Archive for the 'Holidays' Category

Easter Report

Published
by
Hugo Schwyzer
on March 24, 2008
in Family and Holidays
. 6 Comments

I’m in the office early on a Monday morning after a brief and happy Easter weekend visit with my family in Northern California. Details on the holiday below.

Mine is a deeply secular family. A few of us became serious Christians as adults, but the bulk of the clan tends towards a vaguely benevolent agnosticism, often expressed in a deep affection for the liturgy and the traditions of the Episcopal church. I don’t talk much about religion with my loved ones, not because to do so would be to invite a quarrel, but because it tends to expose a gulf that, most of the time, we enjoy pretending isn’t there.

Certain rituals have been part of my life for as long as I can remember, chief among them the dyeing of eggs the day before Easter. The fact that my wife and I are now vegans has in no way diminished our enthusiasm for coloring the shells of what we will not eat! This past Saturday, as on so many countless Easter eves before, we set up a large folding table on the porch of the “old house” at the family Ranch. We covered the table with newspaper, and placed the bowls of bright blue, yellow, red, green, pink, and orange dye (food coloring and vinegar) about. The youngest dyer this year was a mature ten; the oldest (my mother), an immensely experienced seventy. My wife, celebrating her fifth Easter in the bosom of my large and eccentric family, brought a certain elegantly Latin flair to the otherwise WASPish proceeding. Continue reading ‘Easter Report’

A loyal wearer of the green

Published
by
Hugo Schwyzer
on March 15, 2008
in Clothing and Fashion and Holidays
. 3 Comments

I’ve got a great many things to do this Saturday afternoon, but not so busy that I couldn’t go digging through my closet to make sure I had a green shirt to wear for teaching on Monday, St. Patrick’s Day.

There are very few annual holiday rituals with which I have always been consistent. I’ve decorated a Christmas tree almost every year in my memory, but I can recall one or two years where I missed out on that tradition. I’ve hid or hunted for eggs every Easter Sunday for perhaps 37 out of the last 40 years, but my memory tells me I didn’t have that chance in 1995, 1996, or 2000. And I’ve worn red or pink on the Fourth of July almost as consistently, but do remember being resplendent in blue seer-sucker in 1993 or ‘94.

Yet every single March 17 in my memory — which extends at least back to kindergarten 35 years ago — I’ve worn green. In elementary school and middle school, failing to wear green was an invitation to being pinched and pummeled. A few times, the green I wore was of the wrong hue; I learned as early as six or seven that the bullies reserved the right to make a final assessment about the sufficiency of the green in which I was clad. And, to be honest, I joined gleefully (and fairly gently) in the pinching of those who through forgetfulness or the desire for attention had nothing verdant upon them. Continue reading ‘A loyal wearer of the green’

February 14 memories…

Published
by
Hugo Schwyzer
on February 14, 2008
in Holidays and Memories
. 1 Comment

My wife and I will have a quiet Valentine’s evening in tonight; it’s our sixth as a couple and our third as husband and wife. Local restaurants that are normally accomodating to vegans are notably less so on big holidays like tonight’s; we’re better off curling up at home.

This afternoon it hit me with a shock that at forty, I have so few memories of being single on Valentine’s Day. This is the twenty-fourth Valentine’s Day that’s come around since I was seventeen and in my first romantic relationship — and I’ve been married or otherwise seriously partnered for twenty-one of them. By my reckoning, I spent Valentine’s Day alone in 1987, 1993, and 1998, and was with a partner of one kind or another for all the others. In ‘87, I went hiking with single friends on the Marin Headlands; in ‘93 I spent hours and hours exercising in the gym; in ‘98, I worked on my dissertation and drank too much.

Oddly, I have a hard time remembering what I did with ex-wives or lovers on Valentine’s days past. Restaurants and florists all blur together after a while! What comes to my mind tonight, as I wait for my wife to get home from work, are the last five February 14ths we’ve spent together. (We were in Paris last year, and it’ll be hard to top that again.)

But I also remember that hike in 1987. We were a mixed group of boys and girls, all frosh or sophomores at Cal; we were all single and to varying degrees, unhappy about it. We spent the day on BART and on buses, hiking and laughing and singing the Cal fight song from a bluff overlooking the San Francisco Bay. We bought wine with a fake ID on the way home, and walked back to our co-ops and apartments arm-in-arm, locked together in that sweet sentimental solidarity of singleness and late adolescence, none of us wanting to let go…

Next to these past five years, it’s my favorite Valentine’s memory.

