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Early German Christmas Traditions

EARLY GERMAN CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

My parents were born in Germany in the first decade of the twentieth century, though they did not meet until many years after they arrived in America. My mother was a Lutheran from what was then Prussia, and my father was Bavarian and Catholic. Since different parts of Germany had different Christmas traditions, my life as a child was a bit confused when the holidays were upon us. It was as if an Episcopalian from Massachusetts married a holy roller...

These are the hands that built America

THESE ARE THE HANDS THAT BUILT AMERICA

During my sixty years or so of following politics in America, I have seen several distressing trends.  One has to do with the increased viciousness between people of opposite political parties.  If someone did not agree with your policy choices in 1965, you were characterized as “wrong-headed” or “mistaken.”  Today, people with this same ideology would be called “traitors” or “scum.”  During the George H.W. Bush election campaign of 1988, I noticed the first use of the “L-word.” This was an attempt to paint...

DET GÅR TROLL I ORD

The title of this post (English: “There is a troll in the words”) suggests that we should choose our words carefully, because there may be a troll in what we say. But what exactly does that mean? In this post I hope to explain a popular Norwegian maxim while in the process, I hope to offer tips to improve our comunication with each other. If you’ve heard any nursery rhymes or bedtime stories when you were a child, you likely...

CLONMACNOISE

I thought it might be interesting to imagine life at a medieval monastery and surrounding town in Ireland.  I have been thinking about Ireland once again because my wife will be leaving for Belfast in less than a month to spend a few weeks in the north. I’ve chosen a particularly prosperous town in the south called Clonmacnoise to focus on, partly because it is centrally located in Ireland and also because of the many pilgrims who visited to pay homage...

MOURNING IN AMERICA: A DAILY CHRONICLE

Jump to most current post NOTE: This post (Mourning in America) will be a just a small tile in the mosaic portraying the decline of this once great nation. It may be of use to some future generation trying to grasp what people in the U.S. were feeling and thinking in the year 2025 much as Germans pondered the loss of their individual freedoms and the rise of National Socialism almost a century ago. MARCH 29, 2025 (SATURDAY) I left...

The book our mothers read

THE BOOK OUR MOTHERS READ

I was first introduced to John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) when I was in high school.  He was a Quaker, native to New England, an abolitionist and a poet.  We read one of his many works, and it was called The Book Our Mothers Read.  It has only eight lines, but those eight lines contain the wisdom of the ages.  This is what Whittier writes: “We search the world for truth; we cullThe good, the pure, the beautiful,From graven stone and written scroll,From all old flower-fields...

The Solver Maples of Spring

THE SILVER MAPLES OF SPRING

Of all the marvelous biomes I’ve lived in and experienced in my life, from the polar ecosystem of the Arctic to the tropical, broadleaf jungles of Asia; from the vanishing wetlands of the Everglades, to the Blackland prairie, I find that the hardwood, deciduous forests of New England are my favorite. They watched over me as I grew as a child. And of all the hardwood trees such as the ash, the walnut, the oak and the hickory to name...

Portals (Part One)

PORTALS (PART ONE)

This is something of a “fun” topic for me.  In some sense, it reminds me of when I was a small child wandering through the woods where I lived. I always felt safe among the stoical sentinels; the towering oaks, the fragrant hemlocks, the colorful sugar maples and the white birches. These trees were home to many arboreal tenants, such as chattering red and gray squirrels, chipmunks and raptors including merlins, hawks and owls. There were ancient and therefore somewhat indistinct...

The irony of God

THE IRONY OF GOD

Irony (Gk: eironeia) is an interesting word, and it is not the easiest to define.  There are various subtleties present depending on the discipline that applies it.  A common denominator though involves some sort of juxtaposition between two starkly different people, principles or situations.  In I Corinthians 2:8 and Colossians 2:15, St. Paul speaks of Satan and Christ.  Satan had provoked and manipulated the religious and civil authorities to have Jesus arrested, condemned to the cross, and his lifeless body entombed.  That was that!  As far as...

FOLK FISHING

Almost all of us have driven by people fishing off of bridges, perhaps we’ve seen them in a small boat on a lake or pond, or on the end of a dock or pier.  People who fish more than casually have their favorite “fishing holes” where they believe fish gather.  They know the fish are there because they see the bubbles or tiny ripples on the surface of the water.  But more importantly, seasoned fishermen can feel the presence of fish—they feel them in their...

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