeed happy now?

0 Comments

Notes From the Other Side Of New Year's, Or How I Dispensed With My Visions Of Sugarplums

1/3/2021

0 Comments

Like the blog?

You'll love the books

"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Buy them on Amazon.

NOTES FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF NEW YEAR'S, OR HOW I DISPENSED WITH MY VISIONS OF SUGARPLUMS

It's January 3, 2021, which means that I've made it through the holidays.
Back in June of 2020 my daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren drove from Los Angeles, California to Columbus, Ohio to spend a month with us sheltering in place. (Remember that old directive from the early days of the epidemic?)

When the month was up and my daughter and her family left for California in July it was with the plan that they'd return to Columbus again at Christmas time and spend another month.
And so the summer passed, the beautiful days of early autumn came and went, the COVID curve that had been flattened over the summer,

...turned into a soaring graph of Mount Everest as the number of new daily COVID cases soared into the hundreds of thousands.

And yet even as the epidemic raged on, visions of sugarplums continued to dance in my head. Yes, the epidemic was getting worse, yes, we all needed to social distance, yes, we needed to stay apart, to stay in our own homes or COVID bubbles, to not travel, and yes, there should be no social or family get-togethers, I understood all of that.
But that surely didn't mean me not seeing my children and grandchildren at Christmas. It didn't mean we shouldn't drive to Chicago during the holiday season as we did every year to spend a couple of days with our daughter and son-in-law.

It didn't mean that my son and his girlfriend couldn't come over on Christmas Day just for a little while,

...just for our Christmas morning brunch, nothing more.

And the absolutely least thing it meant was that my grandchildren couldn't be here for Christmas. Because, like just about everyone else on the planet, I couldn't imagine Christmas without my family, especially the children. So I didn't imagine it. In my mind the COVID epidemic was real and dangerous and staying sealed in one's bubble was necessary right up until mid-December, at which point my mental calendar was filled in with happy images of ghosts of Christmases past.

But as the epidemic continued to proliferate and the numbers of sick, hospitalized, and dead continued to climb, the increased warnings against opening one's home to anyone outside of one's COVID bubble began to infringe on my sugarplum visions.
That is to say, fringes of thoughts that maybe I shouldn't visit my daughter in Chicago or have anyone else visit me began blowing around the edge of my holiday plans, making me feel uneasy. I'd brush the thoughts away - surely there was no danger in being with my family, they were careful as can be, they were safe - but then the thoughts would blow right back. And then there was the news article I read that warned that, when it comes to COVID, you can't trust your family. I found myself floundering in a state that teetered back and forth between indecision and denial.
As it turned out, it was about midway through November when I finally saw the light.
I called my daughter in Chicago and asked her when she would like me to come to visit for a few days. She told me not to come. Absolutely not to come.
Now, I suppose it shouldn't have been a surprise that my daughter would tell me not to come and visit her in Chicago at the height of the COVID epidemic. She's the charge nurse for the COVID Intensive Care Unit at her hospital.

"But...will you be okay?" I asked her. "If I don't come and see you around Christmas?"
My daughter assured me that she would be perfectly fine if I didn't come and see her. In fact she would be fine not only over the holidays but until whenever the time came that we could safely meet again.
It was then, after that talk with my daughter, that I realized that I needed to melt those sugarplums in my head and come to terms with the fact that, not only should I not be traveling to anyone else's house for the holidays this year, nobody else should be traveling or coming over to my house. And once I had made the decision and steeled my resolve, I was able to make the phone calls.
First I called my son and told him that I wouldn't be having anyone (by "anyone" meaning him) over for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any time until the epidemic was over and it was safe again.
Now, my son works in research at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus.

Which is why I likewise shouldn't have been surprised when he told me that he wasn't intending to come over for Thanksgiving. Or Christmas.
"But will you be okay? Not getting together for the holidays?"
He, too, assured me that he'd be fine. He sounded fine. I felt relived.
When I called my daughter in Los Angeles to cancel our plans to have her family drive out for Christmas and spend a month, she one hundred percent agreed that they shouldn't come. I didn't ask if they would be all right not spending a month in Ohio during the winter. I had a feeling they would be.

And so, while I had wanted to see all my family at Christmas time, knowing that my grown children and grandchildren didn't need to be with their mother and grandmother as much as I imagined they did was, in fact, a relief, and led me to the realization that if we weren't all together for the holidays this year we'd all be all right.
And here it is, January 3, and all of us are all right.
Happy New Year. May you all be all right.

0 Comments

My Christmas Elephant And The Persistance Of Memory Clock

12/29/2020

0 Comments

Like the blog?
You'll love the books.

"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Buy them on Amazon.

