'Twas the eve of Thanksgiving

For years I worked in denominations that traditionally held a Thanksgiving Eve service.
The dialogue below was originally performed by my wife and I 10 years or so ago at a one of those services.
Feel free to use this as you may have need.
Happy Thanksgiving!!

‘Twas the eve of Thanksgiving
by Curtis O. Fletcher

Wife: ‘Twas the eve of Thanksgiving and all through the town
gentle breezes were blowing the snow falling down.
The turkey was thawing quite slowly, with care
because all the relatives soon would be there.

Husband: (interrupting with slight exasperation)
The uncles and aunts and the sisters and brothers
with husbands and wives and significant others.

Wife: (continuing)
While I for my kerchief was starting to search
because we were already quite late for church.

Husband: (with animation)
When out from the kitchen arose such a clatter
I sprang from the couch to see what was the matter.
I slipped on the floor and I fell with a crash,
My head landed in the dogs dish with a splash!
Then the water began in its merciless flow
To saturate coat shirt and trousers below…
Then my eyes saw the reason for what I had heard
Those idiot dogs were devouring the bird!!
They had gotten it down from the counter quite quick
It was hard to believe they had pulled such a trick
Then more quickly then lightning my lovely wife came

Wife: And I heard as he called both the doggies bad names!

Husband: (loudly, with anger)
You two frapdahobes are in need of a fixin’!

Wife: Then he dove on the dogs and they started in mixin’
They rolled cross the floor and crashed into the wall
Water, turkey and stuffing now covered them all
Then out to the family room both pooches flew
With my raving mad husband in hot pursuit too
They tangled the cord and knocked over the lamp
They pawed and they pranced and got both couches damp

Husband: I had just caught the one and was turning around
When the other mutt leapt on my back with a bound


Wife: (Starting to find it all humorous)
They all fell in a heap at the fireplace foot
Where they kicked up large billows of ashes and soot

Husband: The dogs had me pinned laying flat on my back
For my head had bounced off of the bricks with a crack
So it goes without saying I wasn’t too merry
With a knot on the back of my head like a cherry
I arose, grabbed the dogs and gave them the heave-ho
Out into the backyard in the cold and the snow

Wife: (smiling, trying not to laugh)
He stood hands on hips panting hard through clenched teeth
Angry steam coming off of his head like a wreath
I tried not to laugh and held on to my belly
For he looked quite a sight, soiled, sooty, and smelly

Husband: Then I slammed the back door which brought down the loose shelf

Wife: And I laughed when I saw it in spite of myself

Husband: As the contents came cascading down on my head

Wife: I thought for a moment I’d something to dread

Husband: As the last chotchkie bounced off my noggin I jerked
And was struck with a thought that had struck me at work
(slowing, trying to remember something)
Now…I’ll try to remember just how the verse goes
Or at least I’ll come close…
Wife: …that’s ok I suppose.

Husband: (softening, realizing he’s been foolish)
In the bible it says that amongst Christian ranks
Should be found people who always are giving thanks
And a Christian who always is thankful is not
A person who says to God, “Yeah, thanks a lot!”

Wife: Like a wonderful fragrance that delights your nose
Praise and thanks are to God like a heavenly rose
In the midst of life’s most difficult circumstances
Lord because these are the chances
To trust He’ll provide and keep you on your feet
And mature you until you are perfect, complete

Husband: (chuckling)
We both laughed, ope’d the door, to the dogs gave a whistle
And in the hounds flew like the down from a thistle


Wife: please remember this now as you picture the sight

Both: be "thanks-giving" (air commas) for all and to all a good night.

Dawn Patrol - A Winter's Tale

It took me nearly all day to track this down on an old hard drive.
For those who are entering the season of first snows...
For those who are yearning towards winters offerings...
For those who remember childhood abandon...
This tale is for you:

Dawn Patrol

The sun rode low in the eastern sky and chased the midnight blue
He rousted, climbing slowly up to start the day anew
Then fired he horizon’s edge and woke a billion gems
White diamonds blazing brilliantly like royal diadems

The air was crisp and shimmering as if but freshly born
A whisper would be heard for miles on such a winter’s morn
‘Twas out into this wonderland three would be heroes came
Our voices stilled in reverence we faced the morning flame

