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CHRISTMAS 2004
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“Tis the season” for spreading good cheer
and good stuff... especially stuff “ We had a good,
full year. Our health was good. We are happily active. We are thankful.
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| If you don’t already know, our lives
divide roughly as follows: 5 months at our home in Corvallis, 4 months
at our place on Puget Sound, and 3 months elsewhere. “Elsewhere” gets
mixed in with the 5 months in Corvallis. |
| Because I send the blue sheet to so many
on a semi- regular basis, I won’t detail our varied activities. I
wonder how many who send out these reports feel that playing the “all
is calm, all is bright” song doesn’t tell the whole story. Who does not
do life with an ear to news from Iraq or Africa or Haiti or even
Florida? As a hopelessly embedded clergy type, my metaphors are often
biblical. At Christmas the Jesus story rises to the surface. |
| Jesus is alleged to have been born in
Bethlehem, now a Palestinian town. I’m not sure where the Israeli has put
the wall. It doesn’t matter. Jesus was born in a time when his people
were an occupied nation. No nation likes occupiers. They are seen as
brutal while they see themselves as peacekeepers. The atrocities of
peacekeepers in that day are well known. Crosses lined the road to
Jerusalem to remind people what happens to troublemakers. Jesus and his
people were potential rebels or insurgents or terrorists. Romans feared
that Jesus might rally forces against them. |
| Of course we don’t worry the news all the
time. We drove lots of miles in at least nine states. We flew to Wisconsin
and Baja del Sur, Mexico. We consumed plenty of gas. We are old enough
to remember WW II when the whole country made sacrifices for the war,
including gas rationing and keeping our speed down to 35 miles per
hour. We bought bonds to pay for the war effort. There were wage and
price controls so that people could not profit from the war effort as
some corporations do today. |
| We watch PBS nightly news where we are
shown photos of those who died in Iraq that day. These are the ones
making the sacrifices while we are going about our business. We hardly
notice since someone has decided that it is better for us not to see
the horror of war or the coffins of our loyal and courageous young
people coming home. We try to look those photos in the eye as our
remote tribute. “All is calm, all is bright?” |
| We greatly enjoyed visiting dozens of
friends and relatives this year on ‘our various trips. Many more
visited us at our summer place. We’ve probably seen between 150 and 200
this year. Some have sailed! |
| We gather our family at Christmas. All
three of our children live in the county. Four of our “Grands” are in
college, one has finished an LMT program, one is in high school and the
youngest in middle school. They remind us of life’s onward push. I
often think of what my generation has left for them. Some good and some
shameful. We have used more natural resources in my lifetime than in
all previous human history. We have failed to pay our own bills,
passing on a debt that will extend past their lifetimes. |
Yet
Christmas shines a light in the direction of what ought to be and could
be. Christ stands as a model of what divinity looks like in human
flesh. That he came homeless, lived compassionately and died penniless
might speak to a people rich in things and poor in soul.
— Art Morgan, Dec. 2004
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