Holiday

Our work and research towards next year’s plans continues and develops daily. We are excited about this project and looking forward to sharing it with you in the New Year!

We saw the much acclaimed film, ‘Precious,’ today. We found it honest and well acted. We are surprised, though, that people would find it shocking as so many have according to reviews and media reporting. In order to be shocked by this film, one would have to be rather unaware of the world we live in. There are Precious people living very difficult lives all over the world everyday. As one reviewer said, it would be self indulgent to sit in a movie theater crying about it. Do something about it, or do nothing about it, but let’s not pretend we don’t know it happens every day all over the world.

It’s nearly Christmas. As we walk this road less travelled, living outside many cultural norms such as 40 hour work weeks and media driven consumption, we find holidays less and less appealing. Not because we are opposed to merry-making and cheer, but because we now have more of these in our everyday lives. To designate very few and specific days for such activities seems inauthentic, contrived, really. Some food for thought – originally holidays (‘holy-days’) were, as well as being linked to spiritual practices (pagan or Christian (or both….)), really more often the times that the peasants of the manor were given a day off by their lord as a way of keeping these lower classes happy for a few more months ….. hmmmm …. has much changed? (Something to think about there…..!).
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“Take a stand for something worthwhile, raise a banner in behalf of truth, health, justice, beauty, or morality. Each will inevitably be joined by others, so that truth shall prevail, so that health shall be abundant, so that justice shall be established, so that beauty shall dominate over ugliness, so that morality shall thrive among our people.” (Conard B. Rheiner)