Great Holiday Songs You May Not Know - Day 15

Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)
The Ramones

Hey, I gotta put some classics on here.  And I'm really, really hoping someone will do a mashup of this song + The Carpenters "Merry Christmas, Darling."

That would be awesome.

Great Holiday Songs You May Not Know - Day 14

Driving Home for Christmas
Chris Rea

I don't drive home for Christmas anymore, and haven't for years. For one thing, my childhood home was sold years ago.  And once we began having kids, it got more and more challenging. We're the only ones on either side of the family with kids, so we just let everyone know that they're welcome to come to our house.  Family in all its forms land on our front porch.

But I remember that feeling ... stuffing the car with suitcases and presents, playing Christmas songs on the car stereo.  Passing drivers on the interstate, their cars similarly loaded.  Knowing that we're all driving home for Christmas.

I take look at the driver next to me
He's just the same
Just the same

And that moment of getting there -- walking into the warm house, seeing the tree, smelling good food, and the crush of hugs and greetings.  Now, we're the ones with the warm house, tree, food, and hugs.  Both sides of that equation are good.

Great Holiday Songs You May Not Know - Day 13

The year is ... um, 1980-something.  My family has saved up their pennies all year so that we could take a trip together for Christmas.  No gifts this year, other than the gift of being with each other.

My siblings are grown, and I'm on my way, almost college age.  My brother is going through a painful divorce.

We arrive on a small island in the Bahamas.  Nothing touristy here.  There are two places to eat, plus the kitchenette in my parents room.  Groceries are expensive here, so my mother packed a baggie full of flour in her suitcase for frying the fish she was confident we'd catch.  Yes, customs saw it.  Yes, they pulled her aside.  Yes, we teased her unmercilessly, and still do, to this day.

The island is so small, we walk everywhere, no cars.  Because of that, and the general holiday spirit, and the tastiness of Rum Punch, the adults are imbibing a little more freely than normal.

Christmas Eve, a boat full of Haitian refugees is docked at the island because of a storm. They aren't allowed off the boat.  My brother, who has had some of that Rum Punch, or perhaps a couple of Bahama Mamas, feels sorry for them.  I can still see him -- out in the balmy air, he stretches his arms out and serenades them with our family favorite, "Children Go Where I Send Thee," all 12 verses.

Children Go Where I Send Thee
various

We always listened to the version by Odetta, and sang it with those verses, but as the years went by, different versions crawled in, changing this verse or that one.

Great Holiday Songs You May Not Know - Day 12

I Pray on Christmas
Harry Connick Jr and Kim Burrell

CPE and Full Circle moments

We interrupt your holiday music schedule to share this "Full Circle Moment" with you.

I'll be doing my CPE -- Clinical Pastoral Education -- this summer. Originally, under the advice of a mentor, I'd looked for one in mental health, but the certified CPEs are all hospital-connected here. I wanted a place that treated both kids and adults. Under advice of other seminarians and new ministers, I wanted a supportive CPE program.

When Little Wren was being treated, we had to go to another hospital for her outpatient radiation. The people at this place touched me, impressed me, both with their medical expertise and their spiritual care.

I really hoped I could CPE there.

Got my letter today.  This is where I'll be this summer.  A spiral moment.

Great Holiday Songs You May Not Know - Day 11

Il est Né le Divin Enfant

I had a French professor in college who taught me this traditional carol.  He was from France, and quite laid-back.  He would roll his eyes at conjugating and such, and declare that if the school really wanted us to learn French, they would simply let him take us all to Paris for 6 months, where he would make sure we weren't hanging out with any other americaines, and at the end of it, we'd be fluent.  He was a kick.

The song reflects the joy and celebration about the birth of the Christ child.  Combined with our belief that "Every night a child is born is a holy night," it bring to my mind a gorgeous picture -- Now is born a divine child!  Play the musette, play the tuneful oboe!

I couldn't resist putting in two versions.  One by the great Edith Piaf, and then I happened to find one -- and a fine one! -- by Siouxie and the Banshees.  C'est bon.

