An Adult Reading of the Christmas Story...(no not the Jean Shepard one)

Was reading this morning in The New Yorker, Dec. 10th issue, about Diarists - why people keep Diaries and why people read them. Diaries, the essayist points out, are not the same as blogging or journal keeping in that a diarist will keep track of every little thing that happened regardless of how important or meaningful. (Don't know, depends on the blog/journal - I think. Some people online do write every little thing they've done and do it every day. Other's like myself write whatever hits their fancy and that they wish to remember, keep a record of, and more importantly to share with others.) At any rate, my blog as you've no doubt figured out by now is not a diary or a letter so much as a public journal that serves two purposes - one to keep track of thoughts I have for myself and well to share those thoughts to the world at large or in flocked posts to a select group whose journals/diaries I read. Electronic correspondence is not the same as long-hand or letters. It's more edited, cleaner, and yet at the same time, often more spontaneous.

( xmas morning )

I went to Midnight Mass last night with my folks, only Mass I go to all year not bein overly religious and more than a tad annoyed with the dogma of the Catholic Church. I did it mostly to support Momster who was singing in the Church Choir. At any rate the sermon based on the Christmas story related in the new testament according to Luke, annoyed more than moved me. It was more or less about why saying Merry Christmas was better than saying Happy Holidays. I found myself wishing the priest had said what my uncle wrote in the short piece of writing he'd sent in his annual Christmas card to my parents. Which is an analysis of the metaphorical meaning of nativity story, as opposed to the literal interpretation that we have become accostumed to.

I know most of my readers or a goodly percentage are either not religious, athesist, agonistic, or not Christian. So I hope you will bear with me while I share what can best be described as a historical and metaphorical analysis of a biblical text; I'm not sharing it to teach, inform, convert, so much as to ponder and discuss because it struck me as unique and interesting. The analysis is the piece of writing that my uncle included in his Xmas card to my parents. Before I share it - I should explain that my uncle is an ordained Catholic Priest, who has been a priest for more than 40 years, working a good percentage of that time on an Indian reservation in South Dakota. He was named after a Saint, the middle son of seven boys and three girls in a poor Irish Catholic family. As soon as he was able he retreated to the sancturary of the priesthood mostly to get away from the chaos at home.

Here's what he wrote:

( An Adult Reading of the Christmas Story )

Once...film review

Granny has gone home, we've or rather I watched two movies, had our turkey and our pie. My mother was a sweetheart and went out of her way to make gluten-free stuffing, gluten-free bread and cornbread for the stuffing, gluten-free pie crust, gluten-free gravy, and gluten-free waffles for breakfast. Which in some ways was the best gift she could have given me.

The movies we rented were Ocean's Thirteen and Once which received brilliant reviews over the summer and fall, and made a few ten best lists. Not entirely sure I agree.

Ocean's Thirteen even with close captioning (my grandmother and father are heard of hearing) was difficult to follow. Busy movie. I think I was the only one in my family who did follow it. If you like heist movie's it is amongst the best that I've seen. But some of the subplots get lost and a few make no sense - such as the one that deals with Linus (Matt Damon) and his conman father (a character who must have been mentioned in Ocean's Twelve because I don't remember him from the first film). It's not a bad movie, but I don't recommend it for family viewing.

Once - much shorter film, clocks in at 86 minutes, I saw by myself. My father tried to watch it but grew bored and disappeared in the other room to watch The Unit halfway through. Once is a little postcard stamp of a movie. A slice of life. And possibly the most realistic musical I've seen. It is not the sort of musical hard-core Broadway musical fans would love, it is rather a musical for people who may not like musicals very much or find traditional musicals to be rather silly. The characters sing because they are struggling musicians and only in relation to what they are trying to do. No one spontaneously bursts out in song. There are no colorful costums. The songs are soft and airy much like ballads played with accoustic guitare and piano. In some ways it reminds me of what I like to call "let's start a band" musicals aka The Commitments and That Thing You Do! by way of James Joyce and with a lot less melodrama.

Unlike the big musicals showcased in the last few years, such as Rent, Dreamgirls, Chicago, Hairspray and Sweeny Todd - Once focuses on the process of making music, we see the man strumming his guitare, hammering out the basics of the tune, there's no fiery chorus or rousing numbers, no drug use, no sex scenes, no blood, no dream-sequences. The tunes are low-key, the sort you might here a street musician sing on a corner, which makes sense because the lead character is a busker who fixes hoover vacume cleaners in his father's shop.

Watching Once felt a bit like reading one of the short stories in American Best Short Stories of 2005 collection - except this tale was not depressing, but uplifting. Simple. And real. Afterwards, I felt warm and hopeful, like my dreams whatever they might be were possible.