Well hello there. This year, we begin early. Sporadically. And early. Because I need this. I need something warm and safe and fuzzy. Familiar.
Before that can happen, we are going low and I promise that we will come back up. Low in feeling because we have to go high in acknowledgment. And there is nothing but the painful truth and it is a prize fighter with lead-filled gloves covered in rusted nails and broken glass and we have been moving targets. Some of us way and much longer than others. 2020: the great equalizer. It never made sense to me to get mad at a date range. But this year I'm on board. I am also suffering from a healthy case of schadenfreude to the point of yearning for a progressive race to watch while placing bets.
Things are not the same as last year. Have I ever needed a gifting like I do now? In this year of our survival 2020? Well some of us. A whole lot of us have not made it to this pregnant moment of suffering and possibility. As of this writing, 1,318,044 souls have left this planet world wide including 251,256 from the USA alone. That many people would fill Madison Square Garden 12 and a half times. This is unfathomable, yet it is real.
The duality. The polarity is deafening. How to exist in such fractured spaces? Acknowledgments. Saying names. Naming names. Calling out names. Voting names off into the wilds of oblivion, bound from causing one more moment of harm. Santa can you hear me?
This Advent Calendar Posing as Blog will strive to include more than the traditions of old and new. Time for the new new (thank you Scott Pilgrim). New new for me. Time to mix things up and reach out to search and embrace what's been there all along. I seek empathic resonance. For everyone. That's my Tiny Tim wish for the season.
If you read my original inspiration for this place in the About section, you will know that I am not affiliated with any organized religion, and that I abhor the blatant capitalization of the holidays. It is the spirit of the feeling available to share around the holidays if one chooses to feel it. That deep connection to a warmth of feeling. A simplicity of desires all related to comfort somehow. Some people are deep into their faith, while others are deep into their shopping plus plenty of other agendas, traditions and rituals. Please accept this excerpt from my recent written thesis as a clue to what I am getting at:
Walking home around 5:00 pm Christmas Eve, 2019, I noticed how an otherwise bustling city street could be so quiet. I felt a collective sigh. A moment where I felt so connected to what seemed to be missing. I could not see anyone, but I knew that we were all doing the same thing; either enjoying or avoiding the holiday. Christmas Eve was the center of attention. And in that, we were all together.
“I felt so connected to what seemed to be missing.”
And that thought was during a non-plague year. So we are all isolated for probably the second time any minute now and if we are not, we should be so we can be safely together again sometime soon. So what is missing is us. We are not physically together this year. This beast of a year. And I was going numb. I was forgetting how connected I felt to you. So much so that I want to give you presents.
The day after Halloween I pulled out the holiday decor and I now live in a very sparkly and twinkly existence. I knew I was in trouble when out of nowhere, my face started to hurt. It was my smile muscles. They had atrophied! No no no I must work out. Must get in shape! I WANT MY SMILE BACK. How can I want this when there is so much darkness and suffering? Because I know that we will get through this. We will be alright. We are changing. We are trying to get together and better and heal, together. And I am going to need my smile for that.
Therefore, let the gifting begin. In the thick of the crazy and before I, we, you, are permanently imprinted with this illusion of normalcy, please accept a pre-gift to get you started for the season. A holiday season that we need, that I need like never before.
One tradition that I have heard of and knew nothing about was Kwanzaa. So I searched for something Kwanzaa to gift. I was alarmed that I could not find more productions, which speaks to exactly the continuing problem. However I was happily surprised to find this film, full length and for free. I do not know why this film is not famous. I learned so much and had such a good time in the process. I learned that Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday but a cultural one. A much needed one that has grown into a most beautiful holiday tradition filled with soul-sustaining rituals. And Kwanzaa is celebrated during the week after Christmas.
Happy first pre-gift of 2020! The Advent Calendar Posing as Blog is open!!!!!
Before that can happen, we are going low and I promise that we will come back up. Low in feeling because we have to go high in acknowledgment. And there is nothing but the painful truth and it is a prize fighter with lead-filled gloves covered in rusted nails and broken glass and we have been moving targets. Some of us way and much longer than others. 2020: the great equalizer. It never made sense to me to get mad at a date range. But this year I'm on board. I am also suffering from a healthy case of schadenfreude to the point of yearning for a progressive race to watch while placing bets.
