path this year felt quite …
bumpy … small steps can make a
world of difference

Of course, at the heart of the Christmas story lies the birth of a child: a seemingly small and insignificant step overlooked by many in Bethlehem. But in time, through his teaching and by his example, Jesus Christ would show the world how small steps taken in faith and in hope can overcome long-held differences and deep-seated divisions to bring harmony and understanding. Many of us already try to follow in his footsteps. The path, of course, is not always smooth, and may at times this year have felt quite bumpy, but small steps can make a world of difference.

As Christmas dawned, church congregations around the world joined in singing It Came Upon the Midnight Clear. Like many timeless carols, it speaks not just of the coming of Jesus Christ into a divided world, many years ago, but also of the relevance, even today, of the angels’ message of peace and goodwill.

It’s a timely reminder of what positive things can be achieved when people set aside past differences and come together in the spirit of friendship and reconciliation. And, as we all look forward to the start of a new decade, it’s worth remembering that it is often the small steps, not the giant leaps, that bring about the most lasting change.

From the Queen’s Christmas Speech, December 25, 2019.

It’s worth remembering that it is often the small steps, not the giant leaps, that bring about the most lasting change.

I like that.

I am reminded of Arlo Guthrie and the way he talked his way though his shows.

I remember a gentle reminisce of Mr. Guthrie’s as he sat has the keyboard at a concert from 1993 (Live at Wolftrap, August 8, 1993.) and he said this:

If the world was perfect and everybody had money, everybody drove BMWs or something, nobody was homeless, nobody ever got sick, everything was wonderful, everybody was smart and everyone was happy all the time you would have to go an awful long way out of your way to make a difference in this world.

You would have to do a whole hell of a lot to try and improve the way it was …

BUT IN WORLD THAT SUCKS …

Like this one …

You don’t have to do very much at all. There was never a time in the history of the world where you go do so little and get so much done.

That’s right.

You can do more with a little smile, just hold somebody, say hello to somebody or just feel good by yourself even when you don’t feel like feeling good.

As the Queen put it, “The path, of course, is not always smooth, and may at times this year have felt quite bumpy, but small steps can make a world of difference.“

for one night be a
brightly-lighted island of
happiness and peace

On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked.

The next day, the President went to Congress and asked for a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan and the United States was in a war with Great Britain against Japan and Japan alone.

The next day, for reasons no one understands to this day, Germany declared war on the United States.

The United States was now in a war with Great Britain against Japan and Germany.

Two weeks later, Winston Churchill was at the White House to meet with Franklin Roosevelt.

At dusk on Christmas Eve, The President lit the National Christmas tree on a live radio broadcast.

The President then turned the microphone over to Mr. Churhchill.

This is what he said.

I spend this anniversary and festival far from my country, far from my family, yet I cannot truthfully say that I feel far from home. Whether it be the ties of blood on my mother’s side, or the friendships I have developed here over many years of active life, or the commanding sentiment of comradeship in the common cause of great peoples who speak the same language, who kneel at the same altars and, to a very large extent, pursue the same ideals, I cannot feel myself a stranger here in the centre and at the summit of the United States. I feel a sense of unity and fraternal association which, added to the kindliness of your welcome, convinces me that I have a right to sit at your fireside and share your Christmas joys.

This is a strange Christmas Eve. Almost the whole world is locked in deadly struggle, and, with the most terrible weapons which science can devise, the nations advance upon each other. Ill would it be for us this Christmastide if we were not sure that no greed for the land or wealth of any other people, no vulgar ambition, no morbid lust for material gain at the expense of others, had led us to the field. Here, in the midst of war, raging and roaring over all the lands and seas, creeping nearer to our hearts and homes, here, amid all the tumult, we have tonight the peace of the spirit in each cottage home and in every generous heart. Therefore we may cast aside for this night at least the cares and dangers which beset us, and make for the children an evening of happiness in a world of storm. Here, then, for one night only, each home throughout the English-speaking world should be a brightly-lighted island of happiness and peace.

Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.

And so, in God’s mercy, a happy Christmas to you all.

You can listen to it here …

anyone who knows
what America’s all about?
sure, I can tell you …

I have read that the single most influential movie ever made is The Wizard of Oz.