Christmas tree up

Published
by
Hugo Schwyzer
on December 16, 2007
in Holidays and Photos
. 5 Comments

If there’s one aspect of Christmas that I am exceptionally passionate about, it’s the tree. Growing up in a secular household, the tree was Christmas. In my family, our trees are the subject of intense discussion and considerable effort.

Going back several generations, we’ve had the custom of including a wooden snow scene/Santa’s workshop at the base of each tree. Each of these is made to look like a large redwood trunk, and the decoration thereof takes as much time as the tree. This year, at long last, my wife and I got our own tree trunk, courtesy of my wood-working cousin Dean. And though I’d seen many snow scenes done in my childhood, it is only now — at my forty-first Christmas on this planet — that I find myself with one of my very own.

Pictures of the tree, the snow scene, and the Santa shop are up here. If you look at my eyes here, you can see how happy this makes me.

Thursday Short Poem: Milne’s “King John’s Christmas”

Published
by
Hugo Schwyzer
on December 13, 2007
in Holidays and Poetry
. 3 Comments

The traditional pre-Christmas poem is always this AA Milne classic. I’ll be on a short holiday hiatus from December 19-26, and the Thursday Short Poem will return December 27.

King John’s Christmas


King John was not a good man –
He had his little ways.
And sometimes no one spoke to him
For days and days and days.
And men who came across him,
When walking in the town,
Gave him a supercilious stare,
Or passed with noses in the air –
And bad King John stood dumbly there,
Blushing beneath his crown.

King John was not a good man,
And no good friends had he.
He stayed in every afternoon…
But no one came to tea.
And, round about December,
The cards upon his shelf
Which wished him lots of Christmas cheer,
And fortune in the coming year,
Were never from his near and dear,
But only from himself.

King John was not a good man,
Yet had his hopes and fears.
They’d given him no present now
For years and years and years.
But every year at Christmas,
While minstrels stood about,
Collecting tribute from the young
For all the songs they might have sung,
He stole away upstairs and hung
A hopeful stocking out.

King John was not a good man,
He lived his live aloof;
Alone he thought a message out
While climbing up the roof.
He wrote it down and propped it
Against the chimney stack:
“TO ALL AND SUNDRY - NEAR AND FAR -
F. Christmas in particular.”
And signed it not “Johannes R.”
But very humbly, “Jack.”

“I want some crackers,
And I want some candy;
I think a box of chocolates
Would come in handy;
I don’t mind oranges,
I do like nuts!
And I SHOULD like a pocket-knife
That really cuts.
And, oh! Father Christmas, if you love me at all,
Bring me a big, red, india-rubber ball!”

King John was not a good man –
He wrote this message out,
And gat him to this room again,
Descending by the spout.
And all that night he lay there,
A prey to hopes and fears.
“I think that’s him a-coming now!”
(Anxiety bedewed his brow.)
“He’ll bring one present, anyhow –
The first I had for years.”

“Forget about the crackers,
And forget the candy;
I’m sure a box of chocolates
Would never come in handy;
I don’t like oranges,
I don’t want nuts,
And I HAVE got a pocket-knife
That almost cuts.
But, oh! Father christmas, if you love me at all,
Bring me a big, red, india-rubber ball!”

King John was not a good man,
Next morning when the sun
Rose up to tell a waiting world
That Christmas had begun,
And people seized their stockings,
And opened them with glee,
And crackers, toys and games appeared,
And lips with sticky sweets were smeared,
King John said grimly: “As I feared,
Nothing again for me!”

“I did want crackers,
And I did want candy;
I know a box of chocolates
Would come in handy;
I do love oranges,
I did want nuts!
I haven’t got a pocket-knife —
Not one that cuts.
And, oh! if Father Christmas, had loved me at all,
He would have brought a big, red,
india-rubber ball!”

King John stood by the window,
And frowned to see below
The happy bands of boys and girls
All playing in the snow.
A while he stood there watching,
And envying them all …
When through the window big and red
There hurtled by his royal head,
And bounced and fell upon the bed,
An india-rubber ball!

And oh Father Christmas,
My blessings on you fall
For bringing him a big, red,
India-rubber ball!

It’s very fine.

Thanks

Published
by
Hugo Schwyzer
on November 20, 2007
in Blogging, Family and Holidays
. 9 Comments

Starting this afternoon, I’ll be away for the Thanksgiving holiday. No posting until Monday, November 26.