MY CHRISTMAS ELEPHANT AND THE PERSISTANCE OF MEMORY CLOCK

I stepped back from the tradition of giving and receiving Christmas gifts - except in the case of my young grandchildren - years ago. The reason wasn't so much that I'm opposed to the practice of holiday gift-giving - I'm not at all - as that I can never think of what to get another adult. I used to hate wracking my brain trying to think of things to get my relatives, only to end up getting them really the worst Christmas gifts. The thing is, I'm an awful gift-giver. So I save us all the grief and just don't give at all. Fortunately my children are of the same frame of mind as myself, so we all just don't worry about exchanging gifts on Christmas day, which relieves the stress of the season without, believe it or not, diminishing the enjoyment, there being plenty else to do on Christmas to make the day merry and fun.
In normal times on Christmas our house would be filled with our visiting children and grandchildren. We used to start the day by removing the Christmas Eve luminaries (See previous post), then a big brunch would follow, after which we spent the afternoon watching our traditional family Christmas movie, "Tremors."

Or occasionally, for variety, "Star Wars."

We always went out for Christmas dinner to a Japanese steak house,

But of course this year Christmas was for you, me, and everyone we know upended by the epidemic.
Still I'm not sure why this year I suddenly had the urge to buy Christmas gifts for my COVID bubble mates, my husband and one of my daughters, though I have a feeling any psychoanalyst out there could probably put their finger on it in a trice.
In any case, I logged onto Amazon and went COVID-safe Christmas shopping. On Christmas Eve I wrapped the presents and set them under the tree.
On Christmas morning we started off by collecting the Christmas Eve luminaries.

It was such a beautiful snowy Christmas morning, with the neighbors out shoveling their driveways and walks.

Afterwards I fixed the big Christmas brunch for the three of us.

"Now it's time to open Christmas presents," I said after brunch.
"Aw, Mom, why didn't you tell us we were doing Christmas presents this year?" asked my daughter.
"I mean, I didn't get you guys anything special," I said.
This was true. I didn't get them anything special. Just a puzzle, a calendar, and pajamas.

I still stink at buying Christmas presents for other people.
However, for myself I managed to pick out the perfect items. One didn't arrive from Amazon in time for Christmas, but the other one was this elephant.

"The heck?" wondered my daughter and husband, for they saw only a cast iron elephant tchochke with a safety hazard of a trunk. They did not perceive its awesome utility, which gave me a feeling something akin to that of the protagonist of the book "The Little Prince," by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,

...who, as a child drew this picture,

...only to have it mistaken by the grown-ups for a hat, when it was obviously a boa constrictor that had swallowed an elephant.

I Likewise had thought that the function of my elephant was just as obvious.

We grown-ups always need things explained.
After the opening of the presents we settled down to watch our Christmas movie. As the whole family wasn't here we decided not to watch our traditional favorite, but opted instead to watch "Game Night," a great movie which also turned out to be a satisfying choice.

For dinner, as we couldn't go out to the Japanese steak house, Tom cooked us a turkey and his yummy apple pie.

And so went our Christmas.
But last night the other Christmas present I'd bought for myself finally arrived.

Now it hangs looking good on my wall, keeping time,

...and serving as a reminder that, though memory may persist, all time melts away.
As this time eventually will, too.

0 Comments

Christmas Eve, 2020: Burning A "Bayberry" Candle, Lighting The Luminaries, And A Concert For The Pets

12/27/2020

2 Comments

1. Burning a "Bayberry" Candle.

My mother always said, "On Christmas Eve burn a bayberry candle down to the socket to bring health to the body and wealth to the pocket."
But for my mother this was more than just a folksy little adage. Growing up there was always a bayberry taper burning in our home on Christmas Eve. My mother would light the candle in the morning to make sure it would be burned down before the day was done, and the candle had to be a bayberry; a pine or balsam-scented wouldn't do. I can't recall a Christmas Eve in my mother's home without a burning bayberry candle.
And so years later when my mom and my Aunt Mary - my mother's sister who lived with my mom and who my mom cared for - began spending Christmases with my family, it was likewise required that in my home a bayberry candle be burned down to the socket on Christmas Eve in order that we all might have health and wealth in the new year.
I recall that one year I forgot to procure a bayberry candle for Christmas Eve, much to my mom's dismay. Hence the day before Christmas Eve I was zipping around town looking for a bayberry candle, but there were none to be had. By a stroke of good fortune, however, it turned out that the mother of one of my daughter's boyfriends happened to have a bayberry candle on hand which she graciously gave to us. And so Christmas Eve was saved and we were assured another year of health and wealth.

My Mom

Aunt Mary

After my mother and Aunt were no longer spending Christmases with me I let the burning of a bayberry candle on Christmas Eve fall by the wayside, trusting in other practices to keep us financially solvent and reasonably healthy. However this year I decided to resurrect the ritual, figuring that this year any possible way to coax some good luck out of the cosmos should be not be overlooked.
And so on December 8 I ordered a bayberry candle from Amazon and was informed that my candle would be delivered the following week. When it hadn't arrived by the morning of December 24 I resigned myself to burning an ordinary taper, knowing that it held no cosmic power, yet deciding to try it anyway on the chance that I might get some credit for my expenditure and labor and the fact that my lack of a real bayberry candle wasn't my fault.

