My favorite movie of all time is Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks.  It hit the theaters in 1993, the story of a young attorney who contracts AIDS  and brings suit against his law firm when they fire him because of his illness.   At one point in the movie he is in his apartment with his lawyer, played by Denzel Washington.  He is dying, dramatized by his attachment to a pole on which his medicines hang.   A piece of music is playing in the background, and suddenly Hanks’ character stops talking and becomes absorbed in the beauty of the music.   It is the aria, “La Momma Morta” from Umberto Giordano’s opera Andre Chenier.  Operatic soprano Maria Callas is singing.  His medicine pole becomes an operatic prop, almost a stage mike,  as he describes to his attorney the powerful scene being depicted by the aria.

The words contain phrases which directly relate to Hanks’ character’s situation:

“Live still, I am life.”

“It was during this sorrow that love came to me….”

It is poignant to the point of tears and even the stellar attorney played by Washington is moved to silence and emotion.   I believe it is the most powerful movie moment Tom Hanks has ever performed.   I have seen the movie several times, and each time I come to this piece of the film I find my chest tighten and my eyes moisten.   It is a magnificent moment of cinematography.

I’m not a great lover of opera, more from being ignorant of its genre than anything else.   But this moment in Philadelphia makes me a believer.   There is a similar moment in the movie, Pretty Woman, starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.  Roberts plays the part of a call girl who is hired by Gere, and a Pygmalian story erupts.  At one point Gere’s character takes Roberts to the opera where Verdi’s  La Traviata is playing.   Roberts is overcome by the beauty of the production to the point of tears.  It is a phenomenon not to be overlooked.

In an age in which popular music has so dramatically changed to become rap and hard rock, it is important to remember that loud and discordant … even that without tune … is not the only vehicle of musical expression.   I have no doubt that there are those for whom the words and emotion of a well-performed rap tune can touch the heart and bring forth unexpected feelings.

But it is awesome to have seen theaters filled with unsuspecting audiences of all stripes and colors who were moved to deep emotion by these two examples of classic, tonal expression.  I will never forget my emotion the first time I saw Philadelphia and the sense of being drained by this powerful moment of an aria sung as I have never heard it sung before.

Photo Credit: halohost

Boy, this was a tough one.  If you were to take the time to look up the word harmonic in the dictionary (it doesn’t matter which one) you’d probably be overwhelmed by the scientific explanation of this phenomenon.   It has to do with the falling into place of elements of physics which are compatible.   But the pages and pages of explanation required to establish  this concept is off-putting.

In music, it is a little better.  Harmonic tones are those which have the same sound beats/pulses  and are, therefore, compatible to the ear, seeming to blend flawlessly.  A simple example is that sound produced by a barbershop quartet, in which all four singers  produce a different note at the same time, but the sound is a good blend.   It is pleasing to the ear (at least for a short time.  I can only listen to barbershop quartet music briefly before it begins to jar me.)

The opposite of harmonic music is counterpoint in which notes with differing sound pulses  create a contrast, or even a clash,  in the ear.  It, too, has a beauty to it, but in a totally different way, in which the ear is disturbed by the contrast.

But the word harmonic has a non-musical meaning as well.  I found it used over and over again in the fantastic novel, 11/22/63 by Stephen King.  I just finished it and it took me several hours to unwind before I could begin to assess its impact.   It is a time travel novel in which the protagonist, Jake Epping,  is exposed to a route into the past where his assigned task is to disturb the historic circumstances which led to the shooting of John F. Kennedy.    Throughout his venture into  the 50′s and 60′s, Jake becomes increasingly aware of the harmonics of the time which govern the stability of historic events.   If one thing happens, there must be a relating event to balance it.

The “Butterfly theory” is an understanding that all things in the universe are in synch with each other.  Therefore, if a butterfly flaps its wings in the middle of the Amazon forests, it is believed that the resulting disturbance of the atmosphere affects life in Toledo, Ohio.  That’s an oversimplification, but it is used to describe relatedness, or harmonics.  In King’s book it is used as a metaphor to say that the disruption of one feature in history, as by Jake Epping re-designing history to prevent Kennedy’s death, causes a flutter in history which grows and grows until it is experienced in a dramatic episode in the future.

