Pontoon on Lutefisk

I was reading about Garrison Keillor's new novel called Pontoon and read this bit about Lutefisk and couldn't help but pass it along. I did mention Lutefisk in the post I did on Christmas Eve meals. I enjoy Garrison's stories from Prairie Home Companion, so I'll probably eventually read this one.

"Lutefisk is cod that has been dried in a lye solution. It looks like the dessicated cadavers of squirrels run over by trucks, but after it is soaked and reconstituted and the lye is washed out and it’s cooked, it looks more fish-related, though with lutefisk, the window of success is small. It can be tasty, but the statistics aren’t on your side. It is the hereditary delicacy of Swedes and Norwegians who serve it around the holidays, in memory of their ancestors, who ate it because they were poor. Most lutefisk is not edible by normal people. It is reminiscent of the afterbirth of a dog or the world’s largest chunk of phlegm."

I'm about to start a fire and do some more weaving since I'm trying to finish up what's been threaded on my big Swedish loom. Dawson has friends here since they're going to go to Evergreen's "Skate the Lake" tonight. Evergreen Lake sponsor's it every New Year's Eve with fireworks both at 9pm and then 12.

They've got his stereo playing and one of them just walked out singing full blast (and very good!) saying he was going out to chop more wood. I'll go have to see who it was.

12 Days of Christmas

Christmas isn't over. In fact, Christmas can be all year if you acknowledge Jesus' existence, and let him help you live better in your present moments. Eternity exists in every moment we live consciously present to God.

We are now in the 12 Days of Christmas which was originally celebrated between Christmas and Epiphany, which is when the Magi are remembered as part of the story. There are many interpretations floating around out there, but I like this one: that the song was written with hidden meanings to the basic teachings of the Faith - maybe during a time of persecution.

The 1st Day of Christmas my true love sent to me, a Partridge in a pear tree. A mother partridge feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings, much in memory of Jesus' sadness when overlooking the city of Jerusalem, he said, "Jerusalem! How often I desire to shelter you under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but you would not have it so ..." Lk 13:34.

The Two Turtle Doves on the 2nd Day of Christmas represents the Old and New Testaments which tell the story of God to all.

The 3rd Day of Christmas with the 3 French hens could be the 3 virtues in I Cor 13:13: faith, hope, and love. But I think of our Triune God - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

On the 4th Day of Christmas ... 4 calling birds. We have 4 gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - all proclaiming the Good News that the potential of redemption in Jesus exists for everything.

The 5th Day is the 5 golden rings. The Penta(5)teuch has 5 books of the history of creation including humanity and God's covenants of grace to cover our sin, and God calling us to live as separate, peculiar people - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

6 geese a-laying represents the 6 days of creation with God speaking the world into existence and always saying, "It is good."

7 swans a-swimming - the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit. (Revelation 1:4 talks of the sevenfold fullness of the Spirit, so I hang seven descending doves on Pentecost Day.) The gifts of the spirit are: prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, and compassion (Rom 12:6-8, ICor 12:8-11, and Eph 4:7-16)

8 maids a-milking - the beatitudes (Matt 5:3-10)

With 9 ladies dancing we have the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy,peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal5:22).

10 lords a-leaping are the 10 commandments in Ex 10:1-17.

11 pipers piping could be the faithful apostles. (Could we possibly see Judas in Heaven?!)

And the 12th Day of Christmas is 12 drummers drumming representing the 12 points of the Apostles Creed: 1)I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. 2)I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. 3) He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. 4) He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. 5) On the third day He rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. 6) He will come again to judge the living and the dead. 7) I believe in the Holy Spirit, 8) and the holy catholic church, 9) the communion of saints, 10) the forgiveness of sins, 11) the resurrection of the body, 12) and life everlasting.

Birth

Advent, the season of waiting for the birth of Jesus, is over.

For me, it's come to be a joyful anticipation that deepens with each day. It's like the pregnant creation in Romans 8:18-25, that can hardly wait for what's coming next. Creation surrounds us, and the difficult times in the world are birth pangs.

We feel the birth pangs as a yearning for full deliverance. It's a state that we don't have much control over - the timing is out of our hands, the pain is an unknown. It's not only around us; but within us - as the Holy Spirit fills us and impregnates us with his Truth. But the waiting doesn't diminish us, anymore than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting even though we don't see what's enlarging us. When we tire of waiting, God's Spirit helps us along. And the longer we wait, the more joyful our hope.