Our noses beamed a frozen red and red shone each ones cheeks
And yet we paid no heed for we had watched for this for weeks
As hounds who leap at a foxes scent we quick took up the trail
With heads bent low we forged ahead through winters deep travail

Our breath like locomotive steam ensconced our heads in mist
Each icy inhalation brought my lips a frozen kiss
Disdaining words we would not taint the morning’s holy glow
We summited the peak and found our quarry down below

Eluding us all summer, deftly dodging through the fall
The wily foe below us would soon kneel as our thrall
We glanced at one another, to the heavens gave a nod
Then grimly smiled solemnly like frozen mountain gods

My heartbeat quickened frantically as we prepared our gear
The time had come for which we three had longed almost a year
With practiced skill we took our aim, as one we three let fly
With gaping mouths we loosed our hot and steaming battle cry

Adrenaline swelled my throbbing veins as down the hill we flew
I laughed aside the chilling blades that towards our faces blew
We hit the ramp at fatal speed, into the air we dashed
With pillowed landing far below, the blinding powder splashed

Fists pumping high, three mighty kings, brave conquerors we three
We ‘d braved and beat perdition’s hill and flown amongst the trees
We sat there proud and laughed aloud, bold monarchs on our thrones
And praised the builders of those chairs, Goodyear and Firestone.

Curtis O. Fletcher

More about "endings"

At the prompting of a trusted friend I've taken a bit of a stroll down memory lane this evening.
Ok, it has been more of a kind of hitching, reeling stumble...but same idea.

I've come to a bit of a conclusion that I hate goodbyes...I deeply hate "endings."

Sure there are times when it the best thing in the WORLD is to get to the end of something...something boring, or tedious, or craptivating.
(Craptivating: adj. something so BAD you can't tear your attention away from it.)
But that is really more of a start, the "start" of something better.

I suppose I am more convinced than ever that God weeps with us when we have a painful goodbye or a sad ending because He KNOWS it was not His wish for us.
How amazing would it have been to walk on the garden in the physical presence of God? And to know that the joys experienced there would continue WITHOUT end...
Someday...

But for now, trapped in a more temporal reality, if you value nothing else, if you have but one ounce of effort left to give, if your glass is down to the dregs...
Pour all that you have left into relationships, into the people you care about and who care about you. For they're gone from our earthly lives all too quickly.
Pour yourself into bringing them to a saving knowledge of Christ in the expectation that one day we'll look back on the endings, together, and chuckle at how such a small thing was so painful at the time. And we'll wonder how it is that we can hardly remember endings at all.

Thoughts on Eternity

I feel as though I have been swarmed under by a Tsunami of nostalgia.

The last few days were spent at a conference at Disneyland...my favorite vacation spot and home to many, many, many family memories.
As if that weren't enough...
I also spent a couple hours with my brother who delivered a package from my mom: an entire shopping bag full of pictures from my childhood and...letters from several girls I dated while I was in college.
Nothing worth weeping over, no long held regrets of any kind, just a LOT of memories.

Now, back up one week earlier...
I found myself in an odd combination of enjoying my new job, enjoying our new home, realizing things were moving in a great direction and...sad for the neighbors, schools, teams, friends, we'd left behind in the old neighborhood.

How can it be that while I can look back on the old and not have major regrets, look forward from the new and be excited, that I can feel a sense of sad nostalgia?

Then it occurred to me.
I wasn't meant to live with "endings".

If we had somehow managed to stay put, in the garden that is, then we'd have been set for eternal life living with God. That was His original intent for us...that we would live in eternity with Him. The fall has just put us in a place where the path back to that is a bit longer.
We wouldn't have endings there...endings are issues of time so, in eternity, time without end, there would be no endings. Nothing to "look back" on as being "over".
It's hard to wrap the mind around it.

It makes me wonder though if a part of the sadness that I associate with those bitter-sweet moments of nostalgia is really a deeply rooted sadness at missing the garden in which I was intended to live.

I wonder if what we're really missing is Home.

The Emperor's New Clothes

Most folks are probably familiar with this little tale by Hans Christian Andersen.