Harmonic balance is achieved without intention.   It just is.   A white man shoots and kills a black teenager in Selma, Alabama, and the repercussion of that event results in  race riots in New Haven,  Connecticut, or the election of an African-American man as President of the United States.

The theory that all existence is tied together in a tightly-bound ball of inter-dependence  is both frightening and exciting.  The element of stimulation applied to that existence can be ugly or it can be beautiful.  The idea that all humanity, regardless of skin color, is integrated into a harmonic  one-ness which is affected by choices we make at any given time places a huge responsibility on every human being to respect that harmony.

We aren’t quite there yet.

Illustration Credit: wikipedia

It’s a strange cycle when you come to think about it.   A baby is born as a solitary being.   In fact, some child psychologists and theologians have said that a newborn baby is the most selfish being in existence.  It is totally dependent upon others for its existence and demands care.  That’s not a judgment statement, but a statement of reality.   When a baby wants to be fed, changed, held, caressed, or cleansed the baby cries.  It doesn’t matter what the parent/caregiver is doing or where they are.  Everything must stop to take care of the baby’s needs.

The baby only knows itself at the beginning, but gradually begins to socialize, first with the mother or other person who is the primary caregiver at birth.  As others become part of the provision of care they, too, are absorbed into the baby’s realm of existence.  Eventually babies becomes  social beings, interacting and responding to those around them and even becoming sensitive to the needs of others.

Babies begin to become a part of a group, beginning with family and expanding to friends and others in their existence.  They absorb norms and mores that are acceptable to those around them, and rejecting those which are unacceptable.

But there comes a time in a healthy person’s existence when they begin to sort through those acceptable and unacceptable norms and identify with those which are consistent with the person’s  own being.   That may happen in late childhood or even into adulthood.

Some people never get there, however, and live their entire lives dependent upon the standards of others.  The conflicts of life are huge in that case, with the person constantly weighing individual desires and passions against those which the person’s society will accept and condone.   Everything that persons thinks, says, or does must be acceptable to those around (her) and her personal thoughts and actions must be subjected and hidden.   It can become a very unhealthy life.

However, the process of individuation is the sorting out of one’s life and absorbing personal ideas, plans, actions and passions which become the foundation of one’s personality.   The process may create conflict and struggles which are difficult and may require therapeutic assistance in order to be fully and successfully integrated into one’s life.  Most people who exist in a healthy atmosphere accomplish individuation on their own. Education, socialization patterns, parental and family encouragement, and exposure to an accepting society assist the person in evolving into the real person they seek to be.  It is not without problematic moments, but for most people it is not traumatic.

Carl Jung, the Swiss psychoanalyst, is credited with establishing a therapeutic process for assisting in individuation for people whose struggle is overwhelming and painful.   His articulation of the “introverted self” and the “extroverted self” was revolutionary and assisted in defining the process by which persons create their integrated personality, establishing the process of individuation as the sorting out of those personality characteristics and the embracing of a healthy balance of person.

In general practice, however, the process of individuation does not require such a heavily psychological overlay.  It is accomplished by exposure to a world of diversity and positive reinforcement.  The beauty of art, the fun of socialization, the gratification of work, the expansion of one’s social circle and the articulation of one’s beliefs and inner energies are all part of the individuation that takes place on a daily basis for most people.

All individuation projects are not positive.   People can establish personalities that foster crime, horror, or deception just as easily as success, progress, and pleasant social awareness.  Psychotherapy and other forms of rehabilitation for criminals and unbalanced people can influence and re-arrange priorities in order to revise one’s individual personality in order to become a more acceptable member of society.  Such imposed individuation may be socially acceptable, but it is a dangerous and tricky path, as it involves the external selection of norms and mores.   In a sense, it is a replaying of the process the person experienced as a newborn individual.