Much of the reasoning behind that statement comes from the thought that no other movie has been seen by some much of the population of THE WORLD and that the age that people saw the movie was an age where the movie made a real impact.

For myself, I would rather take on any evil movie entity from Independence Day to Dracula over wanting to mess with those Flying Monkeys.

But I digress.

Staying with the thought of influences brought about by what people have seen, I am reminded of the impact of the cartoon or animated special, known as Charlie Brown’s Christmas.

Increasingly frustrated by the holiday season, Charlie Brown finally yells, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?”

Quietly, his buddy Linus says, “Sure, Charlie Brown. I can tell you what Christmas is all about.”

And famously, Linus recites the Bible verses, in King James English, that tell the story of the birth of Jesus.

But why am I telling you this when you know this.

We all grew up seeing this show and hearing those words and in a way, come Judgement Day, the folks at the gate can, with justification say to anyone of my generation and thereabouts, “Whadyya mean you didn’t know? You saw Charlie Brown’s Christmas 63 times!“

A great holiday message but that’s not where I am going today.

I recently read the NYT Opinion piece, The Ivy League Flunks Out (Dec. 9, 2023) by Maureen Dowd.

Ms. Dowd is an Opinion columnist for the Times.

She won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary.

In this piece, she writes:

“I think this is still America.

But I don’t understand why I have to keep making the case on matters that should be self-evident.

Why should I have to make the case that a man who tried to overthrow the government should not be president again?

Why should I have to make the case that we can’t abandon Ukraine to the evil Vladimir Putin?”

I can hear her say, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what America is all about?”

And I want to say, “Sure, Maureen Dowd.

I can tell you what American is all about.”

And I want to say, “Lights Please.“

And the rooms would go dark and a single spotlight would shine on me and I would say this.

We hold these truths to be self-evident,

that all men are created equal,

that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,

that among these are Life,

Liberty

and the pursuit of Happiness.

And then I would say, “That’s what America is all about, Maureen Dowd.”

Linus reading the bare bones verses of the Bible leaves little wiggle room for what Christmas is all about.

Thomas Jefferson, a man who is now blown off when mentioned on News Talk shows as ‘oh that guy’, left little wiggle for what America is all about.

All are created equal.

Pretty simple.

Pretty easy.

All.

Now, so much time and effort is being put into just what that word, all, means.

Doesn’t all mean all?

There are those who will point to George Orwell’s Animal Farm and embrace the proclamation that “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

I hope we can reject that.

There are those who will point to the history of America and ask ‘where is the equality?’

To answer that I turn to Barbara Jorden, Representative from Texas.

Back in 1974, Barbara Jorden, made this statement to the House Judiciary Committee regarding the impeachment of President Richard Nixon:

“Earlier today, we heard the beginning of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States: “We, the people.”

It’s a very eloquent beginning.

But when that document was completed on the seventeenth of September in 1787, I was not included in that “We, the people.”

I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake.

But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in “We, the people.”“

I hate to go to another movie to make a point, but the scene I have in mind works too well to ignore and since I started out this essay talking about movies and their influence on us all, I guess I am okay.

In the movie, Lincoln, Mr. Lincoln puzzles out the concept of equality in Euclid and in life.

Sitting in the War Department Telegraph Office, Mr. Lincoln says this.

“Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other. That’s a rule of mathematical reasoning.

It’s true because it works; has done and always will do.

In his book, Euclid says this is “self-evident.

D’you see?

There it is, even in that two-thousand year old book of mechanical law: it is a self- evident truth that things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other.

We begin with equality.

That’s the origin, isn’t it?

That balance …

that’s fairness …

that’s justice.”

That’s what America is all about, Maureen Dowd.

universally
not venerated or liked
nothing new in this

Adapted from the line, “This is not the way that Napoleon is seen in France. For most French people, whether they like it or not, Napoleon is a component part of their past and who they are now. This is not to say that he is universally venerated. There is nothing new in this.”, in the review, “Obsession, jealousies and Joséphine: has Ridley Scott’s new film captured the real Napoleon?” by Andrew Hussy in the Guardian.

