Today’s the birthday of the great writer, teacher and Christian apologist C. S. Lewis, born in Belfast, Ireland in 1898. Coincidentally, it is also the day nineteen years later that he arrived at a trench in the front lines of World War I.

I noticed both of these details at the bottom of the page this morning as I did my daily read from A Year With C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings From His Classic Works. I gave the book to myself about this time last year and started the schedule on January 1. It’s almost a sad feeling to realize that I’m nearly finished.

The book consists of daily, one page (often only a paragraph or two) excerpts from Lewis’s impressive body of work, mainly from Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, The Problem of Pain, A Grief Observed, The Weight of Glory and The Screwtape Letters and others. Often several days in a row would center around a common theme. It’s been a fascinating and thought-provoking experience as I’ve come to see new things in works that I already thought I “knew.” Some of the excerpts from A Grief Observed and The Problem of Pain have been especially timely and comforting over the past several months as my father’s health worsened (funny how I “just happened” to get this book when I did). Little biographical details related to each day are also featured, and it’s been kind of a Tarantino-like experience to track the events in Lewis’s life in this manner when the days are in sequence but the years are not.

This book would be a great gift for the reader and thinker in your family who is often pressed for time. I will echo one of Lewis’s warnings, however:

“A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.”

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I saw in the paper today that a new Christmas special is debuting tonight featuring everyone’s favorite ogre (next to me, that is): Shrek the Halls. This will be followed by the classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Between Shrek and the Grinch we must be dreaming of a Green Christmas. Talk about your tidings of joy!

Of course, not many of the “Christmas” specials really want to get into just what those tidings might truly be. Which means it’s time for my own personal Christmas re-run of a post I wrote a few years ago and ritually reproduced here along about this time every year. At least my re-run comes to you without commercial interruption. That is not to say, however, that it doesn’t have a Sponsor.

The True Meaning of Christmas Specials

Perhaps I was like Scrooge seeing Marley’s face on his door knocker, but I’m almost certain that when I watched the Charlie Brown Christmas special I heard Linus stand on stage and say:

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree to render unto Caesar, and that all the world should shop and pay sales tax, and all went to be taxed, everyone into his own mall. And Joseph also went up from Shakopee, into Bloomington, unto the Mall of America, (which is called MOA) because he was an American, to shop with his wife Mary, they being great with debt. And so it was, that, while they were there, the items were purchased that needed to be delivered, and they brought forth their credit card, wrapped in promises to pay and laid it on the counter because there was no money in their checking account.

And there was in the same country stewards, abiding in their homes, keeping watch over their televisions by night. And lo, the commercials from Mammon came upon them and the glory of the goods shown round about them and they were sore afraid they would miss a good deal. And the commercial said unto them, “Fear not, for behold I bring you great tidings of a good economy, which shall be to all who do their part. For unto you is laid out this day, in a store near you, all manner of precious items, and this shall be a sign unto you: 40% off.” And suddenly there was within the commercial a multitude of friends and family praising their gifts and saying “Glory to the Giver with the highest credit card balance, and on earth peace, good will toward all, just $29.95.”

And it came to pass that I kept all these things and pondered them in my heart.

Fear not, for this is not going to be a complaint on how commercial Christmas has become. Frankly, those complaints have become as traditional and meaningless to most people as holly and ivy (if you don’t know what these represent, look it up). Complaining about how the true meaning of Christmas is being ignored, without actually dwelling on this meaning, is merely spiritual lip service; kind of like singing “Gloria In Excelsis Deo,” without knowing what it means. For me the issue is not that commercialism obscures the meaning of Christmas, but the cultural camouflage that diverts attention. As a case in point, let’s look at the Christmas specials we watch with our families.

Despite my parody of the Linus speech earlier, the Charlie Brown Christmas special is a classic and a true Christmas special because it is one of the few that deals specifically with the birth of Christ. “The Little Drummer Boy” is another old one and favorite of mine that also does this, while the Veggie Tales “The Toy That Saved Christmas” is the highlight of the new generation. Many so-called Christmas specials, however, purport to be about finding the true meaning of Christmas, but where is the Christ in “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “A Christmas Story”? Watch these and most other shows and you’ll get the message that you can be what you want to be and you should do kind things for others, and that Bumbles bounce. Nice shows and nice sentiments all, but while Jesus would exhort us to be “nice” it isn’t why he came. Don’t forget that “for unto you is born this day in the city of Bethlehem a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

