Morning Smile

This morning, I was reading something that made me laugh. This is *not* meant to offend anyone in any way; it just made me laugh.

In the book of Exekiel, Exekiel says, "Your Father ws an Amorite and your mother was a Hittite". (Exekiel 16:3) I couldn't help but hear John Cleese in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries."

Musings on Valentine's Day

So, it's Valentine's Day, a day dedicated to love. When I was single I dreamed of a romantic Valentine's Day. When DH and I married, we decided that we would alternate planning Valentine's Day; he would plan the even years and I would plan the odd. Some years that meant simply watching a romatic movie, or a romantic comedy, but we always tried to do "something."

Fast forward to this year. For whatever reason, I just couldn't get into it. I couldn't figure out why. The best that I could come up with is that I didn't feel I needed Hallmark to tell me that I loved DH or he loved me. Heck, after over 10 years of marriage, it should be obvious. I realized that really Valentine's Day is for single people; couples that aren't married. It's their day.

Our wedding anniversay is the day for us to celebrate our love; not some artificial thing. Mind you, I won't say no to some chocolates.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Well, it's that time of year again

Another year has come and gone (almost). It's time for me, once again, to ponder the meaning of Christmas.

I know I'm repeating myself, but I'm not sure what to make of Christmas. I was raised a mainstream Christian, and was raised to believe that we were celebrating Jesus' birthday, God's only son sent to earth to redeem us sinners. I believed that for many years, and never questioned it.

All that changed in a flash when I read a book that pointed out the list of demi-gods born to human mothers and divine fathers on December 25th. All the myths about these demigods predated Jesus. I was stunned. I'd never heard anything like that before. The list included: Mithra, Attis, Adonis to name a few. From that moment on, there was no way that I could justify that the Bible stories of the birth of Jesus were literally historically true and dismiss the rest of the stories as myths. There were too many similarities, and all of the stories were centuries older than the stories of Jesus. In that instant, my beliefs were destroyed, and I could never look at the world in the same way again. It was pretty scary.

Ever since then, I've really struggled with Christmas. I don't know what I'm celebrating. I'm not celebrating the religious side, so does that mean I'm not celebrating Christmas? Yet, I do put out a manger scene most years. I know I'm not alone in not celebrating the religious side. I'm happy to celebrate anything that tries to promote peace in the world and tries to make the world a nicer place - even if only for a day.

I'm also happy to celebrate the birth of the heir to King David's throne, if indeed, Jesus was of the house and lineage of David. We even sing of that, when we sing the Christmas carol, "The First Noel". The last line of the chorus says, "...born is the King of Israel."

Of course, presents are fun, and I look forward to the good feast. That's the fun side of Christmas. I don't like the fake sentimentality; it gets on my nerves after awhile. As much as I love the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life", as I've gotten older, I found "Bad(der) Santa" a bit more appealing. I know it can be rude and offensive, but if you get sick of the schmaltz, you might find it funny

Happy Holy Days, whatever the holy days of the season mean to you.

Lessons from the Housewives

I have a confession: I LOVE Desperate Housewives.

When the show debuted in 2004 on ABC and garnered good reviews, I knew that I'd watch it when it arrived on dvd. Sure enough, when season one was released a year later, I gobbled it up; I was hooked.

For those of you that don't know, it centres on four main characters: Lynette Scavo, (Felicity Huffman)a stressed out mom of four; Gabrielle Solis, (Eva Longoria Parker) a pampered and spoiled former model; Susan Meyer (Terri Hatcher), a children's book illustrator; and, Bree Van de Kamp, the ultimate domestic goddess. They are neighbours living on "Wisteria Lane" in "Fairview." Their stories intertwine as their live their lives.

Each fall, I get excited with anticipation waiting for the next season to be released. I've been known to get up very early on a Saturday morning and put on the fire and sit and watch it while drinking my coffee.

I think there's a little of each main character in every woman. Every working mom relates to Lynette's stress and guilt. A lot of people put up the fronts that Bree does, and put on a public face, always desperate to "keep up appearances". That's probably one big reason why the show is such a success. That's one of the reasons I love it, but that's not the main reason.

There's a lot of grace in the show. Friends get angry at each other; spouses struggle with the demands and stresses of marriage and raising children. Yet, there's something even deeper. There are a lot of valuable lessons to be learned.

In season four, a tornado rips through Wisteria Lane. Lynette screams in hysterics as she emerges from the destruction to see the home where her family had been hiding is now in rubble. The other women stand by her side and try to comfort her as the rescuers dig through the wreckage. Even though I was fairly convinced her family would be safe, I was momentarily panicking thinking Lynette's husband, Tom, might be dead. I cried when he was the last to be pulled out safe. Of all the couples on Wisteria Lane, they are the ones I root for most.

Sadly, one person didn't make it, Ida, a minor character. As Lynette is helping another neighbour, Mrs. McClusky, pack up Ida's stuff, she (Lynette) comes across some baseball memorabilia. She asks, "What's all this?" and is told that it was Ida's momentoes from her pro-baseball days during World War II. Lynette was shocked to hear this news. She had no idea that this lady whom she had lived nearby to had been a huge baseball star in her youth. In fact, Ida had loved the game so much, she asked that her ashes be scattered in the local baseball field. Lynette was told (words to the effect) that, "You didn't know, because you didn't ask." Lynette, feeling guilty on more than one level, decides to grant Ida her last request (which in itself is an amusing story). After they are done, Lynette remarks how it was so sad that she really didn't take the opportuntiy to know Ida while she was alive. Mrs. McClusky tells her that, "It's a lesson we need to learn every day". And it's true. So often, we take the people around us for granted, never knowing what may happen tomorrow. Life is fragile.

