The Magic Time

Many people complain about Christmas and the accompanying stress and expense.  The other day, as I was checking out a few last minute gifts at a locals department store, the cashier said “Thank God Christmas is just once a year – it would be even better if it was every OTHER year.”

I disagree.

Once a year is perfect.

The time of year is perfect.

And to all those who are stressed and over-spent by Christmas and Christmas-shopping:  don’t blame Christmas.  You can only blame yourself for these things.

I thank my parents for making the magic of Christmas absolutely indelible for me.  This Christmas, my Granddaughter is living with me, and she is three years old, so our Christmas will be especially magical this year since Santa will once again be coming to decorate our tree on Christmas eve and make a dent in our cookie inventory.  You see, he’s far too busy to make extended stops like that when it’s all adults.  But when there are children – well then that’s a different story all together.

One of the things I cherish the most about my childhood Christmas are the memories of visits to Wanamaker’s to visit Santa and the subsequent trip to Lit Brothers to tour the very-Dickensian Enchanted Christmas Village.  and the Wanamaker’s toy department — which was a Christmas paradise, with its tables of clanking, whirring wind-up toys, the enormous O-Gauge train display, or – best of all – the monorail ride that flew you around the perimeter of the toy department as you waved to your parents who had to walk the route down below.  I’m reminded of the Wanamaker’s toy department every time I watch the movie The Santa Claus, when they first show Santa’s workshop at the North Pole.

But the things that really embodies Christmas for me came from a novena prayer that my Mother taught me when I was young.  The first part was:

Hail and blessed be the hour and the moment
in which the Son of God was born
of the most pure virgin, Mary
at midnight
in Bethlehem
in the piercing cold …

The image and the feeling conjured by that prayer ARE Christmas for me.

So to anyone is over-stressed and under-funded:  I urge you to stop doing those things that, for you, detract from this magical holiday.  I wish you peace and happiness and abundant blessings through the holiday, and into and throughout the New Year.

Merry Christmas!

Philly Photo Day

There are the shots that are making my final cut for my Philly Photo Day submission
(I can only submit one)

             

          

(click on a picture to see a larger version)
I’m leaning toward one of these as my favorite.   Feel free to chime-in.  ALL submissions are printed and exhibited at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center with the opening reception on November 11.  You can read more about it here:

http://www.philaphotoarts.org/exhibition-philly-photo-day/

Reflections

Well today’s post is simply sharing another photo.  Like “Pond’s Edge” this one was taken at my friend Joe’s “country home” in Ohio.  Not a lot of altering on this one.  Just cropping and “re-orienting.”

Just click on the picture for a larger image.

Home for the Hurricane

Well, hurricane Irene has come and gone and we’re no worse for the wear.  The new sump in the basement kept things to “damp” instead of “flooded” and we didn’t lose our electricity, even though several neighbors did.  Thank God for the completely illogical way they have the electric system set up.

The scary bit in this storm was that it came at night.  60-foot pines in my back-yard are within serious damaging distance of the house . . . and then there were the tornado warnings all around us.  With the wind already howling and the pitch-blackness, there was no way to know if a twister could be forming.  I opened the window a bit to see if I could hear the “onrushing train” sound, but all I heard was the wind in the trees and the neighbors’ generators.

So what we’re left with is a little bit of Yard clean-up and stringing some extension cords to the neighbors without power.

On to the next crisis!

Pond’s Edge

This is a picture taken early on a Sunday morning at my friend Joe’s “hunting lodge” in Meigs County, OH.  There was a thick fog hanging over the lake, which is what you see in the background above the cattails.

The original photo was altered with a watercolor effect to create this image — though you really can’t appreciate the effect in this small rendering.

To me, this picture is a summation of a really great trip with a great friend.  It was just a few days, but it was enough time to disconnect from the word, reconnect with a life-long friend, and do a little fishing …  all in an area that can truly be called “God’s Country.”

Time and Relativity

This epiphany is about relativity. No, not Einstein’s General Relativity (which is essentially about gravity) or Special Relativity (which is about spacetime) – this is about Age Relativity.