Enjoy the shows with your family, but look for ways to highlight fundamental Christian concepts within the programs, even if these messages appear unintentional. Since everything will ultimately prove the word of God true, teachable moments are everywhere if we are alert to them. The classic movie “Miracle on 34th Street,” for example, really focuses on the importance of faith, at one point virtually reciting Hebrews 11:1 and 11:5-6. Don’t miss the opportunity to call this to your children’s’ attention. I once sat open-mouthed (but not slack-jawed) watching the SpongeBob Squarepants Christmas program for the first time. The story is that SpongeBob has never heard of Santa Claus until his friend Sandy fills him in. SpongeBob get so excited that he stands on a street corner proclaiming the good news to everyone (no one else has heard of Santa either) about how kind Santa is and about all the gifts he will bring. Soon, everyone is shouting, “We love Santa!” I turned to my daughter and said, “SpongeBob is an evangelist!”

Of course, SpongeBob is focusing on all the benefits that Santa brings, which is also a failing of modern evangelism. People are exhorted to “try” Jesus for all the blessings that will be added to their lives but if these don’t show up right away (or don’t show up in the way people expect) they get disillusioned, even bitter. This, too, happens in the SpongeBob Christmas show. We lose sight of the fact that the first benefit of the salvation we receive from believing in Christ is not in getting what we deserve, but in avoiding what we deserve.

A good story for illustrating this concept can be Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” You may think you know the story of Ebenezer (there’s a Biblical name) Scrooge, but look at it as a parable. Scrooge is greedy and cruel and oblivious to his iniquity. He doesn’t heed warnings to change, but because of another’s desire for him to avoid his fate, he is visited by spirits that convince and convict him of his sins and show him what is in store for him. In horror he repents and asks for forgiveness, vowing to change. He’s not concerned about the benefits of a new way of life; he just wants to escape the fruit of the old way. Waking the next morning and realizing his opportunity he says “Thank you (Holy Spirit) Spirits!” and is ever after known as “a man who kept Christmas (Jesus) in his heart.” (By the way, I happen to think the George C. Scott “Christmas Carol” is the best, but I’ll always have a soft spot for Mr. Magoo as well).

I’m sure there are many more examples in Christmas programs that I’ve left out but that have occurred to you. I’d love to hear what message or blessing you and your family get out of different Christmas shows, so feel free to leave a comment. Just don’t shoot your eye out!

Merry Christmas, my friends, and to your families!

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We all piled into the car last week for the long drive to grandmother’s house for the holiday. Along the way we listened to a lot of the Mall Diva’s CD collection and a couple of my “oldies”. On one of the old CDs was a family favorite we’d almost forgotten, a parody of Sinatra’s “My Way” song, set in academia and entitled, “Their Way” (the Diva really likes Sinatra, by the way).

The song was done by a group called Bright Morning Star and is very funny, perhaps because it’s so close to reality (which makes it scary, too). Here are the lyrics; again, to the tune of “My Way”:

I came, I bought the books, lived in the dorms, followed directions.
I worked, I studied hard, made lots of friends who had connections.
I crammed, they gave me grades — and may I say not in a fair way.
But more, much more than this, I did it Their Way.

I learned so many things even though I’ll never use them.
The courses that I took were all required — I didn’t choose them.
You’ll find that to survive it’s best to play the doctrinaire way
And so I knuckled down and did it Their Way.

Yes, there were times I wondered why I had to cringe when I could fly.
I had my doubts, but after all I clipped my wings and learned to crawl.
I learned to bend, and in the end I did it Their Way.

And now, my fine young friends, now that I am a full professor,
Where once I was oppressed, now I become the cruel oppressor.
With me you’ll learn to cope, you’ll learn to climb life’s golden stairway.
But like me, you’ll see the light and do it Their Way.

For what is a man? What can I do? Open your books — read chapter two!
And if it seems a bit routine, don’t talk to me — go see the Dean.
They get their way, I get my pay… We do it Their Way!

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Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

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WHEREAS, It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor;

WHEREAS, Both the houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have show kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

— George Washington – October 3, 1789

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Man, talk about your punctuated equilibrium (if you go for that sort of thing). This blog had been cruising along for awhile as a Slithering Reptile in the TTLB blog-ranking ecoystem for I don’t know how long when all of a sudden last week I noticed I had morphed or “evolved” into a Marauding Marsupial, completely bypassing the intermediate phylum of Flappy Bird and Adorable Rodent. I couldn’t figure out how this happened because TTLB essentially measures links and I hadn’t had a sudden burst of linkage — at least none that showed up in my TTLB report. I just assumed that global warming had killed off a bunch of blogs ahead of me and I’d been promoted simply for outlasting them.