I did want to give thanks this morning to all the readers of this blog. If my statistics can be trusted, I’ve got a fairly stable readership. I’ve been averaging just under 1000 unique hits a day, and from what I can tell, a little less than half that number (300-400) are regular visitors. That’s nothing compared to the bigger blogs, of course, but given the length of my posts, I’m very grateful.

I’ve been blogging since August 2003. It’s been a joy and a revelation, and has become so much a part of my life that I would sorely miss it were I forced to give it up. I have no intentions of quitting, even as I sometimes struggle to come up with topics to write about. I’m grateful for the outlet this forum has given me for my thoughts and ideas. My friends and family are also grateful, I think — the fact that I blog means that I release some of my pent-up energy that might otherwise be expended all over them. Even now, periodically, my wife will say to me firmly: “My love, why don’t you go blog about that now?” (Telling me to blog is her kind way of getting me to stop bouncing around the house like a whippet on crack.) Continue reading ‘Thanks’

See you in twenty…

Published
by
Hugo Schwyzer
on September 5, 2007
in Blogging and Holidays
. 7 Comments

This blog will be dark until Tuesday, September 25. I’ll be away from the computer, so many comments may languish in moderation for days; forewarned is forearmed and all that.

As I’ve hinted before, we’ll be in Israel for much of this time; we leave tomorrow. A full report will follow upon our return.

Off for a while, and a note on vegan compromises

Published
by
Hugo Schwyzer
on July 3, 2007
in Family, Holidays and Veganism
. 8 Comments

I know that some folks have had problems accessing this blog, and that it has “looked funny” when it has appeared. The problem seems to be with Powweb, the company with whom this site is hosted, but it may be with WordPress too.

At Feministe, not one but two long and interesting discussions about female genital mutilation and male circumcision, and the particular penchant of some folks in the men’s rights community to sugggest that the latter is comparable to the former. I stand by what I wrote on that subject last year. My own perspective is perhaps a bit better informed by personal experience than that of many who are weighing in.

We’re getting ready to go up to Northern California for a couple of days for the Independence Day holiday. The fact that I have relatively little patriotism in my heart has never stopped me from embracing with enthusiasm all of the outer trappings of jingoism; I will swathe myself in red, white, and blue tomorrow and join with many friends and family for a glorious celebration.

For sixty years, my family has made banana ice cream on the Fourth of July (a tradition that began in the 1930s, so far back that no living soul remembers exactly why and how banana was chosen). For the first time in my life, I won’t be eating that ice cream tomorrow. A year ago, I was still vegetarian with a willingness to eat dairy; I have gone full vegan since. It is at holidays — with the strong connectedness to traditions and foods — that being fully vegan is most challenging.

But I’ll take my turn cranking the ice cream maker, and pouring on the rock salt and the ice. My participation in the production of at least some non-vegan foods will continue. My family also raises chickens at our place up north; they are well-treated, and they lay eggs that need to be collected each morning. I no longer eat the eggs, but happily take my turn at niffling up to the barn to visit the hens, their rooster, and to gather their gifts in a little carrier for others to enjoy. I grew up around chickens, and we have a lot to say to each other.

No posting until Monday, July 9.

First day of school and Valentine’s reflections

Published
by
Hugo Schwyzer
on February 14, 2005
in Holidays, Pasadena City College, Relationships and Teaching
. 13 Comments

This year, Valentine’s Day coincides with the start of the new semester at PCC. For the first time since December, I’m blogging from my office…

For some PCC students, this must seem a cruel juxtaposition!  The first day of classes is immensely chaotic.  We expect over 28,000 students on our 24-acre, 6000 parking-space campus this week.  Students will arrive without classes, begging and pleading to be admitted to any course, no matter how difficult or incompatible with their long-term academic interests.  The new arrivals — and at a community college, we always have first-time students arrive in the spring as well as the fall — will struggle to find a parking space, the right building for their first class, the bookstore, the restrooms.  It’s an overwhelming time.

I hate turning students away.  Every course in the history department is filled to capacity, but I will surely have dozens of students trying to "crash" the class.  (It’s standard to have 20 or 30 trying to add in to the course.)  They beg to sit on the floor, stand in the corner, do whatever it takes to "get" the class.  Invariably, they assure me that they desperately need this one class, and that I hold their entire academic future in my hands.  But even if I wanted to take them all, our classrooms are too small and our administration is increasingly concerned about fire code violations.  I will have to say "no" a great deal this week, and for a complete and utter ENFJ like myself, that’s a very unhappy task.