Graphic Credit: Ndividuate

Is there anything more frustrating than tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep or get back to sleep?  Insomnia is the given name for the condition, whether it be transient/occasional or chronic.  Either way, it’s a bear.

Clearly, there are known factors which can produce sleeplessness.  Caffeine is the most prominent among them, and for many (maybe most) people the ingesting of coffee, chocolate, some sports drinks, or other caffeine-laden products is all it takes.  And the “awakeness”* produced by caffeine is not fun, either.  It’s not a comfortable, pleasant way of being awake in which one feels good, has lots of positive energy, and is productive.  To the contrary, it is like a drug-induced awakeness, with a heaviness associated with it.

The natural tendency is to try such frequently-ineffective things as counting sheep, visualizing water lapping on a beach, or some other pleasurable semi-dreamlike mental exercise.  Evidently for some people it works; for many it’s a bust.

One doctor told me that the best thing to do when you can’t sleep is to get out of bed, leave the bedroom and go to a comfortable chair where you can read, or try writing something, either by pen and paper or on the computer.  It’s a way of “cleansing” the brain and reducing the tension you are building up about not being able to get to sleep.

The same doctor said not to go back to bed during the day to try to “catch up” on the sleep I missed when insomnia hit.  That tends to reduce the fatigue required the next night to have a good night’s sleep.   So it’s important to try to stay awake the day after an insomnia event.

I have to say that some of my more creative times have been when I couldn’t sleep.  But I pay for it the next day when I’m groggy and even fall asleep unintentionally in the middle of the day.

Incidental or occasional insomnia is a fairly normal, inconsequential situation.   Maybe it’s something a person has ingested, an unusually difficult problem which won’t go away, or a physical discomfort that won’t allow a person to relax sufficiently.

But chronic insomnia can be destructive to peoples’  health, affecting their day-to-day productivity and life in general.   Obviously, a physician should be consulted.  A prescription for a sleeping aid may be warranted.   They do work for most people, although there are a variety of experiences people have with sleeping pills, including a feeling of being drugged.   They can become habit-forming for some people.

I find that my own experiences of insomnia, which are infrequent, are related more to an over-active mind.   I get focused on a topic and can’t let it go.  The topic plays over and over in my mind like a film on a continuous circuit.  Try as I might to change the subject, I always gravitate back to the same scenario.   The frustration of that just increases the inability to get back to sleep.  That’s when I take the doctor’s advice, get out of bed, go downstairs, read a book or turn on the computer and do some writing … just like this blog posting.  It’s surprising how I can then go back to bed and get some sleep, even though my night’s sleep time has been shortened considerably.

Photo Credit: medicinenet.com

* “Awakeness” is my own word.  You won’t find it in a dictionary, but I think it works.

I love words and terms that are characterized as “Americanisms.”   The other day I overheard a conversation in which a person talked about having to “get rid of the whole kit and caboodle.” I hadn’t heard the term in years.  I quickly pulled out my I-phone and added it to my notes list.

What a colorful and up-beat phrase.   It belongs in literature, as it is expressive of a situation with which most people can identify.

Sometimes it is a negative term, as in when a fed-up parent of a teenager opens the bedroom door and demands that the kid spend the day “getting rid of the whole kit and caboodle“  of junk that has accumulated in a pile on the floor, hiding the bed and any other necessary components to the bedroom.

Or, it can describe a treasure, as in when a person buys an entire lot of antiques at a garage sale, loading the whole kit and caboodle into the back of the station wagon.  There’s no question in either example as to the fact that there is a sizable accumulation of goods involved.   Nothing is to be left behind.

There appears to be no linguistic set of definitions for the term kit and caboodle.  Clearly, a kit implies a set of items required in order to assemble something.  I begin to shudder when I even think about kits, remembering those classic Christmas Eves with children’s new toys and gifts laid out on the floor and unintelligible instruction sheets spread out telling me that item “J” needs to be inserted into item “K” before starting with item “A.”  My head is spinning just remembering my encounters with kits for toys and devices.