Two rogues convince the vain emperor that they can weave beautiful clothes from an amazing cloth that has "the wonderful property of remaining invisible to everyone who was unfit for the office he held, or who was extraordinarily simple in character."
As the story progresses everyone, of course, can "see" the suit of clothes as it is being created.
When the day arrives for the emperor to show off his new suit the scalawags convince him to show off their work in a procession before all the assembled people.
Once again everyone comments on the beauty of the suit of clothes for fear of appearing foolish or inept at their office.
Then one little child steps off the curb and says “But the Emperor has nothing at all on!”
In the made for tv cartoon versions of the story everyone begins to laugh and emperor runs off embarrassed.
In the actual version written by Hans the story ends thus:
The Emperor was vexed, for he knew that the people were right; but he thought the procession must go on now! And the lords of the bedchamber took greater pains than ever, to appear holding up a train, although, in reality, there was no train to hold.

So here's the question of the day:
Which character are you?

Are you the emperor?
Easily duped by your own vanity.

Are you the rogue tailors?
Con-man (person) par excel lance.

Are you one of the royal advisers?
Fearful of being thought foolish.

The crowd?
Following along.

The easy answer is to say, "I'm the child"
But if all of us were the child then the story would not have ever been popular.

Maybe the safest bet is to claim to be the narrator.
All seeing, all knowing but disaffected by any of the goings on...a simple witness with or without report.

More oft than not I find myself in the role of the child in the story and I can say from experience that THAT role doesn't always play out so well. The parade typically does continue, leadership unmoved, a fair amount of clamor on the sidelines but with little immediate impact on the central goings on.
I sometimes wonder what happens in the aftermath of the story.
Does the emperor have the child secretly arrested?
Does he put down any opposition violently and go on parade again?
Does he slink off into the shadows and pretend it never happened?
I think we've probably seen every conceivable version of the "sequel" played out in real life.

SO...
Which character are you?

I know I am destined to be cast as the child but upon reading the story again I'm not sure there are any other roles in which I'd want to be cast.

What if Obama were white?

Just a random thought for the day while we're on the subject of our next president.
The race for the democratic party nominee had the novelty factor...it was there and oft mentioned even if it wasn't the top line issue: the first woman president or the first black president.
Give the democrats props for marketing savvy.
I wonder though, if Obama had NOT had the "novelty factor" would his lack of long term experience have been made more of an issue?
Would his inspirational speeches have been as inspiring?
Would he have beaten Hilary?
I'm not saying he is more or less qualified in any sense due to race...I'm just asking the question, did race make a difference?
This past week one of the Denver Broncos wide receivers, who happens to be black, tried to pull out a black and white glove when he scored a touchdown. He was stopped by two of his teammates because the game was very close and the team couldn't afford the penalty that would have ensued...for a "planned celebration". The two teammates who stopped him were white.
In the paper the following day he was quoted as saying that he was "inspired by Senators Obama's" victory and that he wanted to raise the glove as a salute to racial progress...equating it to the athletes who raised a black power fist in the Olympics years ago.
For at least one athlete then, a member of the "black community", race made a difference.
(Thankfully nothing was made of "the white guys stopping the black guy" probably because the reasoning made sense in the context of the game.)
To my way of thinking race DID make a difference. It's up to us to determine whether that becomes a positive or a negative difference because, here's the thing...Obama is Mulatto...his father is black and his mother is white.
Would he still have been considered a "black candidate" had it been the other way around?
Or, if he had a black father but looked, from a shading perspective, more like his mother would he have been considered black?
It may seem totally random that somewhere along the line he became labled as a "black kid with a white mom" rather than the other way around...it proves how random issues of color can be...but it does seem to make a difference.
Or no one would have ever mentioned it.

