Rambling about "Merry Christmas" 2009

I do miss the days when saying Merry Christmas wasn't a point of contention. Then again, even way back in my childhood, when they took prayer out of school, and we were singing Christmas songs, I wondered that they let us do that. It didn't seem consistent. Kids like things to be consistent. Nobody was talking about it back then. I don't think I liked Rudolf the Reindeer. I think I felt ambiguous about Santa Claus. I know I wrote about Christmas being a about the birth of Jesus--I used to have the 2nd grade paper (I wish I still had it, but it's lost).

Now "Merry Christmas" is sort of a charged phrase. It has baggage. But I suppose I can enjoy the holiday anyway, and enjoy getting both kinds of cards--"the Merry Christmas", and "the Happy Holidays" sort, yes and even Happy Hanukah. I think Hannukah is cool. I don't get Kwanza cards (or the holiday), but I guess if I did get them I could be gracious about those too. Let people celebrate what holidays they want. (Within reason.)

But don't tell me I can't celebrate how I want! I guess that's part of what irritates people. Taking Christmas out of the Christmas season, and changing it into something else.

Christmas has probably long been a bit of a mixed bag. As I understand it, Christians took a pagan celebration and made into a religious celebration. It's not in the Bible any where, Christmas, or rather, any indication of what day Jesus was born, though his birth is described.

I have some fond memories of singing at Christmas time. I don't think I realized until recently how much I enjoy singing with other people. I like singing with people who can sing well. One groups of folks I used to sing with were folk-dancers. We had some really good singers in our folk dance group, many Jewish. I thought it kind of curious that Jewish folks enjoyed singing Christmas songs, but they did. I learned a Hanukkah song too (which at first seemed rather silly to me, it just did, I wasn't wanting to poke fun at the holiday). We actually all (all being some of the dancers) practiced for several weeks before we went Christmas caroling. I enjoyed that a lot. That practicing for caroling is not something I've ever seen done by a Church! But I have participated in some Church chorale singing (which involved practicing). I honestly would rather learn Christmas carols (some do benefit by practice).

So, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Holidays, to all!

The aches and pains

I had a difficult day yesterday. I had this horrible headache which kept me in bed most of the day. I kept saying to myself "oh my head, my head hurts". And I was welcoming sleep so I could stop doing that!

I feel much better today. I admire people who can forget about their pain and not complain about it. I mean like old people who don't tell you about every little ache and pain. I hope I can grow old gracefully that way.

The Fun Theory

I don't know if this will work but, I'm trying it. In the spirit of promoting fun and not being too much of a perfectionist to try things here is a link. I don't know why it isn't blue. Somebody sent me this email called Piano Steps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

The Fun Theory is a project thing Volkswagen is doing. The idea is that you can get people to do things if they think they are more fun. It really does look like it would be fun to go up and down those piano steps.

I wonder what kind of ideas I could come up with to make things more fun and make me what to do stuff that I don't want to do?

I remember working with someone on a boring job. We were hand-writing addresses on envelopes for a business (they employed us because they wanted to give the personal touch to a sale they were having). This person I was working with encouraged us to have races to see who could get the most done in a certain amount of time. It did make the time go by faster (and we got more done). We had thousands of names to go through. After a while it did get pretty tedious. He was good to work around because he also had a good sense of humor as well.

I used to not like washing dishes and now I don't mind it. In fact it is one thing I seem to get done regularly. I do them by hand because the dish washer is broken. I don't know how much fun it is for me, however. Maybe I like doing it because I like having it done. But I really don't mind it. I've heard many people who say they hate to hand wash stuff, they only want dishes and pans they can put in a dishwasher, and to use the dishwasher for everything no matter how many loads it takes. I wonder why. Maybe it is fun for me! I know I feel satisfied when it is done.

I also know people who hate to do hand sewing. Hand sewing is something I enjoy.

I also like peeling vegetables. I wouldn't want to have mountains of potatoes to peel like in those old army movies, but I don't mind doing enough to make a meal for myself or others. I find it relaxing.

During a period in my life when I was feeling stressed out a woman who I just had started to get to know was giving me a ride with her to Curves (a workout place for women). She was a neighbor who I just had waved hello to in the past. She suggested we go to the Dollar Store (a generic term) after our workout. In the store she went to the greeting card section, noticed some cards out of order, and she started putting them in their right places. She said she found that relaxing. Hehe! I thought I was the only one who did stuff like that!