My "bayberry" candle.

Then at around 10 pm a small package arrived on our porch.

Alas, it was too late to light my bayberry candle. It would never burn down to the socket by midnight.
But I lit it instead on Christmas morning, knowing that its purported powers were by then gone but, again, hoping that maybe I'd be granted token amounts of health and wealth - in fact, they can keep the wealth, I'd be glad for just the health - for my extra effort and intention.

We'll see how it goes in 2021.

2. Lighting the Luminaires.

Ever since we moved to this neighborhood thirty-three years ago we've taken it upon ourselves to line our block with luminaries on Christmas Eve. We made them from used glass baby food jars - does baby food come in glass jars any more? - and half-gallon milk bottles with a hole cut in the front. When our children were old enough to help, the Christmas Eve luminaries became a family affair, as it has continued to be for those who spend Christmas with us. When our grandchildren visiting from Los Angeles for the holiday were old enough they began lending a hand as well.

This year, COVID having kept us apart from all our children except, thankfully, our daughter who shares our living bubble but who was working this Christmas Eve,

...Tom and I were tasked with setting up the luminaries on our own,

...while Lucy watched us.

It was a beautiful, snowy, silent night,

...and lighting the luminaries on this Christmas Eve, a lonely one for too many of us, was a labor of much joy and love.

3. A Concert for the Pets

After we finished lighting the luminaires Tom and I came back inside for our Christmas Eve supper, which on Christmas Eves past has been a great and varied feast shared with family and friends,

...followed by singing.

This year Tom and I shared our Christmas Eve "feast" of pasta, shrimp and stuffed mushrooms at the kitchen table.

In the glow of the lights our house looked so pretty,

...but felt so quiet and empty.
But, thankfully, not for long. If our house could not be filled with people and live music this Christmas Eve, it would be soon filled virtually, as our son Tommy and his girlfriend Emily had invited us to a virtual Christmas Eve concert they were performing for the family.

At 8 pm the audience had arrived and the concert began.

Emily and Tommy sang rock songs, folk songs, Christmas carols and Hanukkah songs which we joined in singing.

Shortly after the music began people's pets began showing up,

...hanging around and stealing the show, as animals do.
I'm not sure I can explain exactly why the concert was so much fun, but it was.
In fact it was wonderful.

2 Comments

<<Previous

How Can I Keep From Singing?

HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING?

The Donald Made Me Do It

THE DONALD MADE ME DO IT

21,000 If By Land, But What If By Air?

21,000 IF BY LAND, BUT WHAT IF BY AIR?

Mike Pence, You Putz, JUST DO IT!

MIKE PENCE, YOU PUTZ, JUST DO IT!

Donald Trump, Me And The Widget

DONALD TRUMP, ME AND THE WIDGET

Do You Really Believe Donald Trump Is Through With His Mischief?

DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE DONALD TRUMP IS THROUGH WITH HIS MISCHIEF?

Yes, Are They Happy Now?

Notes From the Other Side Of New Year's, Or How I Dispensed With My Visions Of Sugarplums

Like the blog?

You'll love the books

NOTES FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF NEW YEAR'S, OR HOW I DISPENSED WITH MY VISIONS OF SUGARPLUMS

My Christmas Elephant And The Persistance Of Memory Clock

MY CHRISTMAS ELEPHANT AND THE PERSISTANCE OF MEMORY CLOCK

Christmas Eve, 2020: Burning A "Bayberry" Candle, Lighting The Luminaries, And A Concert For The Pets

Archives

Categories

​HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING?

​THE DONALD MADE ME DO IT

​21,000 IF BY LAND, BUT WHAT IF BY AIR?

​MIKE PENCE, YOU PUTZ, JUST DO IT!

​​DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE DONALD TRUMP IS THROUGH WITH HIS MISCHIEF?

Like the blog?

​You'll love the books

​NOTES FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF NEW YEAR'S, OR HOW I DISPENSED WITH MY VISIONS OF SUGARPLUMS

​MY CHRISTMAS ELEPHANT AND THE PERSISTANCE OF MEMORY CLOCK

Archives

Categories

HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING?

THE DONALD MADE ME DO IT

21,000 IF BY LAND, BUT WHAT IF BY AIR?

MIKE PENCE, YOU PUTZ, JUST DO IT!

DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE DONALD TRUMP IS THROUGH WITH HIS MISCHIEF?

You'll love the books

NOTES FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF NEW YEAR'S, OR HOW I DISPENSED WITH MY VISIONS OF SUGARPLUMS

MY CHRISTMAS ELEPHANT AND THE PERSISTANCE OF MEMORY CLOCK