Christmas
So, last time I posted, I mentioned that I had put up this post about Christmas. But, apparently it didn't happen. So, delayed but still worth putting up (in my mind at least):
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Jesus was an only son as he walked up Calvary Hill...
It's the start of a Bruce Springsteen song that came on a cd Toby sent me while I was in training. I was listening to it a couple weeks ago, really hearing the words for the first time and focussing on the story as a story again after so many many years of "knowing" it, without hearing. I was weeping, amazed by the power and depth of the tale of a prophet that started a religion and the path to much of today's society. Today I have been reading New York Times Week in Review sections, catching up on the news from home now over a month old. One of the stories that I gladly missed was about the "War on Christmas" as made famous by Fox News and their group of marketers of entertainment that they would try to disguise as news. I would weep again now at the comparison of the story of a great prophet and the celebration of his birth to the crap and commercialization that some elements of our society would have it become, but it isn't worth my tears or energy. Christmas for me this year was something infinitely bigger, more important, than the shopping season and the advertising.
I was flooded with more love than the Peace Corps mail truck could handle. I got eight big - BIG - packages, two padded envelopes, and a half a dozen or more pieces of flat mail. I haven't tallied up all the postage (out of embarassment as much as anything) but it easily reaches four or five hundred dollars. If I had known about all this ahead of time, I probably would have been much more reticent in asking for things. Certainly Clif Bars have been addressed as a need beyond my reckoning - three whole boxes of bars, plus a few dozen other assorted bars, enough to eat one every day and not worry about them running out any time soon. Chex mix, snack mixes, dried fruits, granola, seemingly half of Whole Foods, a good portion of some Army PX in Afganistan, books, cds, and a great new pair of sandals. The list is probably not even half complete, but I am on battery power and time runs short.
I need to mention one other thing - soap. I know people want me to be clean here, and I did well to mention Lever 2000 apparently. I am hopefully able to upload a picture to show you what I mean. Seemingly I need to remember to bathe more often at home, because now I am cleaner than I usually was there, and people want me to stay that way.
I love you all, thank you so much for a truly amazing Christmas. The fact that it came in bursts and lasted all the way until the end of January makes it even better. Maybe I'll start a new tradition...
-----------------------------------
Jesus was an only son as he walked up Calvary Hill...
It's the start of a Bruce Springsteen song that came on a cd Toby sent me while I was in training. I was listening to it a couple weeks ago, really hearing the words for the first time and focussing on the story as a story again after so many many years of "knowing" it, without hearing. I was weeping, amazed by the power and depth of the tale of a prophet that started a religion and the path to much of today's society. Today I have been reading New York Times Week in Review sections, catching up on the news from home now over a month old. One of the stories that I gladly missed was about the "War on Christmas" as made famous by Fox News and their group of marketers of entertainment that they would try to disguise as news. I would weep again now at the comparison of the story of a great prophet and the celebration of his birth to the crap and commercialization that some elements of our society would have it become, but it isn't worth my tears or energy. Christmas for me this year was something infinitely bigger, more important, than the shopping season and the advertising.
I was flooded with more love than the Peace Corps mail truck could handle. I got eight big - BIG - packages, two padded envelopes, and a half a dozen or more pieces of flat mail. I haven't tallied up all the postage (out of embarassment as much as anything) but it easily reaches four or five hundred dollars. If I had known about all this ahead of time, I probably would have been much more reticent in asking for things. Certainly Clif Bars have been addressed as a need beyond my reckoning - three whole boxes of bars, plus a few dozen other assorted bars, enough to eat one every day and not worry about them running out any time soon. Chex mix, snack mixes, dried fruits, granola, seemingly half of Whole Foods, a good portion of some Army PX in Afganistan, books, cds, and a great new pair of sandals. The list is probably not even half complete, but I am on battery power and time runs short.
I need to mention one other thing - soap. I know people want me to be clean here, and I did well to mention Lever 2000 apparently. I am hopefully able to upload a picture to show you what I mean. Seemingly I need to remember to bathe more often at home, because now I am cleaner than I usually was there, and people want me to stay that way.
I love you all, thank you so much for a truly amazing Christmas. The fact that it came in bursts and lasted all the way until the end of January makes it even better. Maybe I'll start a new tradition...
posted by Zac at
5:10 PM
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