And then, of course, it’s also Valentine’s Day.  My fiancee and I are marking our third Valentine’s together today.  For us, it is a happy day — an opportunity to spoil each other just a bit.  (Yes, Matilde the chin will get a Valentine’s treat tonight as well.)  But I’m acutely aware of just how many young people feel excluded by Valentine’s Day.  Like most American kids, I grew up in elementary schools where one had to give Valentine’s cards to every child in one’s class — or none at all.  The fact that our "love" was both compulsory and undiscriminating did not take away from the fun of the day.  For years, I kept my bundles of Valentine’s cards from third, fourth, and fifth grade February 14ths.

By junior high school, Valentine’s Day had taken on a less pleasant aspect.  By seventh grade, it was clear that a privileged few had boyfriends and girlfriends; February 14th was now about them and them alone.  For most of my teens, I loathed this day, as the absence of my very own "Valentine" just seemed to reinforce my predictably adolescent sense of being uniquely unlovable.  I remember that one year, perhaps when I was fifteen, Valentine’s Day fell on a weekend, and I was intensely relieved. Of course, the popular couples in my high school simply marked the holiday on the previous Friday, and my sense of alienation and loneliness was as great as ever.

Those of us who do have someone with whom to celebrate Valentine’s day (and who have the means to celebrate it publicly), would do well to remember that displays of our own joy may only add to another’s sense of loneliness and isolation.  That doesn’t mean I don’t believe in sending flowers!  After all, to refrain from any open display of romance for fear of wounding the unhappily single would be unfair to one’s beloved.  But we must remember that no other holiday in the American calendar is as exclusive — and potentially wounding — as this one.   After all, one may belong to a culture that doesn’t celebrate Christmas.  But even if one feels alienated by the trees and Santas, one can presumably take refuge in one’s own community!  But because the contemporary Valentine’s day honors individual romantic relationships rather than group commitments, it leaves many single people feeling profoundly alone.

I still miss those days of a humble paper Valentine from every kid in the class. 

Perhaps more later.  Much to do before my first class of the morning.

What does Christmas mean, anyway?

Published
by
Hugo Schwyzer
on November 29, 2004
in Christianity, Faith, Family, Holidays and Memories
. 17 Comments

In an email regarding my previous post, my fellow Cliopatriarch Jonathan Dresner writes:

Is it at all ironic that your favorite Christmas music was produced by a Jew conducting a choir of a sect some people don’t see as Christian?

Well, Jonathan has a point.  I haven’t posted much about Mormons (though again, I commend the blogs of Russell Fox and Feminist Mormon Housewives.)  I do tend to be enthusiastically welcoming to the missionaries who come to my door.  I remember a few years ago, not long after I came to Christ, two earnest young "elders" appeared at my townhouse door.  I invited them in, offered them orange juice, and had a nice discussion with them.  It was brief, but I felt very compelled to tell them that though I was quite happy in my church, I did want them to know that I thought that they (Mormons) were Christians, and I apologized on behalf of evangelicals everywhere who had told them otherwise.  They were very nice.  Not long thereafter, two young women ("sisters")  in long dresses appeared at the door.  I offered them bottled water,and repeated my little spiel.  They nodded politely and moved on.  I felt very inclusive.

Anyhow, this post is actually in response to this comment from Zuzu:

You mentioned that you observe Advent now that you’re a Christian, yet you also mention celebrating Christmas a certain way as a child, which makes me think that you were raised Christian.

This is a particular usage that I’ve been hearing, or at least noticing, in the past several years, one which I find perplexing. After all, I was raised Catholic; I thought we were the Famous Original (Original Famous?) Christians. And yet I hear from people I presume are evangelicals that "You’re not Christian because you’re Catholic."

My mother bequeathed to me a passion for all things Christmas.   My mother is also a firm non-believer.  (She read Bertrand Russell in college and that did it.)  For us, Christmas was about lights, about carols, about gifts, about chocolate, and of course, the tree.  I was raised to be passionate about Christmas trees. I still am passionate about Christmas trees.

