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Week Three

That’s a lame post title, I know. I’m being lazy this week. Still in Pennsylvania until the 21st, which means I’ll get to drive home through the polar vortex that’s supposed to be hitting the Midwest. That could be fun.

I went to church last Sunday and no lightning bolts ensued. That’s a good thing, right?

Editor Friend watched the online service the week prior, since she was just a couple of days post-op at that point. But this week, she felt up to the half-hour drive and being in the sanctuary, so off we went. She uses a walker around the house but also has a knee scooter that she uses for longer distances, so we took that. It gives her something to prop her foot on, too.

The Sunday School class was very welcoming to me. They were covering the first chapter of Ecclesiastes, and I had thoughts. But I didn’t want to come across as a jerk and make trouble for Editor Friend when I’m gone.

The service was an interesting experience. It’s been a while since I’ve attended at large contemporary evangelical service. Diana’s church only has a couple of dozen members. EF’s church seats several hundred, and they have three campuses, and I think two services at each location. I didn’t recognize the songs they sang but given how rarely I attend a service anywhere, that’s not surprising. I note though that just a week later, I couldn’t tell you what the pastor preached about.

The Princess Bride

I righted an apparent wrong this week.

It will probably surprise, confound, or downright bother many people to learn that until this week, I had not seen The Princess Bride. Turns out several of my kids had already seen it and were astounded to learn they’d watched it before I had. But I’m up here with Editor Friend and she’s laid up not moving for a few weeks, so we’re watching a lot of TV. We’ve binged a bunch of Blue Bloods, Walker, Texas Ranger, and Sherlock along the way. Since we’ve been watching so many shows and she knew I’d never seen it, Editor Friend suggested we go ahead and watch Princess Bride.

We had fun with it. She’d point out where commercial breaks would occur, or when certain well-known lines were coming, which was kind of cool.

It was a Good Flick. It was nice to see the scenes to go with the lines I’ve heard over the years.

EF and her friend on Skype and I discussed the movie a little a few days later, and EF’s Friend pointed out that Buttercup wasn’t really a nice person, at least not in the beginning. She treated Wesley horribly until she figured out that he loved her, then she suddenly started seeing him as a real person. That’s kind of a crappy attitude to have. It’s also disturbingly common that we don’t treat people as we should until we discover that they like us.

Funny how classic movies sometimes don’t age well.

Nutcracker

One of the dance parents shared some photos of Nutcracker, and I was very happy to see that she got a great shot of me during the party scene. It’s not often that photos of the dancers catch me as well as she did here, and I’m grateful that she shared it.

See? I can juggle. I’ve got two scarves in the air and you can just see the yellow one down by my right hand.

Social Media

I noted that TikTok went down Saturday night for US users. I thought from several media stories that we’d still be able to access it, but no one would be able to download it or get updates. My suspicion is that this is something of a flex on Bytedance’s part to try to force Trump to act on rescinding the ban. That’s not something he can do himself though. We’ll see what happens. I’d intended to get some video work done while I was in Pennsylvania, but that didn’t happen. We’ll see what I can get into when I get home.

Writing

I shared a post for this week’s Wednesday Weekly Blog Challenge (“Favorite Things To Do In Winter”) over at Long and Short Reviews. Check it out here.

I’ve been binging several shows with Editor Friend, including Blue Bloods. There’s a lot of good writing in that show. Figures that I’d discover a great show after it’s concluded. At any rate, as I watch the show and learn the various character arcs, I’ve picked up on some amazing dialog. I’m definitely going to watch more Blue Bloods and look for other shows with good writing and dialog. I’m not going to quit reading, but I’m adjusting my attitude about where I can learn more about writing.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to share a thought in the comments. Sign up for my infrequent newsletter here. Find some of my other writing at The Good Men Project, too. Subscribe to the blog via the link in the right sidebar or follow it on Mastodon. You can also add my RSS feed to your favorite reader.

Bought these nutcrackers at a cheese festival in the Pyrenees about 15 years ago. Best ever!
Unfortunately this year an almond proved even stronger than them.