Great Holiday Songs You May Not Know - Day 10

What is it about toy trains that just says "Christmas" to so many of us?  For some, it was a train 'round the Christmas tree.  Or the memory of putting one together Christmas Eve night.  Or coming downstairs to find one Christmas morning.

My little boy is a big ole high schooler now.  But every time I hear this, I blink and am back to the Christmases when he was a roly-poly little scamp, his eyes lit up with the magic at it all, gleefully bouncing up and down at seeing a new wooden train set.

Old Toy Trains
Roger Miller

Great Holiday Songs You May Not Know - Day 9

1) Because Punk fans like Christmas, too.
2) Because I'm a mom, and I can understand Santa finally reaching the point where he loses his mind.
3) Because how can you not love a song that screeches "Oatmeal Cookies???  Oatmeal Cookies???"

Oh No It's Santa
Jingle Punx

Great Holiday Songs You May Not Know - Day 8

Hey, I'm a Unitarian Universalist, and some stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason.  It just wouldn't be a UU holiday song list without a Peter, Paul, and Mary song.

But as far as I'm concerned, this song transcends it's PPM origin.  It even transcends the fact that it's in our hymnal.  And I didn't just choose it because it's a Chanukah song.

Light One Candle
Peter, Paul, and Mary

For the rest of my life, this song will take me back to the holiday season of 2001.  3 months after 9/11, we were already seeing Fear turning us into what we didn't want to be.

I'm not comfortable singing in front of people.  But for this, I was willing.  My Canadian friend "Buzz" and I did a duet, singing with full hearts and teary eyes.

Light one candle for the strength that we need
To never become our own foe;
Light one candle for those who are suff'ring
The pain that we learned long ago;
Light one candle for all we believe in,
That anger not tear us apart;
And light one candle to bind us together
With peace as the song in our heart!

What is the memory that's valued so highly
That we keep it alive in that flame?
What's the commitment to those who have died?
We cry out "they've not died in vain,"
We have come this far, always believing
That justice will somehow prevail;
This is the burden and This is the promise,
This is why we will not fail!

Great Holiday Songs You May Not Know - Day 7

Thank God It's Christmas
Queen

There are some people who just hold on through all kinds of garbage and pain the rest of the year, because something inside them wants to get to Christmas. And Christmas can be magic, and it can be love, and right after that it's a brand new year, and this year, please God, it will be better.

I know.  Because I've been one of those people.  Twice.

Oh my love we've had our share of tears
Oh my friend we've had our hopes and fears
Oh my friends it's been a long hard year
But now it's Christmas
Yes it's Christmas
Thank God it's Christmas

Great Holiday Songs You May Not Know - Day 6

Christine Lavin and the Mistletones
A Christmas/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Chanukah/Ramadan/Boxing Day Song

It's an acapella round that gets in all the holidays.  It's cute, fun, and my church has replicated it.  For a deliberately pluralist faith, it's perfect.  


Edit: I had a link up to a "free download" that makes me nervous - sends you to an .exe file.

So, here's the link to it on Amazon. You can play the sample for free and if you like it, download it for .99.

Great Holiday Songs You May Not Know - Day 5

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day is one of those songs that most people know exists, but they've never really listened to it.  It's the filler song on the Christmas album, just wasting space between Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire and Silent Night.

I think it fair to say that its writer, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was broken.  He had lost his first wife and the baby she was carrying. His second wife had died from a tragic accident with fire. His son had been wounded in battle.  The Civil War raged.

Christmas comes, and when we have been hurt, ripped up, all those sweet songs are like salt in our wounds.  So false.  So artificial.  "Give me a freakin' break," we mutter.  The first Christmas after his second wife's death, Longfellow wrote, "How inexpressibly sad are all holidays."

That discord between our pain and the joy around us ... it's like a magnifying glass for our pain.

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

It doesn't compute. It doesn't make sense. Reality intrudes and we reject the pretty words, melodies, ideas.

And in despair I bow'd my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

But if we are lucky, if we have just the teeniest little opening, we may find that hope manages to squeeze in there. Hope that we'll survive. Hope that there is a greater meaning. Hope that the world will get better.