In recent years I've learned the need for waiting with joyful expectancy. Due to a pattern of broken promises in my past, words like expectancy and anticipation were not a part of my vocabulary. In coping I had built up defense mechanisms. And then joy ...?!

Joy and anticipation are founded upon a history, and as humans, the history of our own lives is often inadequate to carry us forward. So when I pursued strengthening my knowledge of the past through the stories of many lives from Old to New Testament and on into the Third Testament, I stumbled upon the presence of God, in a very transforming way.

(I did this felted bas-relief picture when at a place of imagining a visual for this process of transformation.)

I can now wait with expectancy and joyful anticipation. I also now see pain and suffering and hardship as waiting pregnancy. There is hope. There's another side. There's light at the end of the tunnel. There is new birth.

I bet Mary said, as I once said, the next day after giving birth, "I'll go through that again!" - actually forgetting the pain. (Oh, but I don't really want to!)

Thomas a Becket of Canterbury

In the Canterbury Tales, the pilgrims are on the way to the tomb of the martyred Saint Thomas Becket.

Thomas wasn't especially religious when King Henry II made him the 39th archbishop of Canterbury in the twelfth century. He was a drinking buddy, and companion in arms - but he got religion at this post. This changed everything and soon Thomas' friends and the King started grumbling, and quarreling over the separation of church and state. Hearing they wanted to be rid of this troublesome priest that stood in their way, overzealous soldiers stormed the cathedral and bashed out Thomas' brains on this day in 1170.

The drama, "Murder in the Cathedral" by TS Eliot is based on these events. And then Richard Burton plays Thomas in the movie "Becket". Every year when his day rolls around again, I tell myself that I need to watch this movie, but haven't yet. Maybe I'll go now and order it from Netflix before I forget.

Feast of the Holy Innocents (Childermas)

This is the day Matthew 2:16-18 is remembered. The wise men came asking about the baby born "King of the Jews". Warned by an angel, they did not return to tell Herod where they had found Jesus. Herod, in jealous fear, slaughtered many male children in his attempt to get rid of Jesus. Thus the beginning of the choice for mankind: for or against Jesus.


Matthew quotes Jeremiah, "...a voice was heard...sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children." Have you ever really thought of this piece of the Christmas story? Many artists have pondered it, so that it's depicted in many paintings and stories. (The pictures here are by Giovanni, Giotto, and Ruebens.)

Joseph was warned in a dream to flee this slaughter and escape to Egypt. I have a book we read every year by Madeline L'Engle called Dance in the Desert. It imagines the Holy Family traveling in a caravan to Egypt, and one night all creation comes to pay homage to their Creator. The pictures are beautiful of toddler Jesus and various animals. The caravan men have knives ready but Mary always says, "Wait".

All cultures throughout time have the stain of innocent, unwanted children. On this day we can think of children all over the world who suffer innumerable forms of violence which threatens their lives. We can pray for our children and the world.

"Today we celebrate the heavenly birthday of these children whom the world caused to be born unto an eternally blessed life rather than that from their mothers' womb, for they attained the grace of everlasting life before the enjoyment of the present ... For already at the beginning of their lives they pass on. The end of the present life is for them the beginning of glory. These then, whom Herod's cruelty tore as sucklings from their mothers' bosom, are justly hailed as 'infant martyr flowers'; they were the Church's first blossoms, matured by the frost of persecution during the cold winter of unbelief."

— St. Augustine

Peter Pan!

Starting in 1904 in England, everyone would wake up on this day and say "Peter Pan. We get to go see Peter Pan today!" The tradition of the play went on for years.

That's why Peter Pan movies periodically come out in December. The movie "Finding Neverland" came out for the 100th year anniversary in 2004.

I've been a Peter Pan fan for over a decade now. There's a message there that was a part of my pursuit that eventually led to the experiencing of God in a deep way.

I started with recognizing things missing in my life. I had become so rational, so "adultish". I wanted to regain my sense of wonder. So I started down a path of pursuing what it meant to be childlike.

My favorite Peter Pan movie is Spielberg's 1991 "Hook". The setting is Christmas, so he knew of the tradition of Peter Pan at Christmas time when families are gathered together seeking entertainment.

It's an "adultish" Peter in the movie. Grandma Wendy invited the family to England. Peter is forever on his cell phone. His wife is frustrated. His kids are enamoured with Wendy and the nursery window and are full of anticipation.