But I have fond memories of the post-WWII item known as a “mess kit” which my father found for me just before heading off on my first Boy Scout overnight camping event.  The Army surplus mess kit was a metal pan which connected to a metal dish.  There was a clasp on it.  When opened, the interior revealed folding knife, fork and spoon, a collapsible drinking cup,  and a handle for the cooking pan.  It was ingenious and I treasured it through several years of Boy Scout life before it got lost somewhere  between adolescence and college.  So all kits were not anathema to my assembly-deprived being.

As for caboodle, it is clearly a nonsense word created in American culture to describe a sizable accumulation of ‘stuff.”    This piece, titled ‘The Origin of Boodle‘, is from The Dunkirk Observer-Journal, New York, September 1888:

“It is probably derived from the Old-English word bottel, a bunch or a bundle, as a bottel of straw. “The whole kit and boodle of them” is a New England expression in common use, and the word in this sense means the whole lot. Latterly, boodle has come to be somewhat synonymous with the word pile, the term in use at the gaming table, and signifying a quantity of money. In the gaming sense, when a man has “lost his boodle”, he has lost his pile or whole lot of money, whatever amount he happened to have with him.”

Someplace along the way I’ve stumbled upon the word “boodle,” and this piece from the Dunkirk weekly paper satisfies my memory of its use.  Something in the back of my mind says the word “boodle”, however, has a less than comely meaning in contemporary use.  I’ll just leave it there and hope for the best.

In any case, the term Kit and Caboodle is worth adding to one’s writing lexicon.   I’m convinced it will find its way into a piece, probably sooner rather than later.

Photo Credit: Wandering Earl

I won’t pretend to be original on this information.  I captured it on the web  this morning, Wikipedia having done the research.  But it’s worth repeating, in case you haven’t looked it up.

Written at the end of the 18th century by Scottish poet”Rabbie” Burns, the song-poem Auld Lang Syne is roughly translated as “for old time’s sake.”  We know it in the song form introduced by Guy Lombardo on New Year’s Eve in his famous televised celebration from New York City’s Roosevelt Hotel in 1929.   Since then it has become the standard toasting song, despite the fact that most people don’t know the lyrics and are content to fake it.

The song has a passionate quality to it, reminding us not to forget the past days in our excitement of surging forward into the  new year.  Without  glorifying the past, the song reminds us, it is well to preserve that which has brought us to this moment.

There have been New Year’s Eves when my wife and I have burned the calendar of the previous year in the fireplace, happy to be rid of it for one reason or another.  2011 might well have suffered that fate except for the fact that our fireplace is a gas-powered one these days, hidden away behind a glass front!    Having spent a good portion of 2011 in the hospital or in a sick bed at home, this hasn’t been one of our happiest years.

But it would be wrong to characterize the year as a total loss.  We have made new friends, welcomed friends’ babies into new life, celebrated weddings and grace-filled  funerals, seen new places, read great books,  seen outstanding films, and spent numerous hours at Fenway Park.   Our blessings have far out-weighed our banes, although it is hard to forget the many, many days of sickness, pain and discomfort.

So our 2011 wall calendar will be spared the fire and, instead, find its way to a not-so-gracious funeral in our recycling box.

As to 2012, there are hopes for joy, peace and prosperity.  We recognize that this is an election year, so our hopes are somewhat focused on November, but we could well do without the months of wasted hours (and dollars) of political advertising we will be forced to endure.  But it is also a year of watching the Red Sox rebuild their reputation with a new coach, new players, and a new energy.  My wife’s new blog for families and loved ones of Alzheimer patients  will be up and running within the next month.   Our older daughter’s newly-refocused  culinary venture will spring into life this week.  Our younger daughter’s amazing work with her University will proceed  at the same rate her successes in running half-marathons continue.  Our son’s dream for an environmental project regarding air quality should have a new thrust this year.  And my hopes for new publications are on track for 2012.   Needless to say, we hope that health care will not dominate our lives this year.