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

There's many versions of this song, but I think my favorite is that of Johnny Cash. His voice, gravelly, a little flat in places, seems more attune to the story than other versions. Now if I could just find a naked version that strips "the Nashville sound" out of the background. A pox on Chet Atkins.

Great Holiday Songs You May Not Know - Day 4

Today is Mama Lizard Eater's 80th birthday. Don't let her know I told you -- a lady is supposed to only get press on her birth, marriage, and death, you know.

Her favorite Christmas song is O Holy Night, which I kinda assume you've heard. But this is one of the other top contenders. Being the wife and mother of a bunch of Christmas-grinches kinda wore down her enthusiasm over the years, but a few days before Christmas -- especially if family was coming in -- she'd play this and even sing along with it. And Mama doesn't sing. But she couldn't resist and when she thought no one was around, her voice would peal out, "Cantcha hear them bells, ringin', ringin', joy, joy, hear them singin' ..."

Every time I hear this song, I hear her voice on that chorus. I hope I always do.

Holiday Music Bonus

Before you start your weekend ...

Lots of indie holiday music -- FREE.  I've downloaded all three albums and can confirm there's some good stuff here.  A few faves:


THe BAcksliders - "That's How We Do Christmas" 

Here Comes Everybody - "Snow" (Nice kind of Elvis-Costello -y vibe.)


Master Slash Slave- "All I Want For Christmas" (How can you not like a song that says "All I want for Christmas is to get the band back together ...?)

Jessie Torrisi - "Christmas Don't Be Late" (for we Gen-Xers who grew up on that know-it-all mouse in "Twas the Night Before Christmas."  Don't you just know he's a UU?)

Piney Gir - "Snow Snow, Beautiful Snow"

Other good stuff, too.  There's a couple of dogs, but for the most part, good originals and covers.  

Great Holiday Songs You May Not Know - Day 3

Sometimes, you just need FUN.  If you don't have a bit of just silly fun mixed in your holidays, I humbly contend that you're missing a crucial ingredient.  Like salt.

And it's a Gen X thing.  For a generation of us, it's just not the holidays til we hear this.  Memories of parachute pants, skinny headbands, giant earrings, and gargantuan shoulder pads.  Ahh.  Good times.

Christmas Wrapping
The Waitresses

Great Holiday Songs You May Not Know - Day 2

I love Christmas.  I love the idea of transformation.  Scrooge, George Bailey, Grinch -- they ring true in my heart. Hope triumphing over cynicism.

That's why one of my favorite Christmas songs is a little known one -- Christmas, by Blues Traveler.  It's honest and it's real, and I can see it laid out and performed as a one-song opera.  Do you ever do that?  Do you ever hear a song and you can just see it performed, stage musical style?

If I had a church of my own and a corral of talented, willing folks, here's what I'd do:

Characters:
Singer 1: cynical, disillusioned
Singer 2: the teacher
Choir

Christmas
Blues Traveler 
Words by J. Popper Music by T. Anastasio and J. Popper

Singer 1:
Comes the time for Christmas
And I really have to ask
If this is feeling merry
How much longer must it last

I wish a one horse open sleigh
Would come carry me away
But I've been waiting here all day
And one just hasn't come my way

Now excuse me if I'm not being reverent
But I was hoping for a miracle to hold me, wash me
Save me from my righteous doubt as I watch helpless
And everybody sings

Choir (with joy):
If it's Chanukah or Kwanza
Solstice, harvest or December twenty-fifth
Peace on earth to everyone
And abundance to everyone you're with
Laha da da da da da
Da da da da da da da da da da da
La da da da da da da da
La da da da da da da da da
Laha da da da da
Laha da da da da

Singer 2 detaches herself from choir and crosses to Singer 1, singing:

Comes the time for Christmas
And as you raise your Yuletide flask
There's like this feeling that you carry
As if from every Christmas past

It's as if each year it grows
It's like you feel it in your toes
And on and on your carol goes
Harvesting love among your woes

Singer 1, singing to Singer 2:
I want to buy into the benevolent
And I was hoping for a miracle to hold me, wash me
Make me know what it's about
As the longing in me makes me want to sing

