A Belated Journey Through St. Patrick’s Day

I’m a day late, I know. But according to Ancestry.com I’m forty-six percent Irish, so in a way every day is St. Patrick’s Day for me.

Thought I’d offer a “tour” through some short posts I wrote a decade ago (hard to believe!). Again, I know they are not as timely at this point; but I think the topics are broad enough to enjoy something of a timeless appeal — especially if you’re into Irish mythology.

My thanks in advance for your readership 🙂

FIRST: Rainbows

Acknowledgements

Nheyob. Saint Patrick Catholic Church (Junction City, Ohio) – stained glass, Saint Patrick – detail. File:Saint Patrick Catholic Church (Junction City, Ohio) – stained glass, Saint Patrick – detail.jpg. Created: 21 March 2015. Uploaded: 23 April 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick#/media/File:Saint_Patrick_Catholic_Church_(Junction_City,_Ohio)_-_stained_glass,_Saint_Patrick_-_detail.jpg

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Christmas Vid From ‘Stranger Things’ Vault

A nice video. For those of you who have been following my Stranger Things commentary, I figured it would do until the final installment comes along.

That, as you may have guessed, will be coming in January. I figured it would be better to wait until after the holiday season and its sundry obligations and festivities wound down.

Merry Christmas, all!

Acknowledgement

Netflix.  Stranger Things logo. File:Stranger Things logo.png. Created: 22 July 2016.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_Things#/media/File:Stranger_Things_logo.png

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No, Not ‘Stranger Things’…a Reblog

Greetings!

I must apologize. I was working on the fifth installment of my Stranger Things 4 commentary, but then (as happens from time to time) I came to realize I needed to go in an entirely different direction. Will work on that one for next week.

Meantime, I figured I’d do a reblog. With the holiday season approaching, this one seemed appropriate…

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‘The Ref’ and Unexpected Healing

Well a recommendation from a local TV news reporter led my family to the 1994 dark comedy The Ref, which was our New Year’s Eve movie. I was secretly worried it would make for a depressing end to the year, given the premise. Thankfully I was wrong, as I have often been.

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Babies, Christmas, and the ’Use-less’

Well it’s common to feel sorry for people who were born on Christmas. Birthday and Christmas being the year’s two big ”present days,” the idea of having them on the same day strikes one as doubly undesirable for involving a longer wait time (“gift-getting day” being only once a year) and being sooner finished.

But Christmas and babies do go well together, and not just because of pictures of cute little babies in Santa hats.

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Hallmark Movies: They’re Not All That Bad

It’s kind of amazing how big the corner of one’s eye can be.

The Hallmark Channel is running its annual Christmas movie marathons. While I cannot claim a place in the ranks of Hallmark fandom, I have had ample opportunities to catch fragments of these movies while others are watching them — you guessed it, out of the corner of my eye.

I’d like to share a few thoughts, for what they’re worth.

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The Living and the Dead — Some Reflections for Halloween Season

Note: This is a slightly modified re-blog.

We are now well into ghost movie season.  Not just ghost movies, but certainly these figure prominently. And by the way, let’s here call ”ghost movie” anything that deals with a spirit world and its “lines of communication” with the everyday world.

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Santa Claus and the Reality of Myth

This is an updated version of an article I originally posted five years ago, in the midst of an El Niño December.  Mother Nature has decidedly “cooled off” this year, but I doubt whether the debate over Santa Claus has followed suit.

Let’s get right to it: Can Christians claim Santa as their own, as being based on the fourth-century St. Nicholas of Myra?

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To My Jewish Brethren

As a New York State resident, my head and heart hang low.  Many of you may have heard of an assault on a Rabbi outside his home near New York City a day or so ago, the thirteenth in a string of anti-Semitic attacks in just the last month.

If any of my elder brothers and sisters in faith are reading this right now, please accept my heartfelt condolences, love, and assurance of prayers.

I cannot help but look at the parallel histories of our respective peoples — viz., Jews and Christians.  Both have spread, like twin streams, throughout different societies, abiding as strangers and sojourners.  Both have endured hardship and isolation — one with the hope of their Messiah, the other with the hope of their Messiah’s Return.

Let us, then, not forget one another, but strive together for peace.  We’ve just passed through seasons characterized by the lighting of trees and candles, which draws to mind the immortal words of St. John the Apostle:

Now this is the message that we have heard from him and proclaim to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

– 1 John 1:5

Peace, and God bless.

Acknowledgement

By ארכיון השומר הצעיר יד יערי – Hashomer Hatzair Archives Yad Yaari, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5840684

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Some Merry Words For Christmas

Within a lodge of broken bark
The tender Babe was found,
A ragged robe of rabbit skin
Enwrapp’d His beauty ‘round;
(…)
The chiefs from far before Him

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