As a child and indeed, even as a Christian adult, "Christmas" is the tree.  We are a "Douglas fir with small white non-blinking lights" family.  In my childhood, one knew of families with noble firs and colored lights (or, worst of all, flocked trees), but it was understood that they were Not Our Kind of People (NOKOP).   One of my cousins actually married a woman from a colored light family, and this was considered far more controversial than a mere interracial union.

My mother’s Christmas tree is a veritable work of art, with well over 1000 ornaments and seven or eight strands of lights.  My own efforts have been more modest in recent years, but as my mother ages, her trees get smaller and mine get larger.  (Amateur psychologists, hold your fire.)  I had five strands of lights last year, and might go for six in 2004.    My trees are usually about 6′5" to 7′0", though I may soon attempt taller.  Though I have found none, I still hope to have chinchilla-themed Christmas ornaments; if anyone has seen such on the ‘net, let me know!

Christmas in my father’s family revolves around the Feast of St. Nicolas on December 6 ("Nicolo", as Austrians call it.)  This involves presents, food,  small devils and a miniature bishop.  When my parents married, "Nicolo" became part of our Christmas life.

I’m not going to get into the tiresome "Catholic/Christian" argument.  I’m always amazed by how many folks see these as an authentic dyad.  In my ancient history classes, we always do remedial work around the issue.  Tangentially, one of my students once asked me if "catholic" had anything do with "alcoholic"; she had looked at the last five letters and were convinced that a relationship had to exist.  Addicted to cats, perhaps?

Advent and apologies

Published
by
Hugo Schwyzer
on November 29, 2004
in Christianity, Holidays, Links and Music
. 8 Comments

Yesterday was the first Sunday in Advent.  Since becoming a Christian, I have tried to delay thinking about Christmas until Advent.  As a child, I began to make Christmas wish lists around Labor Day weekend, and by Halloween was humming Christmas carols.  I have a favorite Christmas CD — the Leonard Bernstein "Joy of Christmas" with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  My goal this year was to refrain from playing it before the first Sunday of Advent; alas, I fell short of the mark.  On my long drive up to Northern California on Wednesday last week, I popped it into the CD player.  I listened to "Joy to the World" (my favorite) at least sixteen times between the Grapevine and Harris Ranch.  (By the way, many of my Pasadena friends have another way of marking the coming of the season: the moment at which the first bleachers begin to be erected for the Rose Parade.  That usually begins at least a week BEFORE Thanksgiving.)

In any event, John of New Zealand has kindly sent me this link to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Advent message.  In the aftermath of the Windsor Report (which dealt with the repercussions of the decision of the Episcopal Church USA to elevate the openly gay Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire), there has been much discussion about regret, apology, and repentance.  The Report called for the bishops of ECUSA to acknowledge to the rest of the Anglican Communion the hurt that had been caused by the election of Gene Robinson and by the growing practice of performing same-sex blessings.  On the other hand, the Report stopped short of demanding actual repentance from those who support these progressive developments.  The language of the Report went too far for some liberals, and not nearly far enough for many traditionalists.  In that sense, it was a fine Anglican document!

Here are some highlights from Archbishop Williams’ letter:

…in the Church we can never call on others to repent without ourselves acknowledging that we too in all sorts of ways are sinners in need of grace. If only the Church’s renewal were always a matter of other people’s repentance!

Oh, I like that.  Frankly, I think public repentance ought to be the admission price to any theological discussion.   For that matter, it ought to be the admission price for any family argument!  If we could begin by saying to each other, "Here’s how I have wronged you", we’d be well on our way.

…staying together as a Communion is bound to be costly for us all. To be in the Church at all obliges us to try and discern the difficult balance between independence and responsibility to each other, and to face the dangers of causing others to stumble (Mark 9.42, Rom.14). How can we be true to our consciences, yet aware that the Church as the whole Body needs to reflect and decide - not just ourselves and our friends? The only thing that will ultimately keep us together is a recognition in each other of the same love and longing for the same Lord and his appearing.

How do we do that? Not primarily through public words and statements. We know each other’s hearts as believers only when we share each other’s prayer. In the months ahead, please do not forget this. Be aware of others praying with you across the world. Take the opportunities that may arise of sharing directly in prayer wherever you can. Let us use the various links of the Communion for this good purpose. Do not forget the good things we have shared as a Communion. Do not think that repentance is always something others are called to, but acknowledge the failings we all share, sinful and struggling disciples as we are.