Singer 2 and Choir:
Noel or Navidad
Season celebration or just the end of the year
Christmas can mean anything
And I mean to keep its hope forever near
Laha da da da da da
Da da da da da da da da da da da
La da da da da da da da da
La da da da da da da da da da
Laha da da da da
Laha da da da da

Singer 1:
As if a cold and frozen soul is warm to love
By love's own hand

Singer 2:
So goes the prayer if for a day peace on earth
And good will to man

Singer 1:
At twenty below the winter storm it billows

Singer 2:
But the fire is so warm inside
And the children while nestled in their pillows
Dream of St. Nicholas's ride

And how the next day they'll get up and they will play
In the still falling Christmas snow
And together we'll celebrate forever

Singer 1, interrupting:
In defiance of the winds that blow

My god in heaven now I feel like I'm seven
And spirit calls to me as well
As if Christmas had made the winter warmer
Made a paradise from what was hell

Both Singers:
As if a cold and frozen soul is warm to love
By love's own hand

Choir Crosses to Singers, singing with them:
So goes the prayer if for a day peace on earth
And good will to man.......

 (Rounds of the song, sung over each other by all)

Singer 1, (all by himself, smiling)
I wish a one horse open sleigh would come carry me away
And I'll keep waiting through next May
Until Christmas comes my way

Great Holiday Songs You May Not Know - Day 1

Latke Clan - the Lee Vees

It's funny but not mocking, it manages to pull together the homey feeling without having that manufactured sound.  It's sweet.  

Thanksgiving and The Real

Little Wren gets it.

When a Christmas commercial comes on the TV, she begins yelling urgently, "Change it, change it, change it!"  Then she puts her hands on her hips, all righteous indignation, and demands of the TV, "What about Thanksgiving???  Let us have Thanksgiving!"

Yeah!

I love Thanksgiving.  It's just so much more real than Christmas, you know?  It's forgetting the rolls, and fretting about the frozen turkey, and balancing the holiness of pausing with family and friends to express gratitude and celebrate abundance ... with The Big Football game.

Well, that's how I grew up.

You can see this mix of reality and nostalgia in some Christmas songs, some Christmas movies ... but it's part and parcel of every Thanksgiving movie.  "Home for the Holidays," "Pieces of April," and the ultimate Thanksgiving show, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

There's no magical handwaving that results in a puny tree being transformed to a lush one here. Instead, it's someone who doesn't know how to cook making a feast of toast, pretzels, popcorn, jelly beans, and ice cream sundaes, and serving it on a ping-pong table for a bunch of ingrates who weren't invited in the first place. 

Thanksgiving is about all our great intentions.  That sometimes go terribly wrong.

Thanksgiving isn't about miracles.  Thanksgiving is about the real.  And being thankful for it, in all it's broken messy glory.  And loving each other, in all our broken messy glory.

Mr. Larson: Dear Lord, we realize that lately everything’s changing too fast. And all sorts of things are always the same — even things we hated, like shoveling the turkey and stuffing the snow and going through the same crap year in and year out ...

Mrs. Larson: The food is getting cold.

Mr. Larson: As I was saying, dear Lord, before my wife interrupted me. Give me those old-fashioned pain-in-the-ass traditions like Thanksgiving, which really mean something to us, even though goddamit, we couldn’t tell you what it is ...

What is a Unitarian Universalist?

Edit:  This post is in response to the UU Salon's November Question:  What is a Unitarian Universalist?

Boy, this is something I've given a lot of thought to, gone back and forth on.

• To recognize anyone who self-identifies as a UU, as a UU, is too broad for me.
• To refuse to recognize anyone who is not currently a member of a UU congregation, as a UU, is too restrictive for me.

To explain:

The Potential UU

I met someone recently who self-identified as a Unitarian Universalist.  How exciting!  We got to talking, and although I found her a fabulous person, who has the potential for being a UU, I would not describe her as being one currently.  Why?
* she had never joined a UU church
* she had only visited a UU church once; found that congregation disorganized, and never visited another
* she had never read anything substantive about Unitarian Universalism
* knew nothing of our history or theology

All that she knew was that we were not Christian and had freedom of belief.  She also likes New Thought, Unity, etc.  I suggested she take that beliefnet test, not because it's a significant arbiter of religious belief, but just as a starting point.  Her top was UUism, followed by some of the usual suspects.

