‘Tis the Season to be Jolly…but it’s a struggle

I like to think of myself as a basically happy person with a positive and faithful outlook on life, but…

I have not be able to start my John Deere with it mounted snowplow until two days ago when it got a bit warmer. So, when it snowed yesterday I went out to the garage and looked at its flat tire. Which means I have to remove its wheel weights, a engineering feat rivaling replacing the doohickey on the space station.

Then I listen to the news over and over again about the Duck Dynasty patriarch who stood behind a pulpit in camouflage clothes saying racist and homophobic rants all in the name of Jesus. A&E who sponsors their overpaid program now find themselves in deep doodoo for ousting said patriarch and get life threats. But it is big bucks and lots of bozos like their stuff, no we will get to see what it is we really worship, the almighty dollar. I’m all for free speech even by idiots like Phil Robertson, but that doesn’t mean we should support his idiotic remarks. But then Rush Limbaugh has made a lucrative career of it bless his little obese hate mongering heart.

Same Guy

 We have high definition TV in Fountain City now from Charter, which gives us approximately the same image we had before but now we have to have a box on each TV, which means in our case three TVs have become totally useless.

Ah well, the cats still love me and my wife worries about what to get a man who has everything he needs or wants, including her.

Why Big Money Folk Want to Return to the 19th Century

Teddy Roosevelt had it right when he made this statement in 1912. Throughout the 19^th century it was pretty much Laissez-faire economics meaning that businesses operated with little or no interference from the government. The result of such an economic theory was wild rides of up and downs in the economy for a lot of folk, but the wealthy made out like bandits amassing huge fortunes. This lasted right up until the 1929 stock market crash where several major wealthy folk invested in the stock market jumped out windows preferring death to a lack of wealth. And the common folk lived in a horrible depression that lasted until Franklin Delano Roosevelt; using Keynesian economics policies got the country running again. And by Keynesian economics, I mean that government intervened in the actions of business setting limits on them to regulation the economy so that it would no longer have the wild up an down swings prevalent in the 19^th century.

Or, what Teddy Roosevelt said was prophetic. And FDR’s New Deal worked for most of the 29^th century. You’d think we’d learn from that and continue such policies even though they needed tweaking from time to time.

But then along came Ronald Reagan who seemed to think, along with others (mainly big business folk) that we should return to the 19^th century. And we began our 30 plus years of less and less governmental intervention and regulations. All this led up the George W. Bush presidency when banks, Wall Street, and Large Corporations pushed it to the breaking point and we went into a major recession. The conditions of pre 1929 and then were the same; the wealth of the country was held by a few people, the top 1% or the top 1% of the top 1%. You’d think we’d know better but greed and risk takers, who risked other people’s money – taxpayers, ruled the day.

Again, one would think that folk would examine history and say we need to return to the progressive programs that settled the economy and built up the middle class. Instead we went further and further to the right; both parties did.

Obama, took the helm of a sinking ship and did a few necessary things to plug enough holes for us to survive but not prosper. The modern Democrats are like the Republicans of the 50’s, and the Republicans, led by the Tea Party moved to the extreme right effectively blocking all progressive movements. The result democracy becomes a plutocracy (government by the wealthy) as it did in the 19^th century.

I seem to write this article over and over in several ways and I guess I’ll keep on doing it in hopes that we can recover our democracy.

Cooks and Christmas

I was listening to one of the innumerable cooking shows the other day, The Chew, in which these culinary giants started talking about, in response to a letter, about the proper time to put up and take down the Christmas tree; perhaps just the latter. They all concluded that the proper time to take down the Christmas tree was on January 1^st. Fools!

These folk may know a lot about cooking but they don’t know squat about the liturgical church seasons. I believe I had an argument with the cats about this the other day.

Once, more, this is the season of Advent, the four weeks leading up to Christmas and the Christmas season. It is a time of preparation and reflection upon God coming into the world as God incarnate as a child in Bethlehem. Christmas lasts from Christmas day (you can toss in Christmas even if you’d like) and lasts until Epiphany or 12 days later. Remember the songs The Twelve Days of Christmas? So, if we follow our sacred traditions you put up the Christmas tree on Christmas even of Christmas day and you leave it up until Epiphany and then take it down.

I wonder how many people in this country do that? I suspect very few as we are truly a secular country which uses Christmas as the time to hawk gifts so stores can have their best bottom line of the year.

I say this with all hypocrisy as we put our tree up a couple of days ago and I will likely have to fight to keep it up until Epiphany or if laziness prevails, later yet.

So, why on earth do folk write to cooks about the proper time to put up and take down Christmas trees? Ask them about figgy pudding or something they know about, but not about Christmas. And given the weight, with some exceptions to these TV cooks, I’m not sure we should even ask them about food. If we eat all  the calories laden fat imbued stuff we will all be obese; oh, we are most obese as a country.

It doesn’t have to be that way. I read a nice piece in a recent Christian Century issue about a agnostic mother who always did an advent calendar with her kids and read the Christmas story from the gospels each Christmas. They got the meaning of Christmas. The article didn’t say whether the mother was a believing or disbelieving agnostic.