But I have been having trouble with my quilting because of perfectionism, and I'm not sure what else. And quilting is fun. I think the most fun part is picking the colors and designing. I haven't gotten into a groove about quilting. Maybe I need to just do it.

Churchill liked to lay bricks and painting for fun. I think he enjoyed writing. I think he also enjoyed writing speeches (which seems like a distinct kind of writing). I enjoy writing. I have done painting in the past and have enjoyed it.

I've been reading about Churchill as I've said in previous posts. I haven't gotten very far in the first book I was reading, I got interested in Churchill more than the book written by him, and ended up getting into a library book about him. (I had gotten two actually but I took one back. The book I took back was by Churchill's granddaughter and seems like it would be worth trying again later. It was about lessons in leadership we could learn from Churchill.) The one I've kept is The Last Lion, Vol. 2: Alone 1932-1940, which were years during which everyone had dismissed and mocked Churchill as a man who had failed to live up to his potential and a reactionary not to be taken seriously. That would make another post.

I invented random

I was reading an old post on Down to Earth (a blog I follow, she has lots of followers). This particular post was about schedules. She had posted comments or something that other people had written in. One of the odder ones was someone who said she and hubby get up at noon and go to sleep at about 3 or 4, she said they don't work (maybe retired). One person said she is not much of a routine keeper.

That would be me at the moment.

I get up when I wake up (more or less). Sometimes I wake up at sometime between 3-6am get up for a while and then go back to bed. I don't really like to get up that early but sometimes I just can't seem to get back to sleep. If I do get up early then and go back to bed, I'm likely to rise between 8-11am. I take a bath and eat breakfast or I might do the it the other way around. I often listen to the radio.

I clean up dishes. I might eat lunch immediately after I finish cleaning up breakfast!

I walk or drive to my brother's house and get on computer. I might stay on the computer all day or a few hours. Sometimes I do some tidying up at his house. I vacuumed for him recently. I might turn on the TV. I might eat something (I bring food over sometimes). If I have stayed on the computer all day my brother might come home between 4-5 and want to take a nap. I might listen to the radio.

I might leave my brother's house and go for a walk. I might go home and cook. I might listen to the radio at my house some more. I might take a nap.

I have been sometimes doing some quilting when I get up early, in the morning or in the evening. Twice a month I go to quilt meetings if I remember. I have been remembering recently.

I have been doing some reading. Sometimes I get up and read when I wake up early. Sometimes I read before I go to bed, or in the evenings while I'm cooking and waiting for something to get done (like making brown rice which takes 45 minutes to prepare). Sometimes I refer to cookbooks. Sometime or other I go to wash my clothes at the laundrymat, sometimes I read there. I shop for for food most anytime.

This week I went to church on Sunday. I went to a fall festival on Saturday.

In favor of being well read

Apparently, the book I've been reading and posting about, is vol. 3 (I was thinking it was vol. 2) of The History of the English Speaking Peoples, by Winston Churchill. Vol. 3 is called The Age of Revolution.

I am an admirer of Churchill. He saw war coming and the need to resist Hitler before many others. I've gathered that from other stuff I've read. I had a pastor who liked to tell us about Churchill's speech to some English school children, roughly it went: Never, never, never give up.

I just read a few glowing reviews of this set of books. I think some parts of the book are a bit tedious. And I'm personally finding it rather challenging reading, lots of words I don't know, unfamiliar names I have a hard time remembering from page to page, and lots of descriptions of battles.

Churchill explains battles better than some writers, and I think it's apparent that this subject was of great interest to him. It's not a subject of great interest to me however. Perhaps his early interest in toy soldiers was helpful to him later in life. He could picture the battles and battle strategies.

I've been doing a bit of reading about Churchill and found out that he was not a very good student as a young man. Perhaps he just wasn't interested. What he did enjoy was playing with toy soldiers. When his father sent him to military school then he began to flourish. He really took to it. He entered the army and was sent to India where spent the hot afternoons breaks reading instead of napping, and educated himself reading Plato and such like. He began to develop a talent for writing.

I think it's interesting to read about successful people who overcame difficulties. His parents were wealthy and paid him little attention. He did have a nanny who he was close to. Perhaps that made a great difference.