So the clink of champagne glasses last night  with older daughter and friends celebrating their 47th wedding anniversary was, indeed, a recognition of  “times past” as well as a hope for “times to come.”   I hope yours is a Happy New Year, as well.

Photo Credit: toasting

Traditionally, the first weekday after Christmas is celebrated in England and other Commonwealth countries as Boxing Day.  It is customary for the “hired help” to have the day away from work, and there are gifts for them and for their families.  In more recent years as the incidence of “hired help” has diminished, Boxing Day is observed by giving employees the day off and by distributing small gifts to them.   In the household setting, this includes gifts to the mail deliverer, the milk delivery person,  the trash collector, one’s barber or stylist, a child’s teacher, and others who provide a service of one kind or another to keep a family functioning.  In past days it was far more paternalistic than today, when it is a festive celebration of  the extended family.

The name comes from the tradition of “boxing up” the left over meal from Christmas and giving it to the household employees so they don’t have to cook on the day after Christmas.   It is also known as the day on which the parish priest opens the alms box at the Church and distributes its contents to the poor and needy.

Clearly, the theme of boxing day is generosity and compassion.

What a relief to be removed from the hectic, frantic, obsessive, materialistic theme that has become associated with Christmas Day.

Happy Boxing Day everyone!

Illustration Credit: Elaine

How about a little fantasy this Christmas Morning?  Try this conversation between a reporter and the parents of the new-born Jesus of Nazareth.

Reporter:  We’re here in Bethlehem with Joseph and Mary Carpenter, the parents of a new-born child, who they have named Jesus.   This couple, from Nazareth, have traveled here to Bethlehem, the ancestral home of the couple in order to participate in the recently-imposed census which the government instituted.  Regulations require them to register for the census, not in the town where they currently live, but in the place from which their families emerged.  There’s a great deal of confusion among the citizens of Israel, causing people like this couple to have to travel great distances in order to comply.  Ironically, Ms Carpenter went into labor early yesterday, and during the night gave birth to this, her first child.

Reporter (R):  Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter, for agreeing to this interview.  And congratulations, Ms Carpenter, on the delivery of your child.  How are you doing?

Mary Carpenter: Just fine, thank you.  A little tired, but otherwise I’m fine.

R:  Tell me, Ms. Carpenter, did you ever imagine that your first child would be born anywhere but in Nazareth?

Mary:   Well, to be honest, there hasn’t been anything “normal” about this pregnancy.  But, no, I didn’t expect to be away from my home, to say nothing about being in Bethlehem.  But I’m thankful that we were able to find accommodations and everything went okay.

R:   And what about you, Mr. Carpenter, how would you characterize this event?

Joseph Carpenter (J):  Thankfully, it has been just fine.  A little unpredictable, but, hey, we don’t always have the opportunity to design such events.  It could have been worse, like along the side of the road between here and Nazareth.  I’m thankful we made it to Bethlehem.

R:   What will you do next?  Do you see yourselves staying here in Bethlehem, or are you heading back to Nazareth right away?

Joseph:   Well, Mary needs a couple of days to get back on her feet.  But as soon as she’s able, we’ll be on our way.

R:   Back to Nazareth?

Joseph:  Well…eventually.  I’d rather not be specific.

R:   Does that mean that you have something else in mind?

Joseph:  Let’s not go there.

R:  Hmmmm.  Well, okay, let’s try something else.   These are confusing and troubled times here in Israel.  How do you feel about bringing a newborn child into this political confusion.

Mary:   We don’t always have a choice in such things.

R:   Do you mean that this was an unplanned pregnancy?

Joseph:  Well, not in the traditional sense.  But let’s just say the timing could have been better.

Mary:  That’s not as cold and calculating as it may sound.  Joseph just means that it we were to have had a choice, this wasn’t necessarily the most convenient moment.  What with the government requirement about the census, and all.

R: Do I hear you both saying that the government didn’t have you in mind when they made this census regulation?

