Sending You Light

Do you know what it feels like to light a candle in the window then wait for someone to come home? Have you ever? I have done so both literally and figuratively. The candlelight signals that the door is still open. All is well. All is forgiven. The candlelight reflects back in the window pane another message to the candle lighter: There is hope.

Forgiveness and hope burn the candle on both ends as partners in love. Forgiveness is of the will: Will I or will I not forgive you this time, yet again? It's always a choice, a decision to be made. Hope is of the heart: I light my candle in the dark hoping that someone will find their way, or that I will find mine. Who hasn't been on one side of a closed door as either candle lighter or wayfarer looking for a light to find the way?

The act of lighting a candle for another often comes from a deep seated desire to say something into the darkness that words cannot. Searching for the right words to say is one of the hardest and holiest earthly needs we all share. We all need to speak our truth with love and we all need to be heard.

Symbolically, Christmastide is full of candlelighting both at home and in some churches. I have given and received many candles over the years, including this Christmas. The promise is the same whether one is the giver or the receiver: This candle will be lit by you or me with hope for something in our hearts. Maybe that something is what we cannot say -- cannot find words to speak because it would bring to light the deepest hope and fears of our heart and soul.

. . ." The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight." We don't stop singing when we get to that line in the carol. We sing through to the end. Yet, how profound are those words that speak for us, the way a candle lights our way.

As far as I know, there is no statute of limitations on actively waiting with hope. It's not a waiting game of outlasting another, or trying to beat the time clock. We have hope. Must have, but how? I believe hope is a stance, a position with which we turn and face the world. Without hope, how dark things would be, like darkness without candlelight. Let's not pretend that we don't need hope because more than ever, we most certainly do. We can be both candle lighter and the one looking for the light. Both require hope. Whenever we put a candle in the window, literally or figuratively, we can't help but wonder: Will it be seen? Will it help bring someone home? Will it help me to find my way? Will it help me to feel hopeful? We won't know unless we try. What do we have to lose?

https://thebirdsings.com/sending-light/

On Tyranny and the Twelve Days of Christmas

Here we are, days away from the first of the Twelve Days beginning on Christmas Day and ending on January 6, the feast of Epiphany, or the Feast of the Three Kings, depending on where you live. The lyrics of this popular carol test our collective memories each year as we count down from the twelfth to the first day naming gifts that "my true love gave to me." How many gifts spring to mind? This old chestnut, best sung with others to keep up the momentum and the memory, is all in good cheer. What follows is a "spoiler alert" for any readers in my family.

This year when the stockings are all hung with care, my stocking stuffer for college grandkids and grown children is the book: "On Tyranny Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century." Bah humbug! It's not exactly twelve lords are leaping, beginning with chapter one: "Do not obey in advance" and a hundred pages later concluding with the twentieth: "Be as courageous as you can." Why this book this year? Why not the traditional "A Child's Christmas in Wales"? There is room for both, but this year we must ask ourselves "If I am (only) for myself, what am I. And if not now, when?” – Hillel*

This "how to" book on living democratically when all signs point to its destruction and demise, guides the average American, you and me and your families and friends, toward action that is based on experiences of those who know more than we do about tyranny, so far. It opened my eyes to the subtleties and not so subtle historical events that easily paved the way for tyrants to assume total power over people. For example: "Nazi storm troopers began as a security detail clearing the halls of Hitler's opponents during his rallies." . . ."What was novel in 2016 was a candidate who ordered a private security detail to clear opponents from rallies . . ." (Page 44-45).

"Believe in Truth." Chapter 10 begins: "You submit to tyranny when you renounce the difference between what you want to hear and what is actually the case." Author, Timothy Snyder describes how "Truth dies in four modes. First, open hostility to verifiable reality...The second mode ... endless repetition ... The systematic use of nicknames ... 'Crooked Hillary'... repeated chants ... 'Build that wall'... The next mode is magical thinking, or the open embrace of contradiction...A disease that kills hundreds of thousands will vanish ...The final mode is misplaced faith...'I am your voice.' (Pages 66-67)

The litany of words like lyrics of the "Twelve Days" stick with you. If they become absorbed and embedded into one's mind, one's thoughts, one's beliefs, all is lost and the tyrant WILL seize the day. "Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given." That is the first sentence of this book. It should play over and over in our thoughts like "Five gold rings" the one line everyone seems to remember when singing along. We could use a melody to underscore "Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given" then sing it from the rooftops for all to hear. If that's not your style, or you live in a place like Florida where certain voices are drowned out by louder ones that run with the tyrants, then ask Santa for the book: On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder. It's a gift we owe ourselves at this critical juncture.

*Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14

Clarion Call

In 2016, I wrote a first-ever Christmas letter. The gist of that letter to friends and family was what we might do in the event of a Trump presidency. Sounds like old news now. At that time, I suggested we form an expat community, just in case. In 2020, my second Christmas letter addressed what we ought to do if the leader of the free world would not abide by election results and try somehow to stay in power. I said at the time that we would need good comrades to fight together to preserve Democracy.

It strikes me now the former letter was a call to flight, the latter a call to fight. Each was a response to an oppressive weight bearing down on us all. Both letters were a Clarion Call to do something! The words felt more like the proverbial lone voice in the wilderness.

This Christmas of 2023, looking back and ahead to 2024, I will not write another Christmas letter. It is not that I am less concerned. Au Contraire. But, these days I am not the only one. These days there are many,many more voices sending out the call. That feels like a relief, yet it is not an excuse to let someone else solve the common threats facing each of us, whether you believe that threat is real or not.

The choice not to write another Christmas letter speaks of another voice calling. Sometimes the voice is like a whisper, other times like an earthquake. The still small voice speaks volumes no matter if the volume is turned up high or down low. That voice cannot be ignored and won't be denied. With all the warring factions at home, and around the world, the best Christmas gift we might give and in turn receive is a priceless gift of peace of mind. Whether tucking a child into bed who is waiting for Santa, or traveling far and wide, the holiday is meant to be the pause in this weary world. It is meant to clear our minds of all the noise so that we may hear that still small voice within. If that is too much to ask for this year, then why not just listen if only for a minute, an hour, a morning, an afternoon, an evening, or on that one day when the whole world waits to hear the angels' voices.