I was telling someone about this book. I said that it appeared to me that Churchill favored war. I'm not sure if that is quite the right way to put it. He writes favorably about his ancestor Marlborough who was a soldier, perhaps showing a personal bias, I don't know. They seemed to me to be fighting about some silly stuff in some cases, some disagreement that might have been worked out with diplomacy. I don't know enough to say why France and England and I think some other countries got into a war about who should be the king of Spain. I think it had something to do with Catholics and Protestants. The book paints of picture of periods of engaging in war and then of becoming weary of war. But perhaps sometimes fighting a decisive battle is better than dragging out a long one, if it can be done with. What lessons can we learn from the past?

The person I was talking to said that she had been reading a lot of books about war. And she was clearly coming to the conclusion that war should be avoided. She didn't actually say that but I just took it that she felt that way. We didn't really get into that particular subject. When I said that I thought Churchill favored war she said she wouldn't want to read that book.

I wouldn't say that I am pro-war and yet it seems at some times wars are unfortunately unavoidable. It's hard to know what would have happened if history had taken a different course. If a certain war had not been fought, or a certain war had been fought, what would have happened. What would have happened if England did not fight Germany in WWI? What if England had not had a man like Churchill?

The women and I went on to talk of other books, and I must say that I was quite impressed when she said that she reads out loud to her husband who's eyesight is failing. I wondered how long did she read to read so many books, so I asked her. She really surprised me when she answered that she would typically read about 1 1/2 hours after breakfast, and after lunch, and after dinner. That makes about 4.5 hours a day of reading!

My Inner Movie/TV Critic

So, I created a new blog today. I was thinking of putting a bar with tabs in this "main" blog, but I didn't know how to to do it or what it would be called. I haven't posted on the blog yet. But I do often thinking about writing about stuff on TV or movies.

I've made a few changes in the format.

I added some labels to old posts.

I discovered that those bars with tabs are called tab bars or bar tabs, oh well, I realized this too late. Or maybe I'll do it in the future.

History Lesson

I've been doing lots of reading and writing recently. In my reading I'm into a book by Winston Churchill, the second volume of a series about the history of England. The other three volumes I do not have, once all four volumes were my parents, who had a lot of books, I remember them being around when I was young. Starting in volume two, or mid-stream, I'm finding that Churchill refers back to the first volume and is writing assuming the reader knows what he's already said.

I really don't remember much from history in school (about the English or otherwise), so that's no help. What is some help is some more recent reading and movie watching. Last year I read a book set in England that covered the period just before 1688 where Churchill's volume 2 begins. I also remember some things that I picked up from some movies, one in particular being Restoration.

The movie depicts a difficult period in England's history. In the years 1665 and 1666, England suffered the ravages of a plague that killed 100,000 people , followed in September 1666, by a fire that destroyed much of London, but however helped to end the plague. (I just wikipedia'd the numbers and googled the movie.) The movie follows the life a of a doctor, played, I thought, brilliantly by Robert Downey, Jr. Eventually, the doctor is brought into the court of the king, Charles II. The story is long and involved and I won't go into it. I will say that I enjoyed the movie but it does depict lots of debauchery (which was germane to the period of history). The title Restoration is somewhat a play on words in that the period of history was called the Restoration, and the doctor experiences a restoration in his own life.

In the book I mentioned, a king was killed and then some other people were in power and they were oppressively religious people. There was something about the queens and I have such a bad memory!

The cover shows a woman wearing a very elaborate gown and pearls, I can't remember the title, I think it might have had the word pearl in it. (Yes, I did several searches and it took several minutes but I finally found it, the book's title is Circle of Pearls. I also refreshed my memory some about the book. I read some on Amazon. Remembering Julia's name, helped, then Julia and Christopher Wren.)

The story is about Julia, starting from her childhood, the member of a wealthy family that opposes the current government and must hide their true colors. Julia's family are wealthy and live on a large estate. In their home they have hidden a gown that belonged to queen Elizabeth. The elaborately made gown was given to Julia's grandmother by the queen and is mentioned throughout the book. Mainly, I think the gown signifies the repressive nature of their enemies who would destroy it if they found it. Such things are considered too worldly. Christopher Wren, a real person is a main character. I knew the name from somewhere, he was an architect, among other interests. The writer does a good job of weaving fiction into history. She includes lots of interesting details about things like embroidery and lace, things which interest me, (anything to do with textiles), but which may be not that interesting to everyone.

