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.

A Distant Drumbeat: “Sleepwalking into Dictatorship”

". . .Appalling things had happened since Hitler had come into power ten months earlier; but the range of horror was not yet fully unfolded. In the country the prevailing mood was a bewildered acquiescence. Occasionally it rose to fanaticism. Often when nobody was in earshot, it found utterance in pessimism, distrust and foreboding, and sometimes in shame and fear but only in private. The rumours of the concentration camps were still no louder than a murmur; but they hinted at countless unavowable tragedies.”*

The word that jumped off the page for me in this excerpt from a book published in 1977 is “acquiescence: the reluctant acceptance of something without protest…submission, surrender, obedience.”

A stunning resemblance to the German past has arrived on our American doorstep. We are on the threshold. We have not yet crossed over, but we are so close you can hear from a distant room that drumbeat of what is waiting for us over there. We are only months away from facing what many of us, myself included, would never have imagined might mark the turning point from American Democracy to Dictatorship.

This past weekend, a former Congresswoman said the U.S. is "sleepwalking into dictatorship"** This is not a partisan statement. She herself is a lifelong conservative Republican. The true threat that she is calling out cannot be dismissed. The world has seen this happen, has lived through its nightmare, has carried the consequences from one generation to the next. Lives were irrevocably changed forever. FOREVER!

The best outcome for all of us living at this tipping point in U.S. History would be to never accept "bewildered acquiescence;" to never utter real concerns "only in private;" to never allow "rumors" to remain a "murmur" until they become the realities currently promised in 2024: Camps at the U.S. Southern Border; national abortion bans; judicial branch stripped of its power; punishments and pardons meted out by one person as retribution; freedom of the press determined by what is reported; voting delegitimization in crucial states; voting results not accepted as counted; . . . In total, this amounts to tearing up the Constitution of the United States. That is exactly the endgame being promised. But it would only be the beginning. There would never be an ending because dictators never go. NEVER!

It is time to wake up from our sleepwalk before it is too late. Wake up a few friends and neighbors, too. Let’s walk together in solidarity not in sleep. We need one another to stop the ever closer drumbeat signaling Democracy’s Demise***

*A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube (Journey Across Europe Book 1) by Patrick Leigh Fermor

https://a.co/izgsG43

**Liz Cheney

***A Play by Lance Carden

Let's Talk Turkey

Let's face it: Thanksgiving is not going to be the way you remember it used to be, nor will it be the way you imagine it. Thanksgiving will be whatever the day brings: maybe horrendous traffic on the way to somewhere else; maybe a meal at home; maybe hyped up kids; maybe a morning in church; maybe a walk on the beach; maybe peeling pounds of potatoes at the shelter; maybe an afternoon watching movies or football; maybe side-stepping difficult conversations; maybe a quiet walk in the green woods to avoid black Friday; maybe none of the above, or all of the above!!

In my French Canadian heritage, the day is called: L'Action de grace.*The simple translation points us to the reason, the main reason, that many countries including the U.S. observe one day of Thanksgiving out of 365. Simply put, the holiday is meant to be an expression of gratitude. What exactly does this mean? The word gratitude means a feeling of appreciation. A feeling, not an idea or mythology of what the day ought to be. Feeling appreciation while a nice idea, might not be as simple as apple pie.

A feeling of appreciation might require digging deep considering all the world's woes. A feeling of appreciation might require pausing in the middle of the chaos of life. A feeling of appreciation might not rise up given the givens of 2023. A feeling of appreciation might not be the same for you and me, for your mother or father, sister or brother, spouse or friend. Feelings are like that, different everytime for everyone.

That's why Thanksgiving will never be the same, no matter what you think.

We can never step into the same river twice because it is not the same river and we are not the same person. But, feeling appreciation this year, this day, this time, one more time, can be what we need to make Thanksgiving all that it is meant to be.

*The expression “thanksgiving” comes from the Hebrew word “shelem” which means: peace offering, reward, sacrifice for alliance or friendship, voluntary sacrifice of thanks.