Chronologically I’m (almost) 52 years old. In my brain, though, I fixated somewhere between 28 and 35. I’m not afraid or ashamed of age. The bodily creaks have increased at alarming rate over the last couple of years, but as I said, in my self-schema – the way I see and feel about myself – I’m early 30s.

The Age Relativity factor, though, comes into play when we observe others – especially others we view from some distance (as opposed to close acquaintances). I was watching baseball the other day and thinking that Raul Ibanez, outfielder for the Philadelphia Phillies, was “looking his age” in a particular at-bat. And then I found myself identifying with Ibanez as a fellow athlete whose body can no longer obey all of the orders the mind gives.

Raul Ibanez is 39. He’s not an old guy. He’s 13 years younger than me! But my self-schema sees things differently. When I look at him, I don’t perceive someone much younger than me – I perceive someone who is relatively a chronological equal.

Does this happen to everybody? Do we all age-fixate? Is there a broad range of where we fixate? And what drives it? And the biggest question is – as we grow older, does the fixation-point remain the same, or does it creep upwards with us?

I guess time will tell.

Grounded

No, they’re not flying – they’re grounded — so all is safe. I just love the picture.

The picture is from The Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation Facebook Page — a great place if you get the inclination to visit. It’s in Ridley Creek State Park just outside Media, PA (19063)

Website ==> CLICK

A Pale Blue Dot

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. . . .” — Carl Sagan

The is exceptionally cool stuff. I’d never heard of this picture before, but the 20th anniversary piece on NPR is really woth a look and listen.

This picture can’t help but give you perspective. The vastness of space and the significance of one small planet is easy to talk about — but almost impossible to really understand when you stand here on our planet.

Six in the City

I was in Manhattan a couple of weeks ago to visit my daughter.  It has been a long time since I’ve been in mid-town on a weekend.  And it also just happened to be a June-like Saturday in April when everyone was itching got get out in the sunshine.  AND it also just happened to be NFL draft day.  For the sportophobes reading this, the draft is held in Radio City Music Hall.

The embedded picture here hardly does justice to the sea of humanity that flooded the sidewalk and crosswalks that day.  The place was filled with life in all shapes, colors and inclinations – which is what makes claustrophobic situations like that one more interesting and ultimately bearable.

We walked through Times Square and then up to Central Park.  The original plan was to tour the Central Park Zoo, but there was a long line to the zoo, my granddaughter was warm and looking a bit uncomfortable (and at 6+ months was a bit young to enjoy the zoo yet).  So instead we settles for a hot-dog lunch and some shade.

One of the interesting things about Central Park is the bedrock.  At least on the south end of the park (I’ve never ventured very far up) there are huge swaths of bedrock – the Earth’s bones exposed.  The thought that occurred to me that Saturday, while wolfing down my hot dog, was a question of whether ALL of Manhattan has been like that before being overcome by civilization.  I’d never seen any signs of such a thing.  Were the skyscrapers, theatres and electronics shops built on tops of more “great bones” like this?  Or had those bones been blasted down to level things off?  Or were the bedrock formations somehow unique to the area now defined as Central Park?

We walked back to the apartment (where my daughter, her fiancé and my granddaughter were living) by a slightly quieter route – at least for most of the way.  As a person who likes big cities,  I enjoyed the whole experience.  But by the time we sat down and relaxed at the apartment, I found myself wondering how anyone could deal with that human glut day after day after day.  I look forward to visiting my daughter and mid-town Manhattan again soon, but for daily life, I think I prefer my Philadelphia-sized urban experience.

The Human Condition

I caused a little bit of a furor when I suggested on a gaming forum that people who spent in excess of 10 hours gaming per week — week after week — basically needed to get a life.

I think it’s interesting that the basic inspiration for the new Webseries CONDITION: HUMAN is the way MMOGs are taking over some peoples’ lives.

This show is kind of interesting from a few perspectives:  first of all the premise of the story, and second of all the fact that is it a very slickly-produced no-budget show. 

[I guess this never took off the way the creator had hoped.  The website, etc. has all disappeared.  Too bad.  It looked interesting]