Were they French or Spanish? Who knows. I’ve never seen anything like them since.
Would like to replace them if anyone has any ideas.

#nutcracker
#pyrenees
#bearn

New Year’s End

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

I said I’d talk a little more about Nutcracker this week, so here you go.

This year we did three shows at two venues. Our standard venue in one town raised its prices beyond what we could afford, so we were prepared to not do a show in that town at all. But then the city offered their civic center auditorium for free because they appreciated the show so much.

It took some effort to squeeze our production into the civic center. We’re used to a 45-foot wide stage that’s 35-40 feet deep. This stage was closer to 35 feet wide and about 25 deep. The opening Drosselmeyer’s toy shop scene usually happens in front of the grand curtain, but the civic center only has about three feet from the grand to the edge of the stage. Our solution to that was to move the scene between the grand and the mid.

The backstage area at the civic center is…sparse. Stage right had only slightly more space than we have at the two schools where we usually perform. Stage left though had essentially nothing usable. But that side opened into a gymnasium (which doubled as a dressing room), so we could still work with it.

We had a lot of fun, despite the chaos. The third show was added after the original schedule went out, so some of our younger dancers couldn’t make it. In some cases, we did without. In others, we called on understudies at literally the last minute. And our dancers may be young, but they’re troopers.

Diana joined me on stage this year as Drosselmeyer’s partner for the cup dance (AKA the wine dance). Middle Daughter danced as a Toy Soldier and choreographed/taught a number of the dances, too. We’re stupid proud of her.

Christmas Haul

I got a little of this and a little of that. Youngest Son got me a set of headphones to replace my old ones that randomly failed a couple of months ago. Middle Son picked out a set of New Orleans Saints-branded kitchen knives. Diana gave me a couple of other kitchen knives, so I’m pretty well set there. I got a book about writing media tie-ins that I’ve been wanting for a while, and a few other gadgets and gee-gaws, so it was a good year for me.

Youngest and Middle Daughters drew Oldest Daughter and Lego Dude for the gift exchange, so they went in together and made matching sweatshirts for them with their name and their anniversary date. Pretty sweet, I thought. Tears were shed.

McNugget Tamer got a little weepy when she finally understood the family warning about putting things on your wishlist for Grandpa. He loves to spoil his kids and grandkids, so he’ll get you almost anything that ends up on your Christmas list. Seriously. My first Christmas, he got me a mountain bike. And he wrapped the box. Number Two Son got two computers because Youngest Son and Grandpa apparently clicked “Add to Cart” at the same time. I think he was more surprised by getting it from Youngest Son.

It was a good time.

Writing

This is my last post for 2024.

I didn’t make my wordcount goal for the year, but I did much better towards the end of the year.

On the blog, I maintained the streak and wrote six more posts this year than last.

I wrote about 54,000 words in both the blog and fiction for about 108,000 words. My goal is to more than double that next year to 240,000 words, which sounds like a huge jump. But if I maintain the rate I had these last few months, it’s doable.

May the coming year be better than this last, and not as good as the next.

https://open.spotify.com/track/7BOiZjRkxcdQd3kaMEeQP0?si=2a00f4c68ee04084

Thanks for reading! Feel free to share a thought in the comments. Sign up for my infrequent newsletter here. Find some of my other writing at The Good Men Project, too. Subscribe to the blog via the link in the right sidebar or follow it on Mastodon. You can also add my RSS feed to your favorite reader.

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Despite all of the #Xmas movies on #TV, I've avoided watching any yet today -- unless you consider #DieHard (1998), that I'm watching right now to be one -- but I did watch 2 Xmas shows that are well worth watching if you still can find them on TV or find them somewhere online:

1) On #PBS: #UrbanNutcracker which is a modern take on the classical #Nutcracker that is still mainly a #ballet but also which incorporates other types of music & dance styles beyond #ClassicalMusic & #Ballet.