Bah hum bug. Not to the religious celebration of Jesus’ birth, but to the secular crap that celebrates and material greed.

Oh well, sit back, crack open a beer and pig out on Christmas day and what what we worship regularly - football.

Fetching Cat

We celebrated part of Christmas early this year, Sunday, January 14^th, at Ann and Dale’s. A good time was had by all as usual and Jesus didn’t mind a bit this date for his birthday. The night before we went to Granddaughter Megan and hubby Bob at their house in Lake Mills, WI. They have a cat they have named Swirl; it has a beautiful swirling gray coat. Swirl is quite fetching; literally quite fetching. You zing a scrunchie (pony tail holder) across the floor with Swirl watching and Swirl flies across the room a grabs, and may return it to you. This was demonstrated by Bob. It was most impressive.

When we returned home I when out to the Shackteau to be greeted happily by our ignored cats. After a good deal of petting and greeting and hugs I picked up a cloth mouse (no scrunchies were available, and tossed in across the room. Lamont made his exceeding speedy run the length of the Shackteau and grabbed the mouse, deftly tossed in the hair, grabbed it with another paw and tossed it again, and bopped it around with great vigor.

I then said, “Lamont, bring it back to me so I can toss it to you again.”

Lamont stopped looked at me a bit haughtily and said, “Meugh, why on earth would I do that? I’ve got the toy right here to play with. If you want me to run again, you come and get it and throw it again. Sheesh! You furless servants forget your place every now and then.”

I’m not sure what to make of this. Swirl is obviously the better retriever and also likes to hide the scrunchies under their rug. Lamont hides everything in places I have no clue about.

Now I could try to train Lamont, or Patchtricia or Pawline to retrieve as described here  bit but I’m not sure of my success.

  

I think I found a cousin of Swirl

Cats and Christmas

“Did you see Meugh running around here in the Shackteau the other day stomping his foot, grumping and mumbling and carrying on something fierce?” Asked Lamont.

“How could we not,” said Pawline. “He practically scared poor little Patchtricia to death sending her to one of her cowering spots.”

“Well, he was certainly frightful. Any sensible cat would get out of his way and put her paws over her ears and hide,” replied Patch.

“What was that all about anyway,” as Paw?

“I believe this is more or less an annual event for our normally well behaved furless servant Meugh. It has to do, I believe, with Christmas or more accurately the Christmas season,” said Lamont.

“Christmas, what’s that,” asked Patch?

“Good grief girl friend, “ said Paw. “Haven’t you been listening to the TV at all? It is time when the purveyor of goods sell stuff to people all over the country and make most of their money for the year. They’re ads on TV constantly hawking something or another that apparently everyone needs desperately to celebrate Christmas. It is the time of year when most all the furless beings bow down to crass materialism and show their love or obligation to each other by buying them gifts to appease their materialistic nature.”

“My goodness Paw,” said Lamont, “that was most eloquent and precise. For a cat that is most interested in her food bowl and getting her coat brushed that was most well put. Congratulations.”

Paw made a small “phift!” at this point.

“But I believe I can give a better and more complete analysis of our furless Meugh’s behavior,” said Lamont.

Paw and Patch’s eyes roll.

Ignoring the eyerolls, Lamont leapt to his high perch on the step thingy and continued his allocution. “If you had listened closely you would have heard what Meugh was mumbling and grumbling, that being, ‘Christmas Smistmas, this is not the Christmas season, it is Advent you idiotic running dog capitalists.’

“You see our furless servant Meugh is a pastor, even though he is not pastoring at the moment actively. As such he is very cognizant of the liturgical year in Christianity. And he is right, this is not the Christmas season but the Advent season. Christmas is the period of time between Christmas and Epiphany as well pointing out in one of the songs we hear, ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ an old English Christmas Carol.

“However, though most folk in the country who claim to be Christians may or may not know this they have made this a great time of entrepreneurship, using it as a time to encourage and practice gross materialism. That is what drives our furless servant a bit whacky this time of year.”

“Wow!” said Patch, “You got all that from his mumbles and grumbles? Impressive.”

“Wait a minute,” injected Paw, “Don’t we see him on the computer ordering Christmas gifts and don’t Meugh and Mewreen often take off on Christmas shopping trips this time of year?”

“True,” acknowledged Lamont. “They do seem to be caught up in the secular holiday as well as others. In fact, Meugh does not seem to be that interested in when Christmas is celebrated. Though most celebrate it on December 25^th, they will be celebrating it with some of their family on December 14^th, with others on the traditional date, and others whenever.

“You see, nobody really know when Christmas is supposed to be. Christmas is really a birthday party, a celebration of when Jesus was born in Galilee years and years ago. However, nobody knows when exactly he was born. Early Christians decided to put it in December to fight the secular celebration of the winter solstice. They missed that by a few days as well.

“In fact, I have heard Meugh argue, that it would be much better to celebrate Christmas in the summer time, when it is nice and warm and folk wouldn’t have to worry about travel in bad weather.”

“I wonder if they are going to get us Christmas/birthday presents,” asked Patch? 

"And extra catnip," added Paw.

“Me-ow,” said Lamont as he climbed down from the step thingy.