Joseph:  We’re not used to complaining about the government, but there are times when they don’t necessarily have the common people in mind when they create such dictates.  I’m finding that to be more and more true  lately.  A lot of our friends have been expressing some unhappiness about the way the government fails to consider the common people in their deliberations.   I’m not complaining, mind you, just expressing what I hear from our friends.  And this certainly is an example of how it can be a detriment to simple people who don’t have a voice in decisions.

R:   If you could tell the government about your perspective on this census, what would you say?

Joseph:   Well, it’s unlikely that anyone would listen, and I’d have to be somewhat careful, you know, about how I said it.  But I’d like to tell the Romans that it might be a good time for us to have our own government where common people like us can have a role in the decisions about things that affect the average person.

Mary:  I think it might be time for us to go back into the stable, Joseph.  I think I may need to feed the baby.  Don’t you think this is enough for now?

Joseph:  I can hear you, Mary.   I’m sorry, Mr. Fox, but I’m afraid we have to cut this short.  The baby, and all that, you know.  We have to go now.

R:  One last question.  I sense that you are uncomfortable talking about this in public.  Am I correct?

Joseph:  Listen.   We’ve just had a baby.  I haven’t been able to work now for several days without income and I don’t know how I’m going to afford the trip back.  There are more important things for us to attend to right now, like caring for a newborn baby.  We have to go now.

Reporter:  Well, it would seem that Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter have bumped up against the bureaucracy and found it not to be a pleasant experience.   It is clear from their comments that they are part of the resistance movement that we have been hearing about that is trying to bring about governmental reform.  We have confidential information that links Mr. Carpenter to that group, and his wife is reputed to be involved in the feminist group that is pushing for women’s rights to be involved in government.  We’ll continue to watch this scene and bring you updates as they unfold.  Late reports indicate that shepherds have left their fields and are gathering here in Bethlehem to become part of the protest. And there is breaking news that says that foreigners are crossing the borders illegally to get here to Bethlehem without credentials.   We can assume that their entry into this country over the desert cannot be a positive thing.  I can only say, personally, that I worry about this little child who has been born and the chaos which will surround him.  It’s almost as if he doesn’t stand a chance if the conflicts we have heard here continue to build.  It will be a hard life for any child born today.

Reporting from Bethlehem, this is Reginald Fox for Eyewitness News.  Now back to the studio where a panel has been assembled who will have comment on this late-breaking story.

Illustration Credit: G. Cuffia

The burning of the yule log is a northern European custom which actually pre-dates the birth of Jesus.   Its significance was tied to the winter solstice, the day of the year with the shortest daylight hours.   Traditionally, winter solstice is observed on or about December 21.   In the traditional British language, the period beginning with the winter solstice is known as yuletide.   The suffix tide is added to a word, such as yule to indicate a period of observance.  Eastertide, for instance, is the period of time beginning with Easter and following.

It wasn’t a difficult transition from the secular yuletide to that of Christian celebration surrounding the observance of the birth of Jesus.  As I have noted in previous blog settings, it was common practice for the early Christians to co-opt an already-existing secular holiday.

The interesting feature of Yuletide as a Christian observance is the way in which the timing of the celebration of a Christmas season has developed differing patterns.   Traditionally the Christmas season (Christmastide) begins on Christmas Eve and is celebrated for the twelve days following until Epiphany occurs on January 6.  Epiphany is the Christian observance of the exposure, or manifestation, of the newborn Jesus to the secular world.   Tradition ties it to the apocryphal story of the Three Wise Men who travel from the East, following a star, until it stops above the manger in Bethlehem, where these three secular characters bow down before the newborn child and declare him to be the Messiah.  Thus, the tradition of the Twelve Days of Christmas, Yuletide,  comes into play, including that irritating song about dancers, birds, and golden rings.

