A Christmas Carol

I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.
— Ebenezer Scrooge

I love Christmastime. Even when I was a little kid, I could tell there was something special in the air when that holiday of holidays came around each year. The lights, trees, wreaths, garlands, and other decorations served as a visible reminder of the joy of the season. As I have gotten a little older (many say that at 26 I'm not old, but I think I'm quite old), I have come to appreciate Christmas even more because it's the way people seem to make a little more effort to be nice to each other, the extra thought, and the added generosity that make the candles, Advent calendars, nutcrackers, gingerbread houses, and (of course) the music all that much more special. People take a few days out of the year to rise above the baseness that pervades so much of our intercourse, and they and everyone around them feels so much better for it.

As a kid, I think I first became acquainted with Charles Dickens thanks to Disney's Mickey's Christmas Carol. This Christmas, though, I decided to read the original by Charles Dickens.  Chris and Marie gave us an autographed copy of the book (autographed by Richard G. Wilkins, who wrote the introduction) a few years ago, and as it's an exact reproduction of the original, it's pretty cool. The introduction was good, and the book even better. The book is really quite powerful and it shows through all the negative acts in Scrooge's life what one should really do.

What I liked best was when, after being visited by the spirits, Scrooge decides that he will try to live Christmas every day. Once when I was a teenager, like most cynical teenagers, I thought a cynical thought — maybe we shouldn't live Christmas every day because that would make the Christmas season not as special. It doesn't work like that, though. We would be supremely happy year-round, and even more so at Christmastime, that most amazing time when we commemorate our Lord and Savior's birth, if we would put our cares and concerns aside not for just one day, not just for one month, but all the time, and concentrate, as did Christ, on helping others fulfill their needs and desires.

God bless Us, Every One!
— Tiny Tim

Merry Christmas!

I just thought I'd wish everyone a merry Christmas! Christmas is a wonderful time of year and I love all the good memories included in it. It's a great time to make some more great memories, too. This year, Kateřina and I are experiencing our first Christmas together without any other family around. Although we miss our families (they're not that far away thanks to Hotmail, Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Jajah, and other services and companies), we've enjoyed Christmas together with our own little family. Anna has enjoyed it, too.

We really wish it would've snowed by now, but in Maryland, snow is a rarity, especially before Christmas. On this Christmas Eve, though, we know that with or without snow, the reason we celebrate Christmas is the same and as powerful as ever. It is a wonderful time to reflect on the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. His miraculous birth was just the beginning of an amazing earthly ministry that culminated with His great gift to us, the atonement and then the resurrection. May we all remember Him this Christmas, express to Him our gratitude, and then strive to follow in His footsteps.

Merry Christmas!

The Civil War

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Omi and Opa gave me some history books published by National Geographic when I was younger.  For my 11th birthday they gave me The Civil War by Robert Paul Jordan.  I'm now 26, and a few months ago I got around to cracking this book open, and I'm fairly glad I did.  This, too, is a coffee table book, and the illustrations, photographs, and paintings are wonderful.  One need not read the book to enjoy it.

The text itself is fairly utilitarian and tries to cover the major events of a war about which volumes upon volumes have been written.  The author, like any student of the Civil War (outside the USA it is known as the American Civil War), gives equal ink to both the combatants.  I think most of us grow up thinking the Civil War was fought because the South believed in slavery, but really, the war was fought because the South believed in states' rights.  I read with interest as both sides believed themselves to be right, to have God's blessing, and as families were torn apart.  There were heroes and men of valor on both sides, although I have to admit, I have always seen myself as a Yankee had I been alive back then.

I also enjoyed reading of the valor, hard work, and firm faith in God that President Abraham Lincoln exhibited throughout his presidency.  He was a great man and one to be admired and followed by all.  I was even less enthralled by the personal narrative of the author in this book than in the one on the Revolutionary War, but in the end, it is but a distraction from both a good story and a good learning experience.

A Sad Day for the Comics

For a very long time, say since the demise of "Calvin and Hobbes," the comics pages in newspapers have been going down hill.  Soon after "Calvin and Hobbes" was stopped, "The Far Side" also disappeared, leaving us with only "FoxTrot."  Now though, according to a press release by Universal Press Syndicate, the syndicate for the last remaining great comic of my time, "FoxTrot" will be going to a Sunday-only publication schedule.  If anyone out there buys a paper to look at the comics, they can cancel their subsription.  Hopefully, "FoxTrot" reruns will be on the Web, just like all the old "Calvin and Hobbes" strips.  The syndicate, in their press release, assures us we'll see "FoxTrot" in other mediums, but as with "The Far Side," that means people like me who can't afford those other mediums won't be seeing it.  No matter what, I really enjoy "FoxTrot," and will miss it's unique brand of family and pop-culture jokes.