So, I believe she has great potential to be a Unitarian Universalist.  However, I do not believe she is a Unitarian Universalist.

And on the other side:  Unitarian Universalist as Identity

I was born into this religion.  Its values are so deeply ingrained in me, they are a part of my identity. Isn't that something we want with our children?  Not to raise them in a way that Unitarian Universalism is not merely a choice of churches in the area, but something that becomes part of their DNA, that affects how they see the world, a way of being?  Progressive, missional Christianity struggles with this; I think we should, too.  What is Unitarian Universalism itself?  Is it a system of beliefs/non-beliefs, the club we belong to at the moment, a history, or a way of life?

For my children, for myself, I want it to be a way of life.  The Way of Unitarian Universalism.

Then, too, there is this:

Ordination vs. Membership

At some point in the foreseeable future, I hope to be fellowshipped, then ordained a Unitarian Universalist minister. Once I am, unless de-fellowshipped, I am forever an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister.  Even if I do not have a church, I will be recognized as a UU minister, by other churches, by my colleagues, by our association.

So how can we say that once a UU minister, always a UU minister, but once a Unitarian Universalist ... "well, only so long as you maintain membership in a UU church." ?

Now, balancing back the other way ... there sure is a lot more involved in becoming that UU minister.  An M. Div. degree, CPE, internship, numerous gatekeeping functions throughout the fellowshipping process and you're still not an ordained UU minister until a congregation makes you one.

Contrast that with:  come forward in a service (perhaps you didn't even have to attend a new member class), sign your name in a book, hear some pretty words (but you probably don't have to state any words of commitment), receive a carnation.  Back to your seat, now.  You're a member of our congregation and hence, a Unitarian Universalist.

So, do we just leave it like that?  Easy in, easy out?  No real commitment required from you to become a UU, but your identity as such is just as ephemeral?

I do not attempt to answer here what a Unitarian Universalist is.  I will answer what I would like a UU to be.  For this, I've thought about other religions -- to be recognized a Catholic, you've gone through rigorous religious education, baptism.  To be recognized a conservative Jew, you've gone through rigorous religious education, a test that you must pass, a ritual bath, a ritual circumcision or symbolic blood-letting.

I'm not proposing we embrace the latter.

What I would like to see --

A Unitarian Universalist has:

* Taken classes in Unitarian Universalism: history, theology, polity
* Been encouraged to journal/pray/meditate/study how this fits with their personal journey
* Taken classes that specifically deal with their local church: its history, mission, what will be expected of them, and what they should expect in return.
* Had a one-on-one conversation with the church minister or the membership person (who takes their position seriously) about why they want to join the church, why they want to be a Unitarian Universalist, and how they will live under the church's covenant.
* Joined a Unitarian Universalist church -- both receiving and giving words of covenant and commitment.

Just as when a church ordains me, that ordination will be recognized by other churches, even after I leave the ordaining church, so should the identity of one as a Unitarian Universalist be honored even if one leaves their "conversion" church. 

(They still fall under the rules governing membership in joining a different UU church -- still need to learn about that church, its covenant, have the conversation, and go through a joining ritual -- but their identity as a Unitarian Universalist remains in effect until they say, "Nay.")

Good news

Little Warrior had scans today.  Big scans.  2 year scans.

And we got those three letters we hold so dear.  N.E.D.  No Evidence of Disease.

On one hand, this is not a huge deal.  It gives no promise against relapse.  But on the other hand, it's a pretty big deal.  2 years off-treatment is a milestone.  She doesn't have to go back for 6 months.  Since she was 7 months old and first diagnosed, this will be the longest stretch she has ever gone without seeing her oncologist, with two months to spare.

Back when she was an infant and we had never heard of Wilms' Tumor, I referred to her on this blog as The Wren.

LW:  Little Wren.  I think we'll transition to that, now.