Looking Back; Looking forward

I have lived through World War II, the Cold War, Watergate, 9/11 and more, but 2020 has been a year like no other--stressful, terrifying, outrageous, chaotic--There aren't enough words to describe it. Thank goodness it's nearly gone and we can hope for better in 2021.

Favorite books:  Where the Crawdads Sing, Hidden Valley Road, Fur and Purr, Nearing Ninety and Other Comedies of Late Life.

Favorite movie:  It's been so long since I've been to a movie theater that I can hardly remember what it's like.  Movies and series this year on Amazon Prime:  Movie--Just Mercy.  Series--The Americans, Hunters.

Favorite TV show:  Love it or List it on HGTV

Best thing that happened this year:  Discovering Zoom--where would we be without it?

Sports:  Bad news for every professional sports team in Houston--the Astros' scandal, the Texans' awful start and the trading of D'Andre Hopkins, unrest among the Rockets.  Only sports story I enjoyed was Naomi Osaka winning the US. Open Tennis Tournament.

Best present:  My son and daughter-in-law gave me a subscription to Netflix.  Now I can watch The Crown.

To everyone--hope for a better year ahead!

        

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Surviving the Dark

Tomorrow, December21, is the winter solstice, the shortest, darkest day of the year.  In ancient times, people built fires to drive away the darkness.  Religious holidays, with Christmas tree lights and candles on Chanukah menorahs, bring us light in these dark days.  We remember the Star of Bethlehem that shone in the night sky.

2020 has been the darkest year most of  have lived through--fears of the pandemic, a chaotic election, protests on the streets, lost jobs, food insecurity (which seems to be the current euphemism for hunger), curtailed or canceled visits with family and friends.  In an article posted on CNN poet Jay Parini speaks of all these events and quotes from "Snowbound: A Winter Idyll" by John Greenleaf Whittier:

         The snow that brief December day

      Rose cheerless over hills of gray 

        And, darkly circled, gave at noon,   

     A sadder light than waning moon.

        Slow tracing down the thickening sky

In mute and ominous prophecy.

   A portent seeming less than threat,

It sank from sight before it set.

But the snowbound family spent the dark day gathered together.

Shut in from all the world without

We sat the clean-winged hearth about.

They passed the time in sharing memories and telling stories.  Parini points out that today Zoom and Facetime are our hearths.  He notes that we, too, can trade stories, relive memories and even share our fantasies about what we're going to do when the pandemic is over.

And he adds a closing note of hope:  Vaccines are coming.  Eventually life will return to normal.  Or a new normal.   Even on the darkest day we can look forward to light .He quotes poet Theodor Roethke who wrote,"In a dark time, the eye begins to see."

 Another article I read quotes lines from the carol "Oh, Holy Night:"

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices

For yonder wakes a new and glorious morn.

Even in this "winter of our discontent" we can glimpse light ahead.  We just have to wait.

 

    

The Sweetest Holiday Story

A guy names Bob May, depressed and broken-hearted, stared out his drafty apartment window into the chilly December night. His four year-old daughter Barbara sat on his lap, quietly sobbing.  Bob's wife Evelyn was dying of cancer. Little Barbara couldn't understand why her mommy could not come home. Barbara looked up into her dad's eyes and asked, "Why isn't Mommy just like everybody else's mommy?" Bob's jaw tightened and his eyes were wet with tears. Her question brought waves of grief but also of anger.

It was the story of Bob's life. Life had always been different for Bob. Being small when he was little, Bob was often bullied by other boys. He was too little at the time to compete in sports. He was called names he'd rather not remember.

From childhood, Bob was different and never seemed to fit in. Bob did complete college and married his loving wife and was grateful to get his job as a copywriter for Montgomery Ward during the Great Depression. Then he was blessed with his little girl. But his happiness was short-lived. Evelyn's bout with cancer stripped them of their savings and now Bob and his daughter went to live in a two-room apartment in the Chicago slums. Evelyn died just before Christmas in 1938.

Bob strugged to give hope to his child for whom he couldn't even afford to buy a Christmas gift. But if he couldn't buy a gift, he was determined to make her one--a storybook.

Bob had created animal characters in his own mind and told the animal's story to little Barbara to give her comfort and hope.  Again and again, Bob told the story, embellishing it with each telling.  Who was the character?  What was the story about?

The story Bob created was his own autobiography in fable form. The character he created was an outcast like he was. The name of the character?  A little reindeer named Rudolph with a red nose.

Bob finished the book just in time to give it to his little girl on Christmas Day.

But the story doesn't end there. The general manager of Montgomery Ward caught wind of the little book and offered Bob May a nominal fee to print the book and distribute it to children visiting Santa Claus in their stores. By 1946 Wards had printed and distributed more than six million copies of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The same year a major publisher wanted to purchase the rights from Wards to print an updated version of the book. In an unprecedented gesture of kindness, the CEO of Wards returned all the rights to Bob.

The book became a best seller.  Many toy and marketing deals followed and Bob May, now remarried with a growing family, became wealthy from the story he created for his daughter.

But the story doesn't end there. Bob's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, made a song adaptation of Rudolph.  Though the song was turned down by such popular vocalists as Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore, it was recorded by Gene Autrey. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was released in 1948 and became a phenomenal success, selling more records than any other Christmas song, with the exception of "White Christmas." The gift of love that Bob May created for his daughter so long ago kept on returning to bless him again and again. And Bob May learned the lesson, just like Rudolph, that being different isn't so bad.  In fact, being different can be a blessing.

 

Books of November

 I have only one book to add this month.  The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.  On the day she is about to enter an unwanted marriage, Adeline makes a pact with the devil:  she can be free to live as she chooses as long as she chooses, but no one will remember her.  I liked the story and the writing style.  If you want something completely different, check this one out.

quotes for the week:

 Friendship

In Honor of my Zoom Sisters

A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter;  he that has found one has found a treasure.

                  From the Apocrypha

Friends are the family we choose for ourselves.

                Edna Buchanan

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

               Ralph Waldo Emerson

A friend is someone who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.

              Walter Winchell