Monday Musings

Good Monday, everyone.  I have so many thoughts floating around in my head today, that this could be a long one, so please bear with me.

First, the Krampus movie.  My older daughter and I went on Friday night and we loved it!  It did not disappoint.  Even though it is billed as a "horror" movie, which it is, there is even a pretty decent message to it.  The two families in the movie were so different from each other and infuriated each other, but in the end, they learned to accept each other and get along.  That sounds pretty sappy, so let me say that we really enjoyed the murderous gingerbread men, teddy bear and angel doll.  Plenty of scary moments!!  Could your kids see it?  It is PG-13, so yes, technically, they could.  There is one f bomb, which I could always do without, and plenty of other swear words.  It's a scary movie.  You have to keep that in mind and Krampus is plenty scary in this movie.  It is my new favorite Christmas movie, though, so I hope it gets played on television every year!

Every year there is always a moment when the Christmas spirit just really hits me!  In me, that spirit manifests as the spirit of giving.  I think that happened on Saturday.  Knowing that Saturday night would be "Krampusnacht" and Sunday would be St. Nicholas day, I decided first of all that my girls and I would do a "reverse" advent calendar.  I wish it was an original idea, but I actually read about it somewhere on good old Facebook.  A reverse advent calendar is taking a basket or a bag (in our case a very large Christmas gift bag) and putting an item (or more) into it each day during advent, then on Christmas Eve donating it to a homeless shelter or food bank.  We had five days to catch up on, but did so with no problem.

Then, I decided we should put together some St. Nicholas bags and give them to a few of our neighbors.  So, after KD's rehearsal for her chamber quartet on Saturday, she and I headed off to do a little shopping. We ended up with five St. Nick bags.

Also on Saturday, I ended up going through some of our outdoor winter attire and realized we have more scarves than we need.  I took the scarves out to the bridge where people often walk to campus for classes, etc., and tied them around a post with a note that said "Cold? Please take a scarf".  Of course, it isn't really all that cold right now, but eventually people might find them useful as they are out walking in the cold.  Yesterday I saw someone taking a picture of them and the note.

On Sunday, KD and I went to church.  It's kind of a big deal because we honestly haven't gone since I "retired" from the Sacred Heart Children's Choir in May.  We wanted to find a church that is a bit closer, which being Catholic, leaves us with just a few options.  We enjoyed church quite a bit, and I really have missed it.  After church, she and I delivered the St. Nicholas bags, which was so much fun to do!

I wonder if that surprised some of my readers.  That I go to church and am Catholic, I mean.  Yes, I am very witchy, but I am not Wiccan.  I might do witchy things, and I might even practice a little bit of "magick", but all witches are not Wiccan and all Wiccans are not witches.  This seems to be a little known fact.  I love pagan ideas and really enjoy some old pagan rituals and customs, but I have been Catholic since I was 17 and have raised my daughters to be Catholic as well.  I really enjoy the celebration of the Eucharist and find much beauty in it.

And this brings me to the whole concept of religion, which is a scary subject to talk about so I'll try to keep it brief.  Everyday I see people spouting off  hateful insults to each other because of religious beliefs. I see them calling each other names, saying each other is stupid, judging each other and generally being mean.  I've even caught myself doing it.  A long time ago, our ancestors (if you are Euro-American, like I am) came to this country and literally shoved it's native inhabitants aside to turn this into the "new world".  They forcefully took over, created government here and killed (both wildlife and humans) wastefully and without reason.  We can't go back and do it over, so now we have to make the best of what we have and what we have done.  I truly believe that we are NOT a Christian nation. How can we be a Christian nation when there are several religions currently being practiced in the United States?  Even Christianity is divided into so many different denominations that there is much disagreement and arguing just within a single religion.  As a teacher, I have taught Christians, Jews, atheists, Muslims, Jehova's Witnesses (which are a branch of Christianity), and possibly children of other faiths.  If I don't treat them with the same respect because I don't follow their religion, then I'm not being a good teacher.  Why can't we treat each other with respect?

My question is this:  What makes your religion the "right" religion to the point that you have to judge others who are not of your faith?  If you are Christian, you might say the Holy Bible does.  But that doesn't make sense when other faiths have God-inspired books which they also follow and believe in whole-heartedly.  Then the question becomes this:  What makes your God-inspired book the "right" God-inspired book?  You really can't answer that.  Not really.  I'm not trying to make you not follow your faith or doubt it, I'm simply wondering why we can't respect each other regardless of faith, or lack thereof.  That's why it is called "faith".  We really have no proof, but believe because we just do and it feels right in our hearts to do so.

We need to have one common ideal that we all follow.  And I believe that "law" comes from the Wiccan religion.  That ideal is to feel free to follow your religion or faith, or no faith, but do no harm to others.  That's what I believe it really comes down to.  Nobody on this planet has any right to force their religion on the rest of the world.  Nobody.  And with that, I am done, for now.

Okay, back to Christmas!!  The rest of Sunday was filled with beautiful music and wonderful family time.  KD had her string chamber quartet recital, which was just awesome.  The younger groups (which KD was in) played holiday music and wore great combinations of red and green to be festive.  The older groups (high school and up) played wonderful, difficult and advanced pieces and the faculty quartet was stellar.  After that uplifting concert, the girls and I went to the last part of the Historical Society Christmas Walk.  I could have devoted an entire blog post to how it makes me sad that they have had to downsize that event over the years because the "Holiday Hoopla" became the big Christmas celebration in town, but that's another story.  Things change over time and we have to accept that. We still had some cookies and cider at the Victorian House, and the girls enjoyed the scavenger hunt there and the beautiful old fashioned Christmas decor, not to mention the cool train set in the basement, and we got a nice tour of the Women's Club house, even though we got there just as they had decided to shut down their part of the event.

After that we went downtown to the new Stam Chocalaterie store, which we are becoming addicted to.  We each had a gelato.  Delicious!!  While walking back to our car, we became curious about a small art gallery across from where we had parked.  The very nice gentleman there explained what it was all about and now a couple of artistic teenagers I know are dreaming of doing a show there.  More details as that lovely dream begins to unfold.

The evening ended with our family attending a Christmas hand bell concert at the United Methodist church in Cedar Falls.  This has become an annual event for our family.  We have several friends who play in the different bell choirs.  The bells are beautiful and really help enhance the holiday spirit.  It was a great way to end a weekend of Christmas thoughts and celebrations.  Now we have several concerts still coming up in the next few weeks.  Being musicians keeps us busy, but we love it and I am so thankful that we all can enjoy making music of all kinds for others to hear and enjoy.

My wish for everyone is to experience the absolute joy I feel when the spirit of giving hits me.  From dropping a few coins into the Salvation Army bucket, to paying for the car behind me in the drive-through, to leaving random scarves on a pole for anyone who needs or wants one, to delivering St. Nick bags to neighbors, and finally to buying Christmas presents for my family and friends,  I am so thankful for the opportunity to give what I can.  When given the opportunity to give, be thankful, for it is truly better to give than it is to receive.  Enjoy this holiday season.