It's the most wonderful time of the year, It is very beautiful with the all the gift giving and electrifying light displays, but it's also a mixed up, highly emotional, economically challenging and dramatic time and yes it's filled with wonder. We wonder what the heck is going on. Like those Crazy Bush Tax cuts on the verge of being extended, If that doesn't make you wanna holler. I don't know what will.
But let us rejoice for the moment because we've got to do that as well.This is the sixth night of Hannukah, there are two more to go. So Happy Hannukah, It falls on the 25th day of Hebrew month of Kislev, On that day the Macabbean army reclaimed the Temple in Judea from the Syrians and in their rededication, they had to light the eternal lamp, but only had enough oil (olive, I presume) to last one night. The miracle was that the oil lasted 8 days.
For me Hannukah is about being with the family, the delicious anti nutritious food, the singing of songs, lighting candles. The first night I lit the candles by myself and sang the prayer. I closed my eyes and instantly I could see my deceased mother and fathers faces flickering in the candle light and I bawled. It was truly a religious experience. This year I couldn't find the menorah at first, so we had to improvise with a banana which made me laugh hysterically. On the fourth night, after searching high and low we ended up with two menorahs and celebrated with four native americans, 5 Central Americans, 3 agnostics, 2 pagans and one Jew, that was me.
Yesterday, I was completely possessed by the spirit of my mother. I put on a bathrobe that looked remarkably like one of hers, and spent four hours in the kitchen making stuffed cabbage, chopped chicken livers and potato latkes. I got out the old fashioned stand up grater and grated the potatoes and onions by hand, being very careful not to grate my knuckles like I did as kid, helping my mother in the kitchen. And I cried, yeah, those damn onions are a bitch.
It's that time of year for me, Happiness and sorrow colliding into a spontaneous outburst of tears. Like tomorrow, which is Pearl Harbor day, a day that will live in terrible infamy, but the infamy for me is that fact that my daughter was born that day and will be 23. Her terrific beauty and enormous humor is a gift to the whole world and was witnessed by a good chunk of it this past year as she traveled through 12 countries, in her banana suit (w accompanied by her Gorilla friend. The sensation of watching my child mature into a natural comediane and wander happily into the world is a tear jerker for me. I'm so proud.
I am blessed, lucky to feel so much. To me it is the richness of life, the breathtaking emotional roller coaster of being alive and loving so deeply.
On that note, Wednesday, December 8th, the world will remember the assassination of John Lennon 30 years ago. I am still grieving his murder and wept freely watching the film "Imagine" Playing over and over this week as a tribute to his life. How apropos in a time of such darkness and continuous war to recall his magnificent light and know we are more need than ever for a voice as powerful and meaningful as his to unite the world with songs of Justice and Peace.
Symbols, metaphors, deeper meanings, the realm of December's Sagittarius, I'm surrounded by the, Sagittarians that is. Thursday is my wife's birthday. She is Ruled by Jupiter, the king of the Gods. She, as well as most Sag's. is huge in her presence, expansive, truth seeking, philosophical, generous, and has an insatiable wanderlust. And it is my great fortune to be in such close company for to celebrate the birth of my wife and daughter we are off to the wild blue yonder to the jungles of Costa Rica. Costa Rica, (a welcome relief from the good ole freezing cold USA, enjoyed first place last year on the Happy Planet index, measuring it's well being in part by it's devotion to ecological sustainability, the indigenous population's well being, and of course, joy. The United States was 114th in the index, just two below The Republic of Congo.
I feel it Highly auspicious and symbolic of our quest for peace and equality in this world to seek out adventure in one of the happiest places on earth. Costa Ricans have enjoyed stability and very little hostility since 1948, have no standing army, and have recently elected, a woman for president, Laura Chinchilla, who hails from the party of previous President, Oscar Arias who won the Nobel Peace Prize, (unlike our President) for his work in the 1980's to END Central America's wars. Inspiring isn't it. It is with this respect, curiosity and intention that we leave this country at the darkest time, the winter solstice, where our President who promised us the light of change and hope is about to cave in to Darkness ruled by fear and make the rich richer, the poor poorer and the wars warer. Bah Humbug!
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