There's a character that is pure evil (in my opinion) and I was ecstatic when she got her just desserts. You should have heard me yelling at the tv, screaming, "SHE's EVIL INCARNATE!!" She's been upsetting me for a very long time. She's caused a lot of trouble for a lot of people. Justice, in this show, is never dealt out by the police or the legal system. It's dealt with within the family, or the participants and, somehow, it just seems fitting. There's a lot of "libertarianism" spoken.

Gabby, Susan, Bree, and Lynette have become my virtual friends.

Remembering September 11th

Seven years ago today, the world changed. No one that is old enough to remember will ever forget that day, or where they were or what they were doing.

Being three hours behind the East Coast, it was 6:30 a.m. when our alarm went off and we heard something about a "plane hitting the World Trade Centre". I thought it was a "puddle jumper" that had gone astray and immediately rolled over and went back to sleep for another hour. The alarm went off again, and this time we sat up and took notice: there had been a second plane and one had also hit the Pentagon. We flipped on the tv to see the second Tower Fall. I remember Peter Mansbridge saying, "That was 15 minutes ago." You could hear the shock and disbelief in his voice.

All of a sudden the world was a less safe place. As DH said, "Car bombs are passe." Like most Westerners, I had never heard of Al Queda or Osama Bin Laden before that day. It didn't matter that it wasn't my country that was attacked, or that I didn't know anyone that was personally affected. Somehow, you felt that it was personal and that you were violated.

I can't imagine the hate that would cause someone to do such an act; it's unfathomable. I had heard that terorists were actually "sensitive" people, but didn't understand how that could be. It wasn't until I saw the movie "Munich" that I understood a little bit about it. If you haven't seen it, it's excellent. The clincher is the final scene were Eric Bana's character, who had been doling out retribution on behalf of the Israeli athletes that were slaughtered at the 1972 Olympics, is fed up of the violence, and says to Geoffrey Rush's characher, "When does it end? When does it end?" Bana's character had been involved in bombings and killings, all in the name of vengeance. Yet, he was a good husband and adored his baby daughter. The scene is set in 1970's New York; the camera pulls back to show the World Trade Centre. The obvious answer is: it doesn't end.

Spamalot II

It's time for another edition of "Spamalot" a commentary on those annoying spam emails we receive. Here's some more that I've received since I posted my original post back in April.

"Paris Hilton abducted by Aliens"
We can only wish.

"Paris Hilton has Sex with Aliens"
Was that before or after the abduction?

"Set your Wife on Fire"
Um, isn't that illegal? Suttee was outlawed a long time ago.

"SAD because of Low EDUCATION? Cheap price Degree/Bacheelor/MasteerMBA/PhDD Certificate"
The insult to my education isn't have so upsetting as the credit you are giving to my intelligence at thinking I wouldn't notice the glaring spelling mistakes in your email. If that's the kind of standards your institution has, I think I'll pass.

A Rare Gem

It was an ordinary Friday night. No doubt we'd had pizza, as was our routine on Friday evenings. For whatever reason, we decided to do something a little different (for us) afterwards. Instead of visiting one of our regular bookstores, we decided to visit a different one. Little did we know what an effect that would have.

We had done our browsing and were ready to leave. I took a quick look around the bargain section, when a book leapt off the shelf as it were and said, "BUY ME!" I showed it to DH, and he agreed that it was a must buy. Neither of us had heard of the author before, but the title caught our attention. If my memory serves me right, it was the only book we bought that night. It was only $6.99, but to us, it was priceless.

We took it home, and we both read it within the next week or two. It was one of those rare gems of books; one of those books that once you've read it, your world is rocked and you never see the world the same way again. Our mouths dropped open while reading it. The man's arguments made sense. In fact, they were so obvious, we couldn't believe we hadn't seen it ourselves, that we'd been blinded for so many years.

Since then, we've acquired two more of the author's books. I've read them both. In fact, DH got me one for my birthday last year.

Sadly, the author died a few years ago (before we discovered him) and his books are a little hard to come by. One book we want to get our hands on goes for over $135.00 on amazon.com or ebay.

The author was quite a respected scholar. Now whenever I look at books by other authors on the topics he wrote on, I always see if the authors reference him. It turns out that more and more are. I'm excited to see this. In fact, I wish everyone could read the book that rocked our world, as so many people need to hear what he has to say.

Who is this man, and what did he write about? His name was Hyam Maccoby, and the book that rocked our world was, "The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Chrisianity". It's a pity he isn't more well known than he is. He should be. As you may guess from his name, he was Jewish.

If you have any interest in the origins of Christianity, you MUST read this book. You can get it relatively cheap on ebay. The other two books we have are, "Jesus the Pharisee" and "Judas Iscariot and the Myth of Jewish Evil."

Read them. Read them all. You won't be sorry you did.