2) On #CNN: A special called "Tis the Season" (2022) which highlights the most notable Xmas movies, cartoons & TV specials & episodes ever made/aired.

An Atheist’s Perfect Christmas: Music, Memories, and a New Perspective

Me in Nutcracker costume with my dolls.

Nutcracker was great. I’ll probably talk more about it next week.

Christmas as an Atheist

Everybody knows I’m a “spiritual orphan,” right? That’s the term I use most these days, though I mentioned a while back that I could technically be called an apostate, which I still find sort of interesting.

At any rate, what does a spiritual orphan do at Christmas? It’s all about Jesus, right? We’re celebrating his birthday, aren’t we?

Well, not exactly. It doesn’t have to be, anyway.

In my mind, it’s about love and family. And if you read Luke 2 with an objective understanding of 1st century Hebrew architecture, you’ll know that the historical Jesus wasn’t born in a drafty stable or cave or something like that. He was likely born in a house surrounded by family. The manger, the feeding trough where he supposedly spent his first night on earth, was part of the lower level of the house. It was possibly part of the wall separating the animals from the living area.

That idea makes even more sense if you look at the historical setting objectively instead of dogmatically. Joseph was a carpenter. He didn’t know nothin’ bout birthin’ babies. It makes perfect sense for him to seek out a midwife or a female relative to help his betrothed give birth. And it should have been easy enough to find a female relative; he was in his ancestral hometown, after all. Wasn’t he? For that census thing (that probably didn’t happen and doesn’t make any sense).

At any rate, since I learned about the likely arrangement of the house and the meaning of kataluma vs pandocheion, I’ve come to realize the probable reality of what happened on that day in Bethlehem, whenever it was. Joseph and Mary should have been surrounded by his family as she went into labor. I don’t think it’s likely they would have insulted him by banishing them to a drafty stable when they had a warm and safe place right in their very house. In fact, it’s likely—in my mind, anyway—that they were given the enclosed stable for her privacy because the women in the house knew she was close to delivery.

That changes the Christmas narrative in a big way.

Dan McClellan created several videos about Christmas and Jesus’ birth, and I collected them into a playlist at YouTube. I think if you watch them objectively and keep an open mind, they’ll teach you something about Christmas.

Christmas Music

Speaking of playlists…

What kind of music does an atheist/agnostic listen to at Christmas?

Anything we want to, really.

I still enjoy many of the traditional carols and tunes. Carrie Underwood’s “Oh Holy Night” is simply sublime. Pentatonix does several stunning arrangements—with two gay men singing them! That’s got to freak some Christian folks out, especially with the way they treated Ray Boltz.

My “Perfect Christmas Playlist” on Spotify has almost three hundred songs on it. Some might say it’s heavily secular, because it’s got “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” and “Sleigh Ride,” and “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” which are mostly secular. But it also has multiple arrangements of religious songs such as “Silent Night,” “What Child Is This?” and “Do You Hear What I Hear?”

How can I listen to Christmas carols, especially religious ones? Mostly because I enjoy the music. I can separate the music from the…meaning? From the religion?

There are some songs I won’t add to my list. I simply refuse to listen to “Christmas Shoes,” given the theme of the song and the date of my mother’s death. I will leave the room if it comes on. I’ve blocked it on Pandora to the best of my ability (though I haven’t listened to Pandora in ages), and I’ll never add it to any of my playlists on Spotify.

I don’t really enjoy “Mary, Did You Know” much any longer. It came out when I was still heavily involved in the church and Mark Lowry sings it beautifully, as do most artists. But it just doesn’t sit well with me these days. I think we venerate Mary far too much, even in the Protestant church. Doing so ignores the consent issues that surround her pregnancy which gets kind of gross as you dig into it.

What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?

Thanks for reading! Feel free to share a thought in the comments. Sign up for my infrequent newsletter here. Find some of my other writing at The Good Men Project, too. Subscribe to the blog via the link in the right sidebar or follow it on Mastodon. You can also add my RSS feed to your favorite reader.