Christmas Is Coming!

Christmas is coming! Today is the shortest day of the year, the mid-winter solstice. Everything has been done to ensure that the sun comes back again. Each house is filled with lights and greenery. The tree is up and the turkey has been ordered.  Neighbours call round to consume mince pies - eat one in a friend's house for a happy month next year. Cards on red ribbon festoon the house like strings of Tibetan prayer flags.
Cards at Christmas are a good tradition, albeit a relatively new one. They only date from Victorian times - after all, they presume a postal service and high literacy rates. The first commercial Christmas cards were produced in 1846: they were condemned by temperance enthusiasts because they showed a family drinking wine.
Christmas cards perform a very different  function from e-mail or Facebook: each envelope is a small gift, representing a quantifiable investment of writing time and money. Of course, card etiquette is fraught with difficulty. Is a hand-written note preferable to a round-robin letter? How many years should you continue sending if there is no reply? Why do people always send you a card the year when you finally cross them off your list? What does my choice of charitable cause say about me? (Oxfam this year: caring & interesting). But this is as naught compared with the problems of presents, especially the annual potlatch* festivities with the relatives.... Seasons Greetings! May you have a joyous and peaceful holidaytime this year.
(*Potlatch:  Native American celebration where big chiefs distributed status goods; compared here with modern ritual of gift-giving involving conspicuous consumption).

‘LifeWorks’ by Jane Bailey Bain is a practical handbook which contains insights from psychology and anthropology. Using myths from around the world, it helps you to develop your own life story. These tools can also be used by novelists and scriptwriters. For more information, and the full version of this post, visit the main ‘LifeWorks’ website on http://janebaileybain.wordpress.com/

 

St Nicholas Day

 

In northern Europe, children put their shoes neatly by the door last night. If they have been good this year, 

St Nicholas fills them with sweets and toys; if not, they will find a lump of coal and a hard stick. For others, he will come on Christmas Eve, soaring through the night sky in a flying sledge. Many centuries ago Nicholas lived in Patara, in modern Anatolia. His father was a rich merchant and left a fortune to his only son. But why did he start leaving gifts in this way?...

... It had been a good night. The wine was sweet and the barmaids obliging. Nick staggered slightly as he stepped into the street. A full moon hung low above the rooftops. The cool air was welcomely refreshing. Nick waved away the servant who stood waiting and set off alone through the quiet streets.

His way passed through a poorer part of town. He stumbled on the rough ground and bumped against a wall. 

As he steadied himself, he heard a girl’s voice from the window high above.

“That’s all I really want.”

Without thinking, Nick paused to listen. What women really want: that would be good for a young man to know!

Another girl answered, speaking low.

“Three gold coins! Father will never find so much for each of us.”

“Without a dowry, his family will never let him marry me.”

A third voice chimed in.

“There’s only one way for girls like us to make money.”

“And he would never want me after that...” The girl’s voice dissolved in tears.

Nick bowed his head in confusion. Three gold coins:  he had three times that in his purse at the end of a night out. To these sisters, it was the difference between life and despair. He pulled the little bag of money from his belt. Should he call up to them, throw it through the window? But they might be scared, ashamed at having been overheard. 
Better to leave it secretly, where they would find it in the morning. He only had one purse: how to show their father that this was for his girls to share? Nick stood on one foot: wobbling, he pulled off one silk slipper, then the other. Swiftly he filled them with coins, twisted each into a ball, threw the three little sacks over the courtyard wall. He heard them land with soft jingling sounds. Then he ran down the street, his bare feet thudding on the ground, laughing like a schoolboy.

From that night onwards, Nick was a changed man. He still liked the good life: he could drink and sing with the best of them. But he seemed gentler, more interested in other people. When he heard a story of hardship, there was often another tale next night of unexpected generosity, an unseen benefactor who had helped in hidden ways. No-one knew who gave these gifts: they were always left in secret, without the expectation of thanks.

Nicholas joined the Christian Church and rose to become Bishop of Myra, in south-west Turkey. He was eventually canonized, although his full title sounds a little formal: the children whom he loved shorten Santa Nikolaus to Santa Claus. The three bags of gold are echoed in the three gold balls found outside a pawnbroker’s shop, giving people another chance in life. To this day, millions of people around the world help Nicholas in his work. At Christmas time they give gifts to children just to make them smile. Forget about magical flying reindeer: now that’s what I call a real miracle.

See full version of this post with pictures at http://janebaileybain.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/st-nicholas-day/ 

‘LifeWorks’ by Jane Bailey Bain is a practical handbook which contains insights from psychology and anthropology. Using myths from around the world, it helps you to develop your own life story. These tools can also be used by novelists and scriptwriters. For more information, see my Author page http://www.facebook.com/LifeWorks1and visit the main ‘LifeWorks’ website at http://janebaileybain.wordpress.com/books/

Thanksgiving

 

Thanksgiving is a time of praise and plenty. Surrounded by friends and family, we celebrate the fruits of the past year. But what did this feast mean to the first inhabitants of America?  

The Pilgrim Fathers landed at Cape Cod on 21^st November 1620. They came ashore at Provincetown, just inside the tip of the rocky headland. It was not a good place to found a colony: a few days later they moved the boat to New Plymouth, Massachusets. The winter weather in this new world was worse than their wildest dreams. They crowded back aboard the boat and lived there for the next three months.

These early settlers were English folk. They were not Puritans; the Founding Mothers (of whom we hear less) wore colourful dresses with full skirts. They were not Quakers, so-named several decades later. They were Protestant Dissenters, leaving their homeland for the freedom to worship God in their own way.