Well, let me offer my own repentance.  One of the many reasons I left the Mennonites and came back to the Episcopal Church was because I wanted to take part in the ongoing struggle.  I wanted to be part of the movement for full inclusion for non-celibate gays and lesbians in the life of the church.  I believed — and still do believe — that God does do a "new thing" every now and again.  He did it with women’s rights, He did it with the abolition of slavery, and He may well be doing it with gays and lesbians.  I wanted my time and my money at All Saints Pasadena because I believe in that struggle.

My faith informs my politics, not the other way around.  But I am aware that we in the progressive church often become so certain that we are implementing God’s will that we become dismissive, even contemptuous, of our more cautious and conservative brothers and sisters.   When conservatives say to us "We can’t go there with you", we — myself very much included — have been tempted to say, "Fine, then the hell with you.  We’ll go alone, and leave you to your bigotry."  Self-righteous anger feels SOOO good!  And yet that kind of smug certainty is a dubious luxury that a Christian can never afford.

I have been to same-sex blessings and cried with joy.  I have watched gay and lesbian couples at All Saints adopt and raise wonderful, healthy children.  (Several of my youth group kids come from such families.)  I am, in my own heart, as certain as certain can be that they are living their lives in accordance with God’s plan.  But I also know that the human heart lies!  I know that my heart is subject to emotion, and to the influences of the culture in which I have been raised.   And I do think it possible that I may be mistaken.

I repent of my impatience.  I want progress NOW (heck, I want it yesterday!)  That impatience has led me to be dismissive of those who urge more respect for tradition and more respect for reflection.  This advent, I will be praying for patience and discernment for myself and for my church.

I also repent of my self-righteousness.  On this issue above all else, for countless reasons, I am so utterly convinced that I am in the right!  In this Advent season, I will be praying my least favorite prayer, and one I know I need to pray regularly:

God, show me what I don’t want to see.  Show me where I remain in the wrong, and grant me the courage to admit it.  Help me to take positive action to make amends for those wrongs of which I become aware.

I don’t like that prayer much, possibly because it is a particularly effective one!

I want to see the Anglican Communion survive.  Not at any cost, because the actual Communion — unlike the body of Christ — is a human creation that has a finite time of usefulness.  But if we live in to the spirit of prayer and repentance to which Rowan Williams calls us, those of us who have reason to call ourselves "Anglican" may yet find reason to stay together.  That would, I think, be a good and happy thing.

Tuesday links, and off for the holiday

Published
by
Hugo Schwyzer
on November 23, 2004
in Holidays and Links
. 8 Comments

Well, folks, though I may be checking in for comments from time to time, this will be my last post before the Thanksgiving holiday.  I’ve already "preloaded" a short poem to go up Thanksgiving morning, but I may not post again until next Monday.  Tomorrow, I drive up to Northern California for a large holiday gathering with the family; my fiancee flies up Thursday morning to join me.  For the tenth consecutive year, I am cancelling my classes the day before the holiday.  (Matilde has some excellent chinnie sitters lined up.)

A few recommendations for reading:

At Nerve, of all places, an interesting piece on bridging the pro-life/pro-choice political divide.

Camassia has a fine post on "family as idol."

Russell posts on musicals, and needs some recommendations.  (Me? I’m a "South Pacific" fan.)

David Morrison, a man with whom I disagree profoundly and for whom my admiration is equally deep, has a long and powerful post on gays, celibacy, and his own struggles with the nasty folks at the New Oxford Review.

At Feminist Mormon Housewives, the ultimate Feminist Mormon Lady List.  I am now a "gentile in the know".

And check out thisgirl on faking it, Mumcat on getting ready for Advent, Scott on Christ the King, and the American Family Association’s discovery of homosexuality in the Shark’s Tale movie.  I kid you not.

This morning, we had "all-female day" in my women’s history class.  The men are asked not to come, and it’s just Hugo and the female students, talking and sharing stories.  Next Tuesday, we reverse; the males and I meet for a morning and chat.  These are always good sessions.

I talked about Islam at 10:25; and at 1:00, we’ll move into the early stages of World War One and the Armenian Genocide.  Then off to the bank, the gym, and a run.

A very happy Thanksgiving to all!

A quick note on Veteran’s Day

Published
by
Hugo Schwyzer
on November 11, 2004
in Christianity, Holidays, Men and Masculinity, Politics and War
. 14 Comments

Not much to post about this Veteran’s Day.  With the day off, I’ve got a bike ride planned for the morning, grading in the afternoon, and a run at dusk.  (I’m starting to taper for the November 20 Saddleback Marathon, so the distances involved today will be quite modest.)