Now, just as spasmodically, I’m back to reptile status. I don’t think I would have noticed except that I felt a draft.

Honestly, even after two-plus years of doing this blog, I don’t understand how a lot of the protocols and accessories work on this great big inner-web thingy. For example, sometime last spring I started getting 300-400 visitors a day, day after day. I didn’t see any reason for the sudden surge of fans, but I noticed that my Site Meter report was showing most of these to be from Google images; in other words people searching for photos. Some of the images I’d posted were getting a lot of attention (in particular a close-up photo of the Mall Diva’s bruised and naked knee that was getting all kinds of traffic from Asia). After this kept up for awhile it just wasn’t that interesting for me check the Site Meter at the end of the day because the numbers didn’t have that much to do with anything I’d written – and given my irregular posting schedule the past several (intense) months – that was probably just as well.

Now the image links have gone away, too, just about as quickly as they appeared. While my “daily visits” average has crashed big time, I actually like this better; I didn’t feel as if I’d “earned” the traffic. It was actually kind of de-motivating. While traffic isn’t the reason I blog, it does offer a measure of feedback to indicate if what I’m writing is resonating with anyone. I don’t know if I’d keep blogging if I got 5 or 10 or 20 visitors a day, but I do know that 400 visitors a day didn’t make me feel more like blogging.

Oh well, that’s enough navel-gazing (actually, I don’t think reptiles have navels). I think the real reason I blog is so I can go to Keegan’s — and I’m heading there tonight!

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Today’s the birthday of one of my favorite writers, P.J. O’Rourke (1947). I’ve been reading him ever since I graduated from Mad Magazine to The National Lampoon, and followed his work in books with hard covers such as Republican Party Reptile, All the Trouble in the World: The Lighter Side of Famine, Pestilence, Destruction and Death, and Eat the Rich. He’s the kind of writer I’d like to be when I grow up, even though there’s little evidence that he’s done so.

Whenever I’ve found a particularly funny or trenchant sentence or two I’ve thrown it into a file for future reference. In honor of P.J.’s birthday, here are a few of them:

• When a thing defies physical law, there’s usually politics involved.
• Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes.
• The forces of safety are afoot in the land. I, for one, believe it is a conspiracy – a conspiracy of Safety Nazis shouting “Sieg Health” and seeking to trammel freedom, liberty, and large noisy parties. The Safety Nazis advocate gun control, vigorous exercise, and health foods. The result can only be a disarmed, exhausted, and half-starved population ready to acquiesce to dictatorship of some kind.
• Sloths move at the speed of congressional debate but with greater deliberation and less noise.
• If you think healthcare is expensive now, just wait until it’s free.
• Bureaucrats want bigger bureaus. Special interests are interested in whatever’s special to them. These two groups bring great pressure to bear upon politicians who have another agenda yet: to cater to the temporary whims and fads of the public and the press.
• Neither conservatives nor humorists believe man is good. But left-wingers do.
• A little Government and a little luck are necessary in life; but only a fool trusts either of them.
• Something is happening to America, not something dangerous but something all too safe. I see it in my lifelong friends. I am a child of the “baby boom”, a generation not known for its sane or cautious approach to things. Yet suddenly my peers are giving up drinking, giving up smoking, cutting down on coffee, sugar, and salt. They will not eat red meat and go now to restaurants whose menus have caused me to stand on a chair yelling, “Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, dinner is served!” This from the generation of LSD, Weather Underground, and Altamont Rock Festival! And all in the name of safety! Our nation has withstood many divisions – North and South, black and white, labor and management – but I do not know if the country can survive division into smoking and non-smoking sections.
• Earnestness is just stupidity sent to college.
• To grasp the true meaning of socialism, imagine a world where everything is designed by the post office, even the sleaze.
• The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then gets elected and proves it.
• Politics is the business of getting power and privilege without possessing merit. A politician is anyone who asks individuals to surrender part of their liberty – their power and privilege – to State, Masses, Mankind, Planet Earth, or whatever. This state, those masses, that mankind, and the planet will then be run by … politicians.
• People with a mission to save the earth want the earth to seem worse than it is so their mission will look more important.
• When a private entity does not produce the desired results, it is (certain body parts excepted) done away with. But a public entity gets bigger.

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My friend Leo at Psycmeistr’s Ice Palace is often as pointed as an icicle in defending his religious and political convictions on his blog, especially when those convictions come together on a particular issue. He doesn’t mince his words but will make mince of stories or arguments in favor of limiting our freedoms.

