Year: 2010

Nothing Says “Happy New Year” like Old Time Babies Drinkin’ Booze!

U2 sings “Nothing changes on New Year’s Day”, and I think they’re right. BUT, over the years what was considered cute seems to have changed. A lot.

This vintage card is from about the turn of the 20th century. (1900-ish, for anyone who is confused). Maybe this is why they came up with the Constitutional Amendment forbidding alcohol, (prohibiting alcohol, Amendment 18, for those of you who are confused). It seems too many babies were celebrating New Years Eve, and perhaps other holidays, and drinking from huge champagne glasses.

Babies shouldn't drink, even on New Years Eve

In 1933 came the repeal of this ill-conceieved ban: the 21st Amendment. This repeal was basically so people could drink themselves into drunken stupors because The Great Depression (economic collapse) made everyone (except really rich people) really poor. I’m not sure if babies got in on the drinking at that time too, but most of them probably went off to war a few years later (December 8, 1941–September 2, 1945) to fight the Germans and the Japanese. Lots of alcohol was flowing then. And boom–no more Depression. Alcohol had solved everything.

Or maybe babies were just much, much smaller 110 years ago. The cork seems gigantic also. So, the mystery continues!

Any thoughts on this matter?

Any hopes for the New Year that you’d like to share?

Oh, and Happy New Year!


If people only knew…

What do you wish others knew about you?

Do you ever wonder if others really know you? (The real you)

If one tries for positive personal P.R. (public relations) it’s a sure way to find disaster of some kind. There’s nothing like the awkwardness of hearing someone spin their own outlook or circumstances to clue us into that person’s obvious desperation.

“I’m a good (or cool, or smart) person; please like me.”

Yet, most of us wonder if others misunderstand us, or really know us at a core level. Some of us have come to assume few, if any, do.

I’ve been watching Anne of Green Gables…on old skool VHS tapes (originals from 1985)!

(Kindred Spirits and bosom friends) Anne Shirley and Diana Barry

In that series of stories, there’s a lot of talk about “kindred spirits” and “bosom friends.” There’s much mention that Anne and others desire and cherish these sorts of relatioships–best friends who know you and love you. People who just “get you” and hope to spend time with you. People who seek you out, and love you at your most unlovable times.

I’ve been fortunate to have friends like these, but I can’t say that contemporary culture makes it likely. I find a number of potential kindred spirits won’t take the time to get to the deeper stage of so-called “bosom friends” (best of friends). Life is busy, and accomplishing things–rather than knowing and loving others– becomes paramount. And I think insecurity can short-curcuit the whole thing too, causing some of us to sabotage these depths, because of the emotional risk and the complicated consequences. Relationships, even the best ones, are messy and nuanced things.

This time of year is always reflective for me, as it is for many. Most of the time I think about the good and bad from the past year, and my hopes for the new year coming. But this year (now), it’s different. I’m thinking about friendships (and relationships). Ones I’ve had in high school, college, grad school, and other dimensions of adult life. It’s actually far more disappointing lately than I’d like to admit. If I would have to pick up and move away from my location, I wonder what or who I would miss. Far too little, I’m afraid. And that is something to ponder a bit more, and endeavor to change, if time allows.

Do you ever think about your lack of “bosom friends”?
(Comments can be placed anonymously, if you choose.)

What do you wish others knew about you?
What do you hope for in your relationships that is not happening?


Sheep in Wolves’ Clothing

I haven’t blogged since before Christmas. It’s the longest break from writing that I’ve taken in a long time. This unplugging has done a world of good.

It seems readers have not followed me to the new blog, and the visitor stats are abysmal. :( I would really appreciate it if you sent a few friends this way. I had been topping out at 900+. Yesterday I had 29. YES. Twenty-nine.

Now to the post:
I have a confession to make. I saw Mylon LeFevre and the Broken Heart Band on the Sheep in Wolves’ Clothing and the Crack the Sky tours. I was embarrassed about this, but now I’m just going to embrace it. Of course I was only 3  years old when it happened. Okay. I wasn’t.

Lefevre and his boys were Christian Rock and Roll in its 1980s heyday. Big hair, plus many an electric guitar solo. In that time period, you could not go to any rock concert and not endure a 15 minute drum solo either. I think the bands would change their leg warmers during those prolonged poundings; or maybe reapply hairspray.

In the 1980s, a lot of Christians contended that any music using drums or electric guitar was the Devil’s music. Seriously. So, yeah, listening to puffy-haired Mylon put me in the “rebel” category. But, not, in secular terms, of course. Yes, I was caught between two worlds…

What made Mylon “cool” (or whatever) was that he that he had toured with the likes of Eric Clapton, Elton John, Billy Joel, Duane Allman, Berry Oakley, Little Richard, & the Who, among others. But now he was touring with God. He could rock it out for real, regardless of his beliefs. He was a musician, not a Christian hoping to witness by trying to be a musician. And you could tell. He was just at a different level talent-wise.

His wiki is here if you are curious.

(If you like 80s rock at all, you might like to look this up. It’s a southern gospel rock style, and some of it is pretty good.)

The phrase a sheep in wolves’ clothing is a twist on “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”  [Matthew 7:15 “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves.”] And really the phrase didn’t do it for me. It seemed phony, like a marketing guy made it up. It’s clever at first blush, but then one realizes….”Oh, it’s just trick. You’re all just… well, “dressed up”.”

Today I think there is a different situation with sheep in wolves’ clothing. Firstly, less hairspray is involved.

Too many sheep are pretending, but to other wolves they still stink like sheep, and to sheep they seem ridiculous.

Do any examples come to mind?
I’d like to hear from you.

Do you remember listening to Christian “Devil’s Music”?
Who did you like?


Don’t Eat the Fruit… cake.

Piece of fruitcake, 14 lbs.

Tonight is the Eve of Christmas Eve. Some have referred to this night as Christmas Adam…because Adam came before Eve. It’s all very Biblical, like Christmas itself, when Jesus came down a chimney, and was born under a tree, and then wrapped in swaddling gift wrappings.

I have usually rejected the moniker “Christmas Adam” because it takes away from Santa Clause. This is a tough night for Santa, with all the dry runs they have to do in the North Pole, and the elf toymaker’s threat of strike casting an unseemly shadow on this year’s holiday Super Bowl of Arctic events. It’s one of the best reasons compassion should be at the fore in our minds.

Christmas Adam is not so much a day of cheer. It’s a day of cuss words, traffic, last minute panic buying, and feeling like a dope for forgetting any number of basic merriment preparations.

And- Christmas Adam allows us reflection for one more important holiday theme. Don’t Eat the Fruit…cake.

I buy it twice almost every December, because a genetic mutation passed from my mother-in-law to my husband, allows them both to delight in the stuff. 28lbs later, my shopping is complete… if I remember to include the stuff.

Are you a fan of the holiday Cake of Candied Fruit? (Is it REALLY fruit anymore?) To me it seems like eating cement bread laced with misshaped jelly beans. Bleck!

I know one thing, it’s not Jesus’s favorite birthday cake. And calling it FRUITcake of the Spirit won’t help your cause either. (You can’t even get candles into it!)

Happy Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year!