Mr. Hussey takes in the vast catalogue of films made about Napoleon saying, “Napoleon Bonaparte is probably the most famous Frenchman of all time and is, according to academic sources, second only to Jesus as the most filmed figure in cinema history.” 

Mr. Hussey writes, “

 There are other difficulties in portraying Napoleon for an English-speaking audience. Most notably, in the English-speaking world, the prevailing view of Napoleon has been as a villainous caricature; he is either a jumped-up foreign baddie bent on invading Britain, or more sinisterly, a murderous war-mongering tyrant, a prototype for Adolf Hitler.

This is not the way that Napoleon is seen in France. For most French people, whether they like it or not, Napoleon is a component part of their past and who they are now. This is not to say that he is universally venerated. There is nothing new in this.”

And the review pivots from a review on Ridley Scott to the overall image and perception of Mr. Bonaparte today.

If anyone wants to draw historical allusions to anyone in the current news cycle, that is not for me.

Mr. Hussey does write, “… the true conflict lies in 21st century France – between those who still believe in the universal values of the Republic and those who argue that they are out of date and no longer suitable for a modern, multicultural country.”

While the French Revolution authored Liberté, égalité, fraternité, or ‘liberty, equality, fraternity’.

It was Mr. Bonaparte who adapted it to  liberté, ordre public or Liberty and .. Public Order.

But I digress.

I want to focus on the headline.

Has Ridley Scott’s new film captured the real Napoleon?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Already from just the previews I know that Mr. Scott had taken artist license with some of the scenes (see the battle on the ice.)

But who is there to answer the question?

Has Ridley Scott’s new film captured the real Napoleon?

I am reminded of the movie, “Sunrise at Campobello”.

A movie from the play of the same name that told the story of Franklin Roosevelt and the onset of polio that changed his life.

The movie came out when a lot of people, FDR’s wife, Eleanor Roosevelt was still alive.

Mrs. Roosevelt was portrayed by Greer Garson.

Mrs. Roosevelt was asked for her impressions of the movie.

As I remember it and that’s good enough for me, she said that she found the movie interesting and enjoyed the characters in the movie.

She did wonder who they were though as they, “Certainly weren’t the Roosevelt’s.”

apparent that there
was a lot going on but
he wasn’t sure what

Not since the student riots in Chicago that took place while Brown Dog was a very casual student at the Moody Bible Institute had he seen this many people going to and fro.

It was apparent that there was a lot going on but he wasn’t sure what.

Another big crowd in his life had been the Ishpeming Bugle and Firefighters Convention a few years before but there the purpose had been quite specific.

Brown Dog had stood in the garage parking lot waiting for the head gasket of his van to be replaced and had watched several hundred buglers take turns doing their best.

This turned out to be more than enough bugling to last a lifetime.

From the novella, “Westwood Ho” originally published in Julip by Jim Harrison, Grove Press, 2000.

Westwood Ho is a Brown Dog story.

One of five Brown Dog novella’s written by Jim Harrison.

Against my better judgement I am listening to the complete Brown Dog collection from Audible on my drive to work.

I don’t mind … so much … how the reader uses affectations for different characters.

Though the number of fake Native American accent’s in the storyline does push the reader and my tolerance to the limit.

Why can’t they just read the book?

But no, its not the accents or the phraseology that gets me.

It’s the lack of research they put into to pronounce place names in Michigan’s Upper Pennisula that drives me first to laugh and then shake my head in disbelief.

MUN-Sing?

MUN-Sing for Munising?

Oh come on.

es CANA ba for Escanaba.

Ojibwa and Anishinaabe get so mangled I couldn’t figure out what the reader was saying.

Menominee, Ishpeming and Negaunee all get the treatment.

Oh come on.

The feller got a bye on Sault Ste. Marie as Mr. Harrison refers to it as just ‘The Soo’ but I was ready for Salt Saint Mary’s.

Still the sentiment from today as I drove to work emerged from the words.

The focus being It was apparent that there was a lot going on but he wasn’t sure what.

I read the papers.

I watch the news.

It was apparent that there is a lot going on but I am not sure what.

Is it New Year’s yet?

PS … a couple of day later it happened … Salt Saint May’s …. 🤷🏽‍♂️