It’s that tim
e of year again when we wish each other a happy year ahead. Father time, with his shroud and scythe, takes away the old year and delivers the new year, looking much like a happy, fat, naked baby.
I can’t say that I am sorry to see 2020 go, but I have some reservations about how we will raise the baby and work around whatever bit of nastiness the new year inherits from its close ancestor. Continue reading Resolved?
Dear Santa,
I know you are an older, terribly busy gentleman, and children are your first priority, but this year of 2020 could you make an exception and remember all of us who are young at heart? We still carry our child self inside us. We delight in the simple things. The first snow of winter, the first daffodil in spring, and that first colorful panorama when the woods go crazy with color. We have been through so much this year. I’m sure I don’t need to enumerate for you all the woes of the world that for a while have tended to crowd out the wonder of just being. Continue reading Dear Santa
Thanksgiving or a Harvest Festival has been around in one form or another since the first hunter-gatherer said, “Enough of this eating by chance. I’m planting stuff to eat in this piece of ground.” Then when the food stuff pushed through the soil and grew to full size, that person gathered the grain and vegetables and was thankful to whatever he deemed responsible for not having to go into the forest and feed his family by the luck of the draw. It might not have happened that way exactly, but I’m telling this story and I’ll imagine it my way. (I’m reasonably certain they did not speak English).
There are historical records that the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and Chinese (among others) celebrated a new harvest that would see them through the winter. At HarvestFestivals.Net, you can read about cultures who have celebrated this time of the year. You might be surprised that the Native Americans celebrated long before the Pilgrims arrived. Continue reading Be Thankful!
What a long strange summer it was. Could there be anything more to take us on this year? This summer of pandemic, civil unrest, a rough election season. There were no concerts by the river or in the park, no fairs, no visits with friends, no carnival. None of the summer activities we enjoy and take for granted. Maybe it’s time to stop, take a cleansing breath, and maybe have a little fun.
I spent a quite different strange summer several years ago. I spent it traveling with a carnival. I learned a lot that summer. It was a different world. A world peopled with many strange characters. There were families with small children. There were single people. There were still others with questionable backgrounds or not admitting to any background. There were unfamiliar terms and actions that were new to this rural girl. I also learned a lot about myself, but that is a story for a different time. A few years ago, I wrote a short story based on a composite of some of the characters I met and the life of the carnie all those years ago. I want to share that story with you now. Maybe it’s time to stop, take a cleansing breath, and maybe have a little fun. Continue reading Long Strange Summer
I’ve had enough. I once knew a man who was jumped in a dark parking lot by a couple thugs set on beating him. I don’t really know the reason, but it wasn’t a nice thing to do. After a couple blows, he said into the darkness, “He’s had enough.” Surprisingly, one of the thugs said, “Yeah, he’s had enough,” and they left him there. I certainly wish I could do that with the “political season.”