Advent Simplicity, light and beauty- Friday Five

Sally posted this elaborate and thoughtful Friday Five: "Imagine a complex, multi-cultural society that annually holds an elaborate winter festival, one that lasts not simply a few days, but several weeks. This great festival celebrates the birth of the Lord and Saviour of the world, the prince of peace, a man who is divine. People mark the festival with great abundance- feasting, drinking and gift giving....." (Richard Horsley- The Liberation of Christmas)
The passage goes on, recounting the decorations that are hung, and the songs and dances that accompany the festival, how the economy booms and philanthropic acts abound....
But this is not Christmas- this is a Roman festival in celebration of the Emperor....This is the world that Jesus was born into! The world where the early Christians would ask "Who is your Saviour the Emperor or Christ?"
And yet our shops and stores and often our lives are caught up in a world that looks very much like the one of ancient Rome, where we worship at the shrine of consumerism....
Advent on the other hand calls us into the darkness, a time of quiet preparation, a time of waiting, and re-discovering the wonder of the knowledge that God is with us. Advent's call is to simplicity and not abundance, a time when we wait for glorious light of God to come again...
Christ is with us at this time of advent, in the darkness, and Christ is coming with his light- not the light of the shopping centre, but the light of love and truth and beauty.
What do you long for this advent? What are your hopes and dreams for the future? What is your prayer today?
In the vein of simplicity I ask you to list five advent longings....
1. Living in the heart of the financial crisis, I wish that things settle down, financially and that we all could stop worrying-on a daily basis-about our financial futures. I passed a job fair a local hotel the other day and the line was around the block.
2. I pray that our new president is the genius that we are expecting and not just the Wizard of Oz.
3. I give thanks for the love of my family and friends daily. I look forward to the visit of my Aunt Julie between Christmas and New Years.
4. As we are a bi-religious family, I look forward to celebrating the Festival of Lights, the miracle of Hanukkah beginning on the eve of December 22 when there was just enough oil for one night but it lasted for eight blessed nights.
5. I thank God for the RevGals and I long for all of you to continue into the new year in joy and peace. And to meet some of you one day!

And a tip of the hat to the Catholic Church of England and Wales

VATICAN CITY, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- The Catholic Church of England and Wales warned Roman Catholic priests against using language in their parishes that might offend gay and lesbian worshipers.
Priests have been told by their bishops not to assume that every parishioner is heterosexual, The Daily Mail reported Saturday.

"Remember that homophobic jokes and asides can be cruel and hurtful -- a careless word can mean another experience of rejection and pain," bishops said in a memo about how priests can be more welcoming to gays.

The advice to be more tolerant of homosexuality appears to be in conflict with Pope Benedict XVI's opposition to gay marriage.

But English gay rights activist Peter Tatchell said the leaflet represents a "positive initiative" that could help gay Catholics and their families, the newspaper reported.

"It's sympathetic, understanding message is a big improvement on the past homophobia of some Catholic pronouncements on homosexuality," he said.

ed. note But who is the the Catholic Church of England and Wales? Is it the Anglican Church? Or is it the Catholic Church or something else?

Black Friday

So I ventured out on Black Friday. I had the address' of a few sample sales (not very good.) and a few coupons. BL came with me (for the first part) because I wanted to get her some media player so that she could study her ASL on the run. We went to the HUGE Apple store down 9th ave. from our apt. Busy, busy! We finally found a person in a blue shirt to help us. I seems that the cd she bought at Galudet couldn't be downloaded through ITunes and would need extra software-maybe.  This took quite a long time.(Geek to geek talk.)  And she decided that this was not what she wanted for her birthday, so back to the drawing board.

So that by the time I got to Macy's my coupon had EXPIRED!  YES-It expired at 1:00!  Can you believe it. It was so crowed at Macys that they weren't letting people use the elevators (wheelchairs, strollers and seniors.) I had to beg them (cane.) I got out of there as quickly as possible. I did get a few lovely items at the Metropolitan Museum Store in Macys.
Next year I'm going to do what I usually do on black Friday, go to Work!

Friday Five on Thursday

Singing Owl posted: I'm musing about giving thanks for people today, partly because Americans celebrated our annual Thanksgiving holiday yesterday (I try not to just make this holiday "turkey day" even though its main feature seems to be eating till one is nearly comatose) and partly because I read the above verse this morning. It started me thinking about individuals in my life for whom I give thanks. For this post-Thanksgiving Day Friday Five, share with us "Five People For Whom You Give Thanks to God" and maybe tell us why they are significant.
So I realized my Thursday posted answered this question. See Thursday November 27th...

Things I've Done- I was tagged

Want to play? Copy and paste. Pick a color for the things that you have done. Mine are in blue letters.
I HAVE...

1. Started my own blog

2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
3. Watched lightening at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (In my office they're called stress days and if you take 3 in a row, you don't need a doctors note.)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice (That would be the Venice Hotel in Las Vegas!)
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (I've tried 3x, but no dice)
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar- and love it!
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job- more than once!
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle 

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury 90(a) Been Sequestered!
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Ridden an elephant

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

The new title picture was taken with my iPhone taken along the banks of the Potomac in DC on a visit to Bl's little family last weekend. It was a dark and stormy day and we were waiting for the demo's about prop 8 to begin. We never made it as we were in Virginia eating very slow Vietnamese food while the sky's opened and I was overruled, sigh.