The traditional Yule celebration would begin at dawn with the cutting of the oak branch, which was then ceremoniously carried into the house.  Lit by the father or oldest member of the family, the Yule log would be left to burn for the next 12 days.  When evening arrived the family would gather for dinner, which would typically included mutton, goose, pork, beef, special Yule breads, porridge, apples, sweets, nut and Yule ale.
   As Christianity spread throughout Europe the traditional Yule celebration became associated with the celebration of Christmas and the birth of Jesus, the Yule
Father being replaced with Father Christmas.  In Serbia, the Yule log, or badnjak as it is called there, is cut and burned in the hearth as part of its Christmas festivities.  In years past, the head of the family would go into the forest on Christmas Eve morning to cut down the badnjak.  Before bringing it home he would take the log to the church for a special blessing.  In more recent years, the badnjak ins usually gotten at marketplaces or form the churches.(sic)*

Many traditional Christians take the Yuletide literally and begin their observance of the Christmas season on Christmas Eve.  We have a number of friends who wait to assemble their Christmas tree  on Christmas Eve.  They observe the Church tradition of Advent, the four weeks preceding Christmas, a rich and powerful season of preparation based upon the biblical accounts of the Jews who waited expectantly for the coming of the Messiah.  The music of Advent is among the most beautiful in the Christian repertoire, especially Handel’s Messiah.  The contemporary secular observance of the Christmas season, beginning with the assembly of Christmas decorations and gift-buying beginning around Hallowe’en, is abhorrent to observant Christians.  From a commercial perspective it is a masterful practice; from a more spiritual/religious perspective it is almost blasphemous.

The practice of burning a yule log and its attendant Yuletide feasts, concerts, caroling and the sharing of gifts make for a festive period in the otherwise cold, dark days of mid-winter.

Photo Credit: yule log burning

*Deck the Halls

In case there are typographical errors in this posting, let me be clear that it is 5:30 a.m. and we’re about to jump in the car and head for New York City for the day.  It’s about a three hour drive each way.  The magnet is working, however.  What’s a Christmas season without the chance to walk down Fifth Avenue and visit Rockefeller Center?  

It’s no mystery to anyone when we announce that we’re heading for “the Big Apple” to drink in the beauty of the city dressed in all its holiday fineness.  Clearly, we are driving to New York City, the metropolitan giant that tends to increase my heart beat and pump my blood a little bit faster.  I’m a romantic about New York, and willing to forgive all its faults.   You won’t even hear me complaining about trying to find a decent parking spot the weekend before Christmas.  Yes, the Big Apple is New York.

But it hasn’t always been that way.  In the 1920′s, we are told, the term was used loosely to mean New York, but it also applied to Los Angeles and any other big city.  But by the 1960′s it had clearly come to mean New York City, inspiring music, drama, and the written media to utilize it as a metaphor for New York repeatedly.

It’s almost plebeian to say that there is something magical about The Big Apple.  But it’s true.   The rhythm is fast, the scent is unique, the sights are expansive and familiar, the people are amazing.   We have visited no city in this country or around the world that is exactly like New York.

I am always aware of the focus of the people of New York.  When they bustle past you  on the street it is because they are going someplace … someplace specific.  There is a purpose to their bustling, causing me to want to attempt to figure out exactly what destination is calling them.

The contrast, however, is what I call the “park bench” lifestyle.   People of New York City know h0w to fill up a park bench in Central Park or Washington Square with a reflective, meditative presence unlike anything I’ve ever seen in other places.   Even their quiet time surrounded by pigeons and people walking their dogs is filled with purpose … a purpose that is seen on the face of a person selecting a piece of fruit from a corner market, a newspaper from the corner kiosk, or a scarf from the window of a world-famous department store.  The intensity is not off-putting.  To the contrary, there is wisdom in that visage.

Today we will hear the sound of children’s voices, the laughter of people loaded down with brightly-colored shopping bags, and the undercurrent of taxis, police whistles and Salvation Army bells.  There really is the scent of chestnuts roasting on a street corner.  More than one musician will have a sound to share … in return, of course, for a contribution dropped in a hat or a guitar case.

By tonight the three hour drive home will be one of fatigue.  But it will have been worth it.  The Big Apple’s allure will have given us more than a basket full of memories and pictures to relish in the days to come.   We will have taken a bite from the Big Apple, the taste of which won’t disappear without a fight.

Photo Credit: Ecofriend.com