Other books and June's theme

Recently I have also read Fannie Flagg's Can't Wait to Get to Heaven and am currently reading The Host by Stephanie Meyer.

My theme for June will be "The Perfect Place" I will begin by reading The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner. My husband, a geographer, actually bought this book a few months ago for himself without realizing that it was also on my list. So we will be reading this one together.

Wrapping it up

My Jesus Year has a very good balance of the reverent and the irreverent. Cohen is funny and respectful at the same time as he experiences evangelical healing services, Christian Wrestling, going on missions with Mormans, and confessing in a Catholic church. I noticed that he did not write about any "mean for Jesus" types. I don't know if he didn't run into any, or if he chose not to write about them because it wouldn't have been funny. I also noticed that he writes about "twice a year" Jews, who attend services only on the high holidays - Rosh Hoshana and Yom Kippur, but not about their counterparts the "twice a year" Christians who attend church only on Christmas and Easter. This is a good read and will likely have readers contemplating their own religion, no matter whether they are or faithful or fallen.

Christmas

To get the whole Christmas experience Cohen tries to do it all. He buys the gifts, fights crowds at the mall, goes to see the Nutcracker, attends midnight service on Christmas eve, and also experiences the inevitable post-Christmas letdown.

He is baffled by websites that offer Christmas advice such as "offer to babysit for a friend" without providing information about the real spiritual aspect of the holiday. As a person who has always celebrated a more secular version of the holiday, the offer to babysit makes perfect sense to me. Any suggestion to do something rather than buy something is what I look for at Christmas. I like visiting people at the holidays, and going to parties, but I don't miss the spending at all. Several years ago I exempted myself from buying gifts for anyone besides children (my own, and nieces and nephews) at Christmas, and likewise let those who normally bought me gifts know that they needn't bother. My goal was not to focus on the more religious aspect of the holiday, but rather to take away stress, and bring back "peace, joy and goodwill to all" - things I think Jesus the man stood for. With the money we don't spend of gifts we make donations to charity, and we try to see a Christmas show every year. I have seen the Nutcracker several times, and don't get tired of it, and last year took a day trip to New York City to see the Rockettes Christmas show, which was quite fabulous. However, the most moving Christmas performance I have seen was Black Nativity - the story of the nativity done through gospel music. I have seen it twice in Boston and it is more like a worship service than a performance - although it is quite professionally done.

Skipping the malls and having no presents under my tree to open on Christmas morning does make my Christmas different than the ones I remember from my childhood, which were indeed magical, but I enjoy and savor the holiday season much better this way.

A Year of Buying Black

Today's Talk of the Nation program on NPR featured a story about a family that is experimenting with buying only from African-American owned businesses for one year. They are four months into it.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104611155

Stone Mountain

Cohen attends Easter Sunday at Stone Mountain in Georgia. I have seen Stone Mountain, a very impressive monument to some Civil War heroes. It is an interesting thing about the south that there are quite a few monuments to the losing side of the war. Cohen mentions that growing up he always heard the war referred to as the "war of Northern agression" and never even knew that the south lost. Growing up in Maryland, I never knew that I lived in the south. Of course Maryland is south of the Mason-Dixon line, and it was also a "border state" during the war. I realized much later in life how touchy Maryland is about its identity as a southern state. In school we were always lead to believe that we were really on the winning side because we weren't really in the south. A few years ago I looked up the words to Maryland My Maryland, the state song. I had never heard them growing up, although I knew the tune very well (it is the same tune as O Christmas Tree). When I found the words I realized why we never sang them. It is a a Conferderate song. This NPR story tells of a state bill that would change Maryland's song.

Birthday blog

Today is my 45th birthday. I notice that very few of the "year of" books I read mention the author's birthday, although we can safely assume that they all had one during the course of their year. A great birthday celebration was discussed in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, who celebrated her 50th birthday during the year she writes about. You can see some of the recipes from the book at this website: http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/Recipes.html

Yesterday, of course, was my attainment day. Many people are unaware that they have an attainment day, and it allows them to spend two days celebrating their birthday. Your attainment day is the day you attain your new age, always the day before your birthday. This actually matters to a small group of people who were born on the first of the month. The federal government determines benefits for retirement starting the month you attain your new age. So if you happen to be one of the lucky "ones" your retirement benefits will start the month before your birthday. I know all this because my father worked for Social Security and it was something he dealt with all the time. Celebration of attainment days was an important tradtion in the Hayes house when I was growing up, although none of us had a birthday on the first of the month.

Taking Communion

Cohen has mentioned "prentending" to take communion several times. When I was about 11 years old I attended a Catholic church and took communion. I mentioned it to my sister later who told me never to tell our mother, who apparently freaked out when my sister had done the same thing a few years earlier. In very serious tones my sister explained to me that you can't just take communion, you're supposed to have classes first. I felt like I was going to be arrested, (sort of the same way I felt when I cut the tags off my pillows). To atone for this sin I decided never to take communion again, even when invited, or even if it is in a Unitarian church (some do have this ritual). This caused me to have a fight with my Greek Orthodox high school boyfriend when I attended Christmas eve service with his family in 1981, and has left me to be the only person sitting in the pews on more than one occasion, but I don't care. The trauma my sister left me with is worse than anything of these other things.