The passenger lists of the Mayflower give 102 names: a mixture of men, women and children (including several fosterlings of illegitimate birth). The Mayflower was a merchant ship, square-rigged with three masts, about 100ft long and 25ft wide, sailed by about 28 crew. The quarters were cramped enough during the nine-week voyage; almost unbearable in the three months that followed. The people were weakened by hunger and disease. Half of those on board died during that first terrible winter.

They would all have perished were it not for the generosity of the Native Americans. A Wampanoag leader named Massasoit gave them food when their own supplies ran out. Tradition says that at one point, they were surviving on five grains of corn a day. The following spring, a man called Squanto showed them how to plant the ‘Three Sisters’ – the staple local crops of maize (sweetcorn), beans (legumes) and squash (marrows and pumpkin). He taught them to fertilize the corn with a fish-head under every shoot. That autumn, the settlers brought in an adequate harvest. They knew now that they could survive in this new land.

The First Thanksgiving was a feast to thank God and the Indians. Actually, New England colonists regularly held thanksgivings, but these were more usually days of prayer and fasting. The Christian Eucharist of consecrated bread and wine is literally a thanks-offering (Greek eucharistos, grateful). Thankfully for us, prayer and fasting was not the Native way. Ninety Indians arrived with turkeys for a three-day festival, expecting song and dance. The Thursday start gave the Pilgrims time to enjoy themselves before the Sabbath observance.

Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 during the Civil War. It was originally celebrated on the last Thursday in November; this was moved to the fourth Thursday in 1941 to extend the Christmas shopping season. It is now the biggest holiday in the most powerful country in the world. The festive meal includes maize, beans, turkey, cranberry sauce and of course pumpkin pie. Five grains of parched corn on every plate remind us of the hardship of those early days. Happy Thanksgiving!

See full version of this post with pictures at http://janebaileybain.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/thanksgiving-traditions/

 

‘LifeWorks’ by Jane Bailey Bain is a practical handbook which contains insights from psychology and anthropology. Using myths from around the world, it helps you to develop your own life story. These tools can also be used by novelists and scriptwriters. For more information, see my Author page http://www.facebook.com/LifeWorks1 and visit the main ‘LifeWorks’ website at http://janebaileybain.wordpress.com/books/

 

Dream Dinner Party

I've just been to see Michael Frayn's latest play, 'Alarms and Excursions'. It's a pointed comedy on modern manners and so funny. He is such a clever and observant man: definitely near the top of my dream dinner party guest list! I'm inviting Saint Bob too, after seeing him on 'Top Gear' last week (eclectic tastes, moi) - self-deprecating but similarly very amusing. And that brainy bloke who edits 'Private Eye' from 'Have I Got News For You'. It might not be the most politically correct gathering, but if I'm hosting, the guests all have to be able to make me laugh!
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

Football Hero

The boy saved the goal. It's hard to emphasize how important this is. The double fracture in his arm was a small price to pay for the glory. A white plaster cast has lots of room for messages in coloured felt-tip: 'You're my hero'; 'Play it again'; 'XXX'. The front porch bears a pile of tributes: toffees, comics, old DVDs. Back in school his blonde sweetheart is Becky to his Tom Sawyer, trailing him round the playground to rout the opposition. The boy is only seven but he knows what is required for success in the tribe.

MidSummer's Eve

It's nearly Midsummer's Eve, the shortest night of the year. A time to enjoy long dusky evenings outside - though this far north, it's never as warm as it ought to be! But be careful, on this night the veil between the worlds is thin and the faery folk may come to join our revelry.
As the year turns, it's a reminder to us of life's trajectory. The first half of your time on earth is taken up with classic Freudian issues: breaking free from your parents, choosing friends and partners, finding a job. The second half of your life is more concerned with what Jung termed the 'inner journey': gaining insight, finding fulfilment, inner peace. Learning that the first sign of wisdom is realizing just how little you know.
But for now, let's stick with the festivities. Any excuse for a celebration, every day on earth should be a source of rejoicing. What could you do to mark this night? Buy some chunky candles at the supermarket, and put them around the room. Hang coloured paper streamers outside the window, to flutter in the breeze. Scatter rice before your doorstep, to signify plenty - no, that could attract ants - perhaps confetti, or ivy around the door handle would be better. Plan something different for supper, especially if you're by yourself: buy olives to start the meal, chocolate to finish, something bubbly to drink (needn't be alcoholic). Happy Midsummer's Eve!

Bucket List

What's on your bucket list? You know - things that you really want to do before you kick it. Things that you want to achieve, or experience, or at least see while you're in this world. Running the London Marathon was on mine. I did it this year, and it was quite an experience: exhausting, but exhilarating too (and I raised a lot for charity)!
Think of three things you'd like to do. They could include learning a language; surfing in Hawaii; seeing the Taj Mahal. It doesn't matter how far-fetched they are, you can always change them later! Make a list - somehow it always helps to write things down. Then beside each one, put the first step that you'd have to do, to make it happen. This might be ordering a brochure, making a phone call, asking a friend for advice....
Now pick one one of them, and do it. Without spending any more time or thought on it.
Google it while you're on the computer, and press that button.
There, easy isn't it. You're one step towards achieving one of your dreams.

New Year, New You

It's a new year and after dinner everyone sat around the table trading resolutions.
So many people seemed to focus on shortcomings: things that had been neglected or overlooked, that they were going to pay more attention to this time around.
But if something didn't manage to hold our intentions last time, it doesn't seen very likely to succeed for long this year either.
Surely it's better to focus on something new - a skill (say, bellydancing), a dream (becoming a photographer) or a long-held ambition (running a marathon)!
That way, we start with new energies and start acquiring different skills.
Instead of being merely remedial, our resolutions become the crystalizing step on a renewed life path.