rod
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
There is something new and wonderful about a forum, which can take our communications around the planet in the blink of an eye. We do not want to stray too far from the central topic of engraving, yet as the year turns to a new chapter soon, perhaps we are allowed some reflections.
It is my intention to include not only those for whom the Christian mythology is their center of gravity, but also other traditions that express their humanity within their own traditions, be it honoring mother nature, or a hundred different ways in a hundred different countries.....
Winter Solstice has passed, Chanukah too. Advent, ongoing for some weeks, and traditionally a period of abstinence and reflection before the Feast of Christmas, has run its course. Commerce has been aflame for many weeks, coaxing spending upon our selves and our friends. People do give generously to the needy at this time, I can assure you, as my wife, Kathleen, writes by hand, all the thank-you cards to those who contribute to the Hospitality House for the homeless, to which she is attached. Around us, and in far distant lands, one hundred and one traditions continue to maintain their different ways, both around the turn of the year, and at other times, but all, hopefully celebrating what can be good in our humanity and commonality with others.
What could be a more fitting image of heartfelt love than the Madonna and Child, imbedded as an archetypal image in our subconscious. I am so moved by such and image at this time. We were especially aware of mother and child, as we prepared to go down the road to Healdsburg for family Christmas with Kathleen's sisters. Our daughter Katrina, and husband, Philip, traveled north to the gathering. Katrina was delivered of a bonnie wee son, Luke, just a moment before Halloween. This was our grandson's ( seen below) first visit to the north, and the extended clan were all very excited.
It used to be, when I was growing up in Scotland, that very little happened to change the social landscape of the neighborhood. Glasgow was about 50/50 Catholic/Protestant, with a smaller Jewish community established for centuries in our midst. More recently Italians, mostly from Barga, in Tuscany, introduced us to the pleasures of ice cream and fish and chips. After world war two, more Italians and Poles. A few ex German prisoners of war liked Scotland, and stayed on. One lived in a cottage round the corner from Kathleen, Katrina, and I, in Nairn, and was a successful shop keeper. Scots women enjoyed the bright smiling eyes of Italians, and loved the good manners of the Poles, who liked to go to the dances.
In the last few years, with the European Economic Community taking hold, and with many nationalities free to move to find work far from home, Scotland has entered a new phase of rapid social change, and it is quite the norm for a Pole to come work on your house modifications, a French woman to work at the hotel reception, Romanians looking for accommodation and work, indeed the cultural mix is rapid, and with it come both new adjustments, but also an opportunity to see ourselves more and more as members of a bigger tribe. Joseph Campbell said it nicely, something like, "Once our bounded horizon ended at the edge of our local territory, or hunting ground, we loved and supported those within it, and those out with it were regarded as the enemy. Today our bounded horizon encompasses all of humanity ( and ultimately all creatures, great and small). There is no getting away from this fact, and it is our job to have it all work". I am with Campbell, when he invites us to re-read our traditional ancient sacred texts, not as prose or history, but as poetry, and to discovery within our many mythologies what is universal, what feeds the human heart.
As the years wear on, I look for and honour any sign of humanity and good heart, under any rock I can find it, paying no heed to the label above the door. Like it or not, we are all the custodians of this very thin, green mantle, clinging to just a small habitable part of a bare, rocky, watery sphere, careening through space at 66,000 miles an hour, and always in a new part of space every second.
Best to pull on the oars together.
Every blessing...as 2014 approaches.
Rod
It is my intention to include not only those for whom the Christian mythology is their center of gravity, but also other traditions that express their humanity within their own traditions, be it honoring mother nature, or a hundred different ways in a hundred different countries.....
Winter Solstice has passed, Chanukah too. Advent, ongoing for some weeks, and traditionally a period of abstinence and reflection before the Feast of Christmas, has run its course. Commerce has been aflame for many weeks, coaxing spending upon our selves and our friends. People do give generously to the needy at this time, I can assure you, as my wife, Kathleen, writes by hand, all the thank-you cards to those who contribute to the Hospitality House for the homeless, to which she is attached. Around us, and in far distant lands, one hundred and one traditions continue to maintain their different ways, both around the turn of the year, and at other times, but all, hopefully celebrating what can be good in our humanity and commonality with others.
What could be a more fitting image of heartfelt love than the Madonna and Child, imbedded as an archetypal image in our subconscious. I am so moved by such and image at this time. We were especially aware of mother and child, as we prepared to go down the road to Healdsburg for family Christmas with Kathleen's sisters. Our daughter Katrina, and husband, Philip, traveled north to the gathering. Katrina was delivered of a bonnie wee son, Luke, just a moment before Halloween. This was our grandson's ( seen below) first visit to the north, and the extended clan were all very excited.
It used to be, when I was growing up in Scotland, that very little happened to change the social landscape of the neighborhood. Glasgow was about 50/50 Catholic/Protestant, with a smaller Jewish community established for centuries in our midst. More recently Italians, mostly from Barga, in Tuscany, introduced us to the pleasures of ice cream and fish and chips. After world war two, more Italians and Poles. A few ex German prisoners of war liked Scotland, and stayed on. One lived in a cottage round the corner from Kathleen, Katrina, and I, in Nairn, and was a successful shop keeper. Scots women enjoyed the bright smiling eyes of Italians, and loved the good manners of the Poles, who liked to go to the dances.
In the last few years, with the European Economic Community taking hold, and with many nationalities free to move to find work far from home, Scotland has entered a new phase of rapid social change, and it is quite the norm for a Pole to come work on your house modifications, a French woman to work at the hotel reception, Romanians looking for accommodation and work, indeed the cultural mix is rapid, and with it come both new adjustments, but also an opportunity to see ourselves more and more as members of a bigger tribe. Joseph Campbell said it nicely, something like, "Once our bounded horizon ended at the edge of our local territory, or hunting ground, we loved and supported those within it, and those out with it were regarded as the enemy. Today our bounded horizon encompasses all of humanity ( and ultimately all creatures, great and small). There is no getting away from this fact, and it is our job to have it all work". I am with Campbell, when he invites us to re-read our traditional ancient sacred texts, not as prose or history, but as poetry, and to discovery within our many mythologies what is universal, what feeds the human heart.
As the years wear on, I look for and honour any sign of humanity and good heart, under any rock I can find it, paying no heed to the label above the door. Like it or not, we are all the custodians of this very thin, green mantle, clinging to just a small habitable part of a bare, rocky, watery sphere, careening through space at 66,000 miles an hour, and always in a new part of space every second.
Best to pull on the oars together.
Every blessing...as 2014 approaches.
Rod
Attachments
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LUKE.jpg
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