I'm very thankful for having a place to go for dinner today and a place to eat without having to cook. I'm so grateful to have BL in my life for going on 18 years. She is the light of my life, through thick and thin. I'm also grateful for having this chance to live in the same city as Godchild for once in our lives and to get to know her a little better. She's a wonderful, smart, special person. I'm also grateful to have my Aunt Julie who celebrated her 90th birthday in August and is going strong and my cousin Michelle who I got to know as an adult because out parents didn't speak (family!) Healing can happen.  I'm very glad to have a job in these difficult times and in a career and I really do love despite my occasional complaints. I'm a lucky woman! I have friends and many things to be grateful for.

Today we will be going to BL's former vegetarian aunt. She decided around her 80th birthday that she wanted a hot dog and it was downhill from there. She's a very good cook. The guests will be her gay son and his partner, her straight son-the holistic dentist and his wife-the home schooler and two children, her brother and two children and my godchild the grown women. Oh and a dog, me and BL. Quite a diverse crowd. Godchild's husband the Ghanaian surgeon has to work today as he's a resident-he has to work all the time. Shortly BL will be getting up to make a chocolate cake. Two chocolate cakes are expected. Think I'll skip the Turkey. I have five, count em, five days of subway free commute less days of going to Brooklyn. Yeah!

I must start shopping for the various birthdays, Hanukkah and Christmas presents and stuff but that may be a done lot on line, though being in NY I do like the sample sales and have gotten some swell bargains in the past. If you're in the, google sample sales. There are lots of them-in the garmento district- and they are lots of fun and good bargains.

W

Godchild and I went to see it yesterday. I don't see many movies. Not because I don't like them, but because-even with the massive multiplex a block away and the the groovy little indie movie theater a short cab ride-it's hard to synchronize our schedules,  BL and I. So I've decided to see movies with GC or go by myself.

W was really kind of eye opening in a sad and scary way. It was much more of a broad caricature than the usual Stone biopic, but made W. somewhat sympathetic in his pathetic way. It also make his father more positive than I ever thought of him.

The scenes in the war room were really scary. 

Who ever elected this man-twice!

Mix and Stir Friday Five

Songbird posted: "In a minor domestic crisis, my food processor, or more precisely the part you use for almost everything for which I use a food processor, picked the eve of the festive season of the year to give up the ghost. A crack in the lid expanded such that a batch of squash soup had to be liberated via that column shaped thing that sticks up on top.

Can you tell this is not my area of strength?

Next week, I'm hosting Thanksgiving. I need your help. Please answer the following kitchen-related questions:"

1) Do you have a food processor? Can you recommend it? Which is to say, do you actually use it?
We have a Cusinart. It's an old one, a gift to Beloved who kept making hummus in the blender and that was difficult. She knows how to use it, Since she moved in, I have stayed out of our miniscule kitchen which really only has room for one.

2) And if so, do you use the fancy things on it? (Mine came with a mini-blender (used a lot and long ago broken) and these scary disks you used to julienne things (used once).)
No fancy things. Verry Scarry! BL has accidents in the kitchen, cuts, burns, 'bagel cuts' that require stiches. BAN the BAGEL-no really, I cut all Bagels.

3) Do you use a standing mixer? Or one of the hand-held varieties?
Hand held mixer. In drawer. I used that to make a gourmet b'day cake several years ago. Yummy with Calibeaut (sp) chocolate.

(And isn't that color delightfully retro?) 

(White?)

4) How about a blender? Do you have one? Use it much?
Yes, No.

5) Finally, what old-fashioned, non-electric kitchen tool do you enjoy using the most?
Potato peeler used for Parmesan, can opener-non electric, really , really small kitchen. No electric dishwasher. I'm getting too old to live like this, really!

Bonus: Is there a kitchen appliance or utensil you ONLY use at Thanksgiving or some other holiday? If so, what is it?
My mothers glass pie plates and casseroles. I have cooked Thanksgiving dinner here, but not recently.

Keith Olbermann response to Yes on 8

I thought this was pretty good. Was there a demonstration in your city this past Saturday?

Veteran's Day Friday Five

Posted by Sophia "Earlier this week the U.S. celebrated Veterans' Day, known in many other countries as Remembrance Day. At this time last year I was commuting to a postdoc in Canada, and I was moved by the many red poppies that showed up there on people's lapels in honor of the observance. Unlike a flag lapel pin, which to me has political connotations and implies approval of our current war, the poppies simply honor the sacrifice and dedication of those who have followed their consciences by serving--sometimes dying--in the military.

This week's Friday Five invites reflection on the theme of remembrance, which is also present in the feasts of All Saints, celebrated in many liturgical churches on November 1, and All Souls--known in Latin@ cultures as the Day of the Dead--celebrated in some the following day."

1. Did your church have any special celebrations for All Saints/All Soul's Day?
My church of the moment does, I think, as it's a "holy day of obligation", but I don't feel obliged anymore. Not sure about my next church, whatever that will be?

2. How about Veterans' Day?
Not sure
I don't think so

3. Did you and your family have a holiday for Veterans' Day/Remembrance Day? If so, how did you take advantage of the break?
My father probably got drunk as he often did to commemorate the war or any other holiday. I remember flags in the cemetery.

4. Is there a veteran in your life, living or dead, whose dedication you remember and celebrate? Or perhaps a loved one presently serving in the armed forces?
My father who was a disabled Veteran of WWII and probably had PTSD, though there wasn't a word for it then.

5. Do you have any personal rituals which help you remember and connect with loved ones who have passed on?
I have worked with veterans with dual diagnosis, substance abuse and mental illness for parts of my career. Can you call that a personal ritual? BTW, the VA does not call SA a disability, they call this willful disobedience and discharge the the vet for it with less than an honorable discharge. This means that the vet cannot use the VA for treatment for their substance abuse which they probably started to treat their PTSD!