Leo recently used an advisory from American Family Associations — about a HUD-owned senior citizens building in Florida banning an 85-year-old tenant from displaying religious Christmas decorations on her door (a policy that has now been rescinded) — as the starting point for a post raking evermore ambitious nanny state restrictions on our freedoms and our society’s general willingness to put up with this.

Ladies and gentlemen, the State, when held up as god, is a jealous god, and it shall have no other gods before it.

Not even the Real One.

I find it all the more oxymoronic that people on the left who call themselves Christians are so willing to sell their religious freedom to embrace the false promises and sour milk that flow from the golden calf that is the government teat.

In the absence of the acceptance of God, man himself attempts to fill the void to become that which he rejects.

With predictably disastrous consequences, I might add.

And unfortunately, those who choose to ignore history are bound and determined to drag the rest of us along on their path toward its insidious repetition.

Read the whole thing, including the links. But be careful you don’t poke your eye out!

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Many, many thanks for the comments, links and emails from so many of you expressing condolences, prayers and sympathy for the death of my father. It’s hard to express how comforting such seemingly innocuous gestures can be, but I will try in a later post. Suffice it for now that my family and I are very touched.

Here’s something kind of interesting: the Diana Der Hovanessian poem, “Shifting the Sun,” that I posted last Tuesday (Lord, has it been that long already?) is a poem that I heard for the very first time in January of 1997. I was listening to MPR and Garrison Keillor’s “The Writer’s Almanac” as my family and I packed our bags, having just received word that my grandfather had died. I was stunned by the appropriateness of that poem on that day, and made a mental note to track down a copy of it when we returned home. Obviously I was successful, and we eventually placed a copy of the poem in the memory book that went out to family members after my grandfather’s funeral.

My father passed away Monday night, October 29, barely four months after being diagnosed with lymphoma. On Tuesday morning, October 30, The Writer’s Almanac featured this poem:

As Death Approaches

I can’t believe I’m laughing!
I’d have sworn I’d be
shaking or sniveling.
And I sure didn’t expect
a limousine.
I’ve never been in a limousine.
No biggy.
I’ve had better than fame.
Who needs the pressure?
As for fortune, I’m filthy.
That’s why I’m laughing.
I’ve had so much love:
the giving, the getting.
It’s shameful.
It’s embarrassing.
And it’s too late.
No one can take it away!
And I’ve had the pain
to help me appreciate it.
Thank God for the pain!
Easy for me to say
now that I’m going!
But no, seriously,
the kicks in the teeth,
the gut, the rugs
pulled out, slammed doors,
setbacks, snubs.
Without them, I’d
never have recognized
Love, bedraggled,
plain eyes shining,
happy to see me.
Do I want more?
Of course I want more!
I always want more
of everything: money, hugs,
lovemaking, art, butter,
woods, flowers, the sea,
M&Ms, chips, tops, bottoms,
trips — I did give up drinking —
time, sure, and yes,
I’d like to see
my grandchildren,
if there are any.
I’d like to see my books
but more has never
been good for me anyway.
Enough — that’s what I’ve
always needed to learn,
and is there a better way?
So this laughter
I had to work up to
through so many tears,
it just keeps coming
like a fountain, a spray.
Let it light on you
refreshment, benediction,
as I’m driven away.

By Susan Deborah King, from One-Breasted Woman. © Holy Cow! Press, 2007.

There’s so much in there that sums up what my dad would have said or felt, and for it to appear the morning after he died…and the perfect poem after my grandfather’s death…coincidence? Oh, but of course.

I can’t say I agree much with Keillor’s politics, but I like his stories and I enjoy the daily Almanac’s. Somehow, however, I see the hand of a higher author and finisher.

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Hey everybody!! Do you want to make a big difference in the world?? Do you want to break into Hollywood, even if it’s indirectly? Have I got the opportunity for you!

My good, good friend, Princess Flickerfeather, has written a song that she would like to get into the upcoming “Batman, Dark Knight” movie. Right now it is up on her myspace; its called “My Twisted Humor“. Her goal is to get 1000 friends and have the film people notice. It absolutely kicks butt; I was there when she recorded as the Q.C.

What can I do to help?
Be her friend!

What if I don’t have a myspace?
Ha ha, funny joke. Everybody and their dog has a myspace.

No, seriously.
What? You’re serious? Well, if you don’t have one, get one! Then add her to your friends list and tell every single person you know about the song. Let’s prove that we can make a difference!

Thank you for your support.

P.S.~ There is also an official website that is in the works right now. I will keep you updated.

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