President Elect

A friend mentioned to me the other day the this year marks Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday.
Regardless of how you or I may have voted how cool would it be for ol' Abe to be around to see that as a country we've elected a black president?
It will be interesting now to see where/how/if the race card is played since it was carefully danced around during the campaigning season. It is very easy for any of us folks of lighter shades to say "It shouldn't matter what color skin our president has..." and while that is true is doesn't quite play out that way in the day to day. The fact that anyone has even mentioned that this is the "first black president" means there is something different going on. We wouldn't point out the first "green-eyed president" or the first "red-headed president" so while we may want to believe it doesn't matter, it does. But how does it matter?
I was fortunate to have grown up with friends of varying hues.
My best friends before I was subjected to the educational system were mostly oriental kids of one flavor or another. In grade school I counted several kids of hispanic persuasion amongst my closest friends.
In middle school my best friends were white and black respectively. (Well, darker brown really but we stilled used the term "black" back then.)
The high school I attended had more people or darker shades than folks of the white/off-white variety so I close friends who were black, white, yellow, brown, and plaid.
In both high school and college I was dubbed an "honorary brother" (brutha) by the guys I hung out with who had the "authority" to confer such an honor.
Even with all of my integrated background I still recognize moments of what could be classified as prejudiced thought in myself but then I wonder if it truly is prejudiced thought or if it is just recognizing racial differences for what they are...racial differences.
I love to get into racial discussions with my black friends specifically because they have a perspective on these issues that I can never have. I have never had someone cross over to the other side of the street to avoid passing me on the sidewalk. I have never had a cop stop me and ask what I was up to because of my color. I have never had a woman clutch her purse more tightly as I pass.
Interestingly enough my hispanic or oriental friends don't have the same stories.
They have other tales to be certain but none that are as universal or comprehensively negative, at least none that they openly discuss as broadly.
So will it make a difference that in a few months we'll have our first black president?
I don't know...but I look forward to the dialogue that should come about as a result.

Editorial Note:
I intentionally avoided using the term "people of color". One of my black friends always jokes that white "isn't a color". I repeatedly remind him that that is true...if you're talking about crayons.
If, on the other hand, you're talking about light...then white is the presence of ALL colors.
And since none of us is any different color in the dark...then we're ALL people of color.

The first arrow

I freely confess I am still a bit confused about the whole blogging thing.
There are very FEW people whose thoughts I want to ponder on a regular basis and thus, by association, I conclude that very few people will find MY thoughts of interest on any kind of a regular basis. But there are those who have tried and who continue to try to convince me otherwise so I'm willing to give it one more go...which is why we're here.

In college I had the chance to DJ on the radio and occasionally, especially when we did a late night show, I wondered if there were even people out there listening. If no one were listening then weren't we just talking to ourselves and playing records, yes it was that long ago, in a very small room? If is that were all we were doing...wouldn't that make us slightly insane?

Blogging feels the same to me...with a little dash of arrogance thrown in for flavor.

That being said I'll attempt in my own small way to throw in a combination of the interesting, the creative and the macabre, on a semi-regular basis, for those who wish to engage...hopefully in dialogue.

I thought I'd make this run at blogging today of all days because of the "historical importance"!!! of today's elections

I woke up this morning with the full understanding that today is going to be one of those historic milestone days. We'll all, no doubt, be glad to be rid of the election campaign messaging whether we're glad with the outcome of the actual election or not.
It struck me this morning that the overwhelming majority of people I have heard comment on the election "on the street" have all had an underlying theme to their comments...

They're all voting against something rather than for something.

Most of those I've heard in support of Senator Obama have said they're voting for "change". One of the major thrusts of his campaign has been that voting for the Rebuplican candidate, no matter who it would have turned out to be, would be a vote for what we have now and thus a vote for "change" is a vote AGAINST what we have now.

In the same way many of the folks I have heard in support of Senator McCain have said that they could never vote in favor of the "socialist agendas" or the "more government" policies of the Dems. Thus, they too are choosing to vote AGAINST something.

Neither conversation have had much to say about what they LIKE about the party or person they're voting for but a LOT to say about what they DON'T like about the opposition.

Doesn' this start to feel like our only option is to choose the "lesser of two evils"?

Sure it winds up being painted up much prettier than that but that's what it boils down to in the end. And, in the end, that is sad.
Sad that there are large numbers of folks voting today to make sure the "other guy" or the "other way of thinking" doesn't get in.
Sad because it will serve to only further the divide between competing idiologies.
Sad because there will be those who are happy that the others are sad.

If it is true that "a house divided against itself cannot stand" then how much longer have we got as a nation?

No matter what your political persuasion is...
No matter how you voted today...
No matter what your core beliefs...
I like to challenge you to become an agent of change by bringing about reconcilliation, community, and relationship.
Cheesy? perhaps...
..perhaps not.