If I keep reading this history and historical stuff eventually maybe I'll be able to remember it better. Another book I read, some time ago, a book centered in Holland is somewhat relevant. It covered part of the period of history when Spain occupied Holland. Many people in Holland suffered greatly under the Spanish. I never remember even hearing about that, although it's possible I had just forgotten. The Protestant Reformation which began in Germany had spread to the Netherlands and they were fighting about religion. All of this does have to do with England's history. In 1688, there is a revolution in England that leads to William of Orange (from the Netherlands) becoming king of England.

I wanted to read more about Dutch history after reading that book but couldn't find anything. My memory of that book is rather vague already. I wouldn't mind rereading the book, if I can remember the name of it! I remember what the cover looked like. This was a library book. (Wow! I got lucky searching for this title which I thought would be really difficult. It was called The Sea Beggars, by Cecelia Holland. I found it with just 3 searches.)

So, my book I'm reading, vol. 2, of Churchill's History of England begins with William of Orange already established as king.

Postscript:
Okay, so I looked it up some more of the stuff I couldn't remember, and scanning several wikipedia articles I found out the following. The "king that was killed" was Charles I, beheaded for treason in 1649. Civil war had been fought (two civil wars, 1642-45 and 1648-49) between the royalists (also called Cavaliers) and the parliamentarians, (aka Roundheads). The Roundheads, "the other people in power who were religiously oppressive," were so called because there were many among their number who were puritans that kept their hair cut short. The term Roundhead was derogatory.

Charles I, was the son of James I of England. James followed Elizabeth I (who died without bearing children). Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII. Before Elizabeth reigned her half-brother, Edward VI, and then half-sister, Mary, I, reigned. ("The queens" that I mentioned).

England was briefly under the rule of Oliver Cromwell 1653-58, and then his son, Richard, 58-59, under the title Lord Protector. Before and after their rule, from 49-53 and 59-60 the country was under the rule of a Council of State. The monarchy was restored in 1660 with Charles' son, Charles II.

Whether the Parliamentarians, or Roundheads, were as oppressive as they are depicted in the book I don't know. It sounds like they were. After the civil wars the old allegiances still continued and the two groups were very at odds with each other, disagreeing on religious and political grounds. In the book, the Roundheads seize many of the estates of the royalists under some pretext I don't remember. I suppose that was based on real life.

I was trying to read wikipedia on The House of Orange. It's too complicated! Maybe I'll get back to that another time. I like the sound of the name, it makes me think of the color and the fruit. I wonder if the color has anything to do with the Irish orange. Yes, in Ireland, the color orange stands for Protestant, and comes from William of Orange. Green stands for Catholic. Google and Wikipedia to the rescue again.

Well, one thing leading to another, and although this only connects to anything I've been talking about by a hair, I include it. It's the Irish song, "The wearing of the green," one version of which follows:

O Paddy dear, an' did ye hear the news that's goin' round?
The shamrock is by law forbid to grow on Irish ground;
St. Patrick's Day no more we'll keep, his colour can't be seen,
For there's a cruel law agin the wearin' o' the Green.

I met wid Napper Tandy and he took me by the hand,
And he said, "How's dear ould Ireland, and how does she stand?"
She's the most distressful country that ever yet was seen,
For they're hangin' men an' women there for the wearin' o' the Green.

Then since the colour we must wear is England's cruel red,
Sure Ireland's sons will ne'er forget the blood that they have shed,
You may take a shamrock from your hat and cast it on the sod,
It will take root and flourish there though underfoot it's trod.

When law can stop the blades of grass from growin' as they grow,
And when the leaves in summer-time their colour dare not show,
Then will I change the colour, too, I wear in my caubeen
But 'till that day, please God, I'll stick to wearin' o' the Green.

But if at last our colour should be torn from Ireland's heart,
Her sons with shame and sorrow from the dear old isle will part;
I've heard a whisper of a land that lies beyond the sea
Where rich and poor stand equal in the light of freedom's day.

O Erin, must we leave you driven by a tyrant's hand?
Must we ask a mother's blessing from a strange and distant land?
Where the cruel cross of England shall nevermore be seen,
And where, please God, we'll live and die still wearin' o' the green!


The land beyond the sea is America. A caubeen was a hat. People supporting revolution wore shamrocks in their hatbands.