Grandma Wendy finally has to get in Peter's face and ask, "What do you remember of your story Peter?" Peter had forgotten his story. He didn't know who he was!

The rest of the story, since Captain Hook stole away his children, has Peter relearning how to be childlike to win back the hearts of his children. He had to relearn how to play, how to fly!

That too was my quest. Who was I really?

Watch the movie "Hook".

Watch "Finding Neverland" (with Johnny Depp!). It is so close to the real JM Barrie story in that it tells us why he wrote Peter Pan. Barrie wrote many stories inspired by his mother's Scottish highland tales. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Barrie saying, "I am a capable artist; but it begins to look to me as if you are a man of genius. Take care of yourself for my sake. It's a devilish hard thing for a man who writes so many novels as I do, that I should get so few to read. And I can read yours, and I love them."

In the movie you meet the family of boys who inspired the lost boys (the movie shows these boys' father as already dead, though in real life, Barrie nursed him through his illness.) When the Davies boys met Barrie, they said they'd found a childlike adult in the midst of stodgy Victorian England.

There's a line in the book that's central to Barrie's vision. Over the years his vision had been watered down, thinking it too dark for families. It's - "To die will be an awfully big adventure." This line is the heart of the story (as too in many stories, including the Gospel).

It's a looking for something good out of something tragic. Tolkein calls this 'eucatastrophy' - a victory of good over evil, but with a price to be paid - a redemptive sacrifice. So when faced with the possibility of drowning in Mermaid's Lagoon, Peter is going to make it an adventure.

Hmmm ... "to die will be an adventure"... Doesn't Jesus ask me to come to him as a child? and to die to self? and that in dying there's true life/living?!

Photoblog

I just started a photoblog. Not because I'm some great photographer. Dawson posts on his site just about everyday. And since he is a gifted photographer, it's a great tool for making him take pictures everyday, therefore, practicing.

I experienced this in college. A requirement in an architecture class was to buy a sketch book and do at least one sketch a day. I still have that sketch book. I drew pictures out of doors, from pictures in magazines and books, of people posed ... it really advanced my observation skills and transferring what I saw to paper.

I started the photoblog so I will have a place to send people to for viewing pictures, like events. So on Heather's wedding date, the 18th of December, I posted a bunch of pictures. On November 10, I posted some shower pictures, and will be adding more to those. Travis sent me Christmas pictures and photo captions and I wanted to save them, so I posted them on the 24th of December. Who knows what more I'll post at some earlier date!

Here is my photoblog address:
http://www.photoblog.com/kareyswan/
and Dawson's site address is -
http://www.photoblog.com/dawsonswan/

quote

A quote from the very quotable CS Lewis:

The Son of God became a man
to enable men to become the sons of God.

Feast of Stephen and John

When you sing the song ... and I'm trying to remember the tune and words, but it's about Good King Wenceslaus and there's the line - "... on the feast of Stephen".

Rembrant's "Stoning of Stephen" - Rembrant's own face is the man facing us with the rock

This is the church calendar day that Stephen's story is remembered. And like King Wenceslaus, Stephen was killed because of his convictions about the revelation of Christ in the world. Stephen was stoned to death, with the future Apostle Paul standing by holding everyone's outer garments. We read about it in the book of Acts.

Stephen was the very first martyr of the Christian faith. Remember him for his boldness, courage, and faithfulness. He was given the church job of caring for the orphans and widows.

So, as I posted about Boxing Day, this day can be a day (though in loving God, we should always want this characteristic every day of the year) for selfless care of the poor, the despised, the rejected, and the unloved.

John the Evangelist

John the Divine, the Beloved Apostle, is acknowledged this day as well. Remember the books of the Bible he wrote. He lived long, ending on the island of Patmos where he wrote the Revelation of Christ, a superb conclusion to Holy Scripture. The book of Genesis begins the account of man's spiritual odyssey by describing our expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The book of Revelation is a vision of our restoration to Paradise. John wrote of Jesus' divinity, the Word made flesh. Jesus entrusted his mother to John. It is John that wrote Jesus words, "Let him who is thirsty come and take the waters of life".

Live Nativity

On this day in 1223, Francis of Assisi assembled the first live nativity scene in Greccio, Italy. The tradition caught on and is still done today.

Our church did it for the Christmas Eve services, but we weren't there. We went to Ft Collins and stayed at Trav and Sarah's and went to their Christmas Eve service.

We had a wonderful time.