Things are not the same as last year. Have I ever needed a gifting like I do now? In this year of our survival 2020? Well some of us. A whole lot of us have not made it to this pregnant moment of suffering and possibility. As of this writing, 1,318,044 souls have left this planet world wide including 251,256 from the USA alone. That many people would fill Madison Square Garden 12 and a half times. This is unfathomable, yet it is real.
The duality. The polarity is deafening. How to exist in such fractured spaces? Acknowledgments. Saying names. Naming names. Calling out names. Voting names off into the wilds of oblivion, bound from causing one more moment of harm. Santa can you hear me?
This Advent Calendar Posing as Blog will strive to include more than the traditions of old and new. Time for the new new (thank you Scott Pilgrim). New new for me. Time to mix things up and reach out to search and embrace what's been there all along. I seek empathic resonance. For everyone. That's my Tiny Tim wish for the season.
If you read my original inspiration for this place in the About section, you will know that I am not affiliated with any organized religion, and that I abhor the blatant capitalization of the holidays. It is the spirit of the feeling available to share around the holidays if one chooses to feel it. That deep connection to a warmth of feeling. A simplicity of desires all related to comfort somehow. Some people are deep into their faith, while others are deep into their shopping plus plenty of other agendas, traditions and rituals. Please accept this excerpt from my recent written thesis as a clue to what I am getting at:
Walking home around 5:00 pm Christmas Eve, 2019, I noticed how an otherwise bustling city street could be so quiet. I felt a collective sigh. A moment where I felt so connected to what seemed to be missing. I could not see anyone, but I knew that we were all doing the same thing; either enjoying or avoiding the holiday. Christmas Eve was the center of attention. And in that, we were all together.
“I felt so connected to what seemed to be missing.”
And that thought was during a non-plague year. So we are all isolated for probably the second time any minute now and if we are not, we should be so we can be safely together again sometime soon. So what is missing is us. We are not physically together this year. This beast of a year. And I was going numb. I was forgetting how connected I felt to you. So much so that I want to give you presents.
The day after Halloween I pulled out the holiday decor and I now live in a very sparkly and twinkly existence. I knew I was in trouble when out of nowhere, my face started to hurt. It was my smile muscles. They had atrophied! No no no I must work out. Must get in shape! I WANT MY SMILE BACK. How can I want this when there is so much darkness and suffering? Because I know that we will get through this. We will be alright. We are changing. We are trying to get together and better and heal, together. And I am going to need my smile for that.
Therefore, let the gifting begin. In the thick of the crazy and before I, we, you, are permanently imprinted with this illusion of normalcy, please accept a pre-gift to get you started for the season. A holiday season that we need, that I need like never before.
One tradition that I have heard of and knew nothing about was Kwanzaa. So I searched for something Kwanzaa to gift. I was alarmed that I could not find more productions, which speaks to exactly the continuing problem. However I was happily surprised to find this film, full length and for free. I do not know why this film is not famous. I learned so much and had such a good time in the process. I learned that Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday but a cultural one. A much needed one that has grown into a most beautiful holiday tradition filled with soul-sustaining rituals. And Kwanzaa is celebrated during the week after Christmas.
Happy first pre-gift of 2020! The Advent Calendar Posing as Blog is open!!!!!
One Year ago on YouTube
The Black Candle [HD] (Official Kwanzaa Film) Narrated by Maya Angelou
Runtime: 1:11:30
Lionel Riley1 year ago (edited)
"This is a great film! It has forced me to rekindle my interest and celebration of Kwanzaa and its 7 Principles. One can be a Christian, as I am a Buddhist, and still celebrate Kwanzaa because it is not a religious celebration in the purest sense of the word! It is a celebration of our people and our culture going all the way back to Africa! I wish that I could share this with my people but, I don't know if they will receive it well. We are so brainwashed these days! We are so lost! So much so that it hurts!"
The Black Candle [HD] (Official Kwanzaa Film) Narrated by Maya Angelou
Runtime: 1:11:30
Lionel Riley1 year ago (edited)
"This is a great film! It has forced me to rekindle my interest and celebration of Kwanzaa and its 7 Principles. One can be a Christian, as I am a Buddhist, and still celebrate Kwanzaa because it is not a religious celebration in the purest sense of the word! It is a celebration of our people and our culture going all the way back to Africa! I wish that I could share this with my people but, I don't know if they will receive it well. We are so brainwashed these days! We are so lost! So much so that it hurts!"