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Let me know whether this works.

dan

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Write me via email   (jdanielhess@sbcglobal.net) if you continue to have difficulty.

jdanielhessblog.wordpress.com

I’ve heard people making sport of fruitcakes. The Urban Dictionary’s first two definitions —

• A derogatory term for a homosexual man.
• Someone who is completely insane.

This blog honors the Collin Street fruitcake now sitting here beside me.

In the first place, it is delicious. Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas uses a mix of fruit and nuts and cake perfected since 1896 by master baker Gus Weidman who brought it from Wiesbaden, Germany.

I say to my brother, “It’s expensive. You shouldn’t do it.” hoping he can sense a lie when he hears it.

The second reason that I want to wax eloquent about the fruitcake is that it comes from Hal and Chris. There is absolutely no way for me to calculate the true value of their friendship with us.

Snack time this December, I shall say a prayer of thanks — first for Hal and Chris and second for the fruitcake.

(Find my blog at a new address:  jdanielhessblog.wordpress.com)

The lobby was a noise machine as each class assembled at its designated place. My girl is second from the right.

Parents and grandparents, maybe uncles and aunts too, filled the auditorium while the children stepped onto bleachers on the stage.

Classes one by one presented their songs: Christmas Don’t Be Late, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Blue Christmas, Must be Santa and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Somewhere during the evening I began to think about the “development” or “evolution” or “mythic reconstruction” of Christmas which began with the birth of Jesus.

Of Jesus’ birth nothing now is known — known in the sense of historical data, contemporary documentation, modern excavation or any other modern way of establishing fact.

But review the stories now associated with the birth.

• re-interpretations of Old Testament prophecies
• an immaculate conception
• a birth in a building other than an inn in Bethlehem
• a visit from shepherds (and by this time camels, donkeys, cattle, sheep, dogs and cats, birds and whatnot)
• a star and a visit from the Magi who offered gifts
• a quick escape to Egypt

Add now to this other elements that came to be associated with Christmas

• cold weather, snow, snowmen
• the color red
• St. Nicholas
• Santa Claus, the North Pole, gifts, reindeer, Rudolf
• chimneys
• decorated trees
• lights
• gift exchange
• music: hymns, oratorios, pop songs
• ringing bells
• egg nog, alcohol
• family dinners

And of course Christmas programs.

There is much to enjoy in the Christmas season although I tend to favor understatement and even, at times, silence. December is my favored month for making retreats.

But all in all, I celebrate the Christian understanding that the divine takes on human form and that’s reason enough for epiphanies communal and private.

(Don’t forget: find my blog at jdanielhessblog.wordpress.com.  This present site will close on December 4.)

“Homeless Jesus” by Timothy P. Schmalz.  A gift of the congregation and friends of Roberts Park United Methodist Church.

Beside the statue is a quotation from Matthew 25: “I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!”

I pause to think about three levels of caring:

• public policy
• institutional mission
• personal dedication

Public policy results from the decisions of governmental agencies in regard to services that assist those in need. Our contribution, then, consists of giving our voice and vote in support of the public policies that seem to us as befitting the good society.

Institutional mission is carried out by a vast number of entities — churches, community organizations, food centers, schools, social clubs and more. Public policy approves many of the institutional programs by granting non-profit status and allowing for tax deductions for contributions to many of those programs.

Our personal dedication may take several paths. We have the opportunity, as mentioned earlier to influence public policy. Second, we can volunteer for or contribute to an institutional program that carries out what we feel is a worthy mission. Third — and this is a tricky one — we may undertake a personal gesture that expresses caring. I say tricky because social and personal need is difficult for an individual to measure, especially in those zones where predators and fakers try to take advantage of soft hearts.

Today is national Giving Tuesday, a day of privilege for privileged people.

(A reminder that as of December 4, my blog will have a new address.   jdanielhessblog.wordpress.com)

A fifth birthday ranks near the top. Here is Annie’s party

It made the children laugh and play to see a lamb at the party.

The main feature of the party was a parade.

The birthday cake featured a mermaid.

Annie has many wonderful friends.

jdanielhessblog.wordpress.com

I’m pleased that you saw oniomania. It’s an uncontrollable desire to buy things.

You forgot to send an album to Kansas. Why?

In the weeks before Thanksgiving I unfortunately didn’t let my right brain know what my left brain was doing.

Could you name something you’d like to give away during the holiday season?

Indeed. I have four (4) half cups of shelled black walnuts that I’d gladly give to someone, along with a recipe for baking a black walnut cake.

If I read you correctly, you are growing somewhat indifferent to NFL football. Is this remove in response to Manning’s going to Denver and Luck out for much of the season?

You are incorrect. I am not growing somewhat indifferent to the NFL. I am in protest mode. We have no reason to scoff at the barbarity of gladiator gore when the newspaper each week prints one or two long columns of injuries to NFL players.

What do you think of Donald Trump?

Every time a leftist such as I makes a categorical denunciation of Mr. Trump, the folks on the far right say, “See what I mean?”

Why does so small a percentage of people believe that global warming is an critical problem?

The problem has been degraded into a political issue by bigwig entrepreneurs who continue to benefit from the kinds of mining and the methods of manufacturing that pollute.

Would you be capable of making a nuanced comment about gun ownership?

I shall try. I wish that the National Rifle Association would abandon its uncompromising mind-set and then take leadership in discussing with gun hobbyists, police departments, community organizations and government offices how to change our culture’s disposition toward gun violence. Just north, across the border, there are just as many guns per person as here in the U.S., but Canada has a small fraction of gun-related homicides. Recently when I visited Quebec City I learned they hadn’t had one gun-related homicide in the previous year. Indianapolis has well over 100 for this year.

What would you do — if you were in charge of UN geopolitical oversight — with ISIS?

I am flattered that you would entertain the notion that I might be in charge. Permit me to bask in the glow of that imaginative leap. OK, I basked. Next, I’d invite five Sunni leaders, five Shia leaders, and five ISIS leaders — all of them women– to come together to discuss humane alternatives for living in a world of unequal wealth, unequal power, unequal privilege and unequal opportunity. I would give them the authority to call on anyone for testimony and/or questioning. This convention would be paid by those countries that now have bombing capability.

You seem to be opinionated. Is there anything you don’t have an opinion about?

Hmmm. I don’t have an opinion about Schubert’s Ave Maria. I just feel it, deep down. Its tenderness makes childhood innocence and trust possible for me again.

Thus on Black Friday and Saturday the following things would rate higher for me than shopping:

• washing dishes
• re-packaging left-over turkey for the freezer
• putting the den back in order
• collecting another half dozen bags full of leaves for the compost pile
• taking a grand dog for a walk
• feeding the birds
• walking in Ellenberger
• going with granddaughters to see the trains at Eideljorg
• watching a college football game
• listening to Schubert

If I were obligated to shop, what are ten things I’d shop for?

• hooks for the pegboard in the garage
• foot-high fencing to hold leaves inside the succulent bed
• strings for work shoes
• a jar of q-tips
• foam core for photograph backing
• a piece of insulation to lay atop the stair to the attic
• suet for the birds
• a door knob for the bathroom
• silicone spray for the snowblower shoot
• an umbrella

None of these items will improve my well-being nor will they contribute to the common weal. So I shall complete November in the true spirit of November grateful for what I don’t have and what I don’t need.