It’s hard for me to blog about Veteran’s Day.  I’m quite confident that others are doing so far more effectively than I; Annika chose to post the "band of brothers" speech from Henry V, which can move even a latte-sipping, bike shorts-wearing, sushi-eating, NPR-listening Episcopalian blue-state liberal to tears.

What I am thinking about is this: within a year or two, my classes will surely be filled with young veterans.  I’ve already had four or five young men who served in Iraq last year; the numbers will surely go up.  For countless ex-GIs and Marines, the community college is the first stop when they return to civilian life.  (In the early to mid-70s, they say, PCC was a veritable haven for Vietnam vets.)  I am looking forward to meeting these young men and young women, to hearing their stories and learning from their perspectives.  It’s easy for me to be angered by war — but I have a healthy respect for those who, often against their will, go off to to fight.  I haven’t done what they have done.

On the other hand, I don’t think less of myself because I was never a veteran.  When Shakespeare writes:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day…

I can say, no, my manhood is not contingent upon the willingness to take other human life!  I will not denigrate the character of those young men and women, mostly from less fortunate circumstances than my own, who chose military service.    But while I honor their sacrifice, they are not my heroes.  My heroes are those like my friends in Christian Peacemaker Teams and the Mennonite Mission Network, who go into the same damn places our Marines and GIs go — but they go unarmed save for faith.  If I regret anything, it is that I wasn’t a missionary.

Something new for Hallowe’en

Published
by
Hugo Schwyzer
on August 26, 2004
in Holidays, Photos, Sexual ethics and transformation and Youth
. 8 Comments

pimp_boychild_hoDavid Morrison at Sed Contra gets the hat tip for this particularly unfortunate development:  pimp and "ho" Halloween costumes for young ‘uns.  (Click to enlarge the photos).

These charming outfits are being sold on Yahoo; let’s send them a note today and see if we can make this particular ugliness go away.

The outfits are obviously caricatures of 1970s stereotypes about pimps and prostitutes.  Interestingly, the children shown modeling the costumes are all white, while the classic pimp of the popular imagination (and of these clothes) is black.  It’s interesting, too, that only one "ho" outift is displayed, while several variations of pimp suits are for sale.  David at Sed Contra only displays the photo of the little girl, but I find the idea of little boys dressing like pimps to be at least as disturbing as that of little girls appearing as sex workers. 

Raising just and moral children involves not only shielding young girls from premature sexualization, it also involves making certain that young boys are not idolizing and emulating sexually predatory men.

Off for the Fourth

Published
by
Hugo Schwyzer
on July 2, 2004
in Family, Holidays and Sports
. 2 Comments

I’m off for the weekend. No blogging until Tuesday.

Growing up in my family, there were four holidays of roughly equal importance:

Easter, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

As a child, I came to my family’s Northern California ranch for all four, year in and year out. It took me years to realize that for most folks, the Fourth did not rank anywhere near the other three in importance! For us, the Fourth was and still is a major family get-together, involving extended family, safe and sane fireworks, and (most importantly) homemade banana ice cream. Tomorrow, in the afternoon, my mother and aunts will carefully concoct the batter, and then the men of the family will hand crank out several batches of sweet and perfect banana ice cream. (We’ve been making it in my family since the 1930s. We occasionally make other flavors, such as peppermint, strawberry, or cookies and cream — but banana is the heart and soul of the operation.)

Sunday, I’ll try and hog the Direct TV and watch Wimbledon, the Tour de France, and the Euro 2004 final all at once. Then, we’ll decorate the Ranch houses (indoors and out) with flags and bunting. I may have pacifist lefty leanings, but on the Fourth, I am a patriot to my core. In the evening, after everyone has had their burgers and their hot dogs and other goodnesses, my teenage cousins will put on a fireworks display — I shall be standing nearby, clutching a hose.

I remember that a few years ago, a very left-wing cousin of mine (from Colorado) remarked that he didn’t like coming to the Fourth because of all of the flag displays. I shared his politics, but I was indignant nonetheless: “It’s not about the flag, Terry”, I said, “It’s just about the family.” I don’t sing the National Anthem. I won’t say the pledge. But come every Independence Day, I sing “God Bless America” and wave the red, white, and blue with intense enthusiasm. And I eat lots and lots of banana ice cream.

A safe and happy time to all, especially to those who are traveling.