It’s already the 12th so I guess I have to admit the holidays are over. The Epiphany has come and gone, I’ve eaten the last of the Christmas caramels, and this past weekend was the Wade get-together (there were 71 of us, spanning in age from 1 to 78 years). I still have some returns to make and thank-you notes to write.
January tends to throw me into hibernation mode as starkness prevails.
I’ve attended my first funeral of the year, Chicago experienced some days of arctic cold, and an attack on a satirical humor magazine in France has reverberated around the world, with many people from many nations showing support by declaring “Je Suis Charlie.”
We like to believe everyone is equal. But some lives (and deaths) don’t seem to be.
Take for example the recently massacred in Nigeria by the Boko Haram. We’ve hardly heard about it. Yet The Guardian reports as many as 2,000 people may have been killed.
Closer to home, Chicago Tribune’s Redeye commemorates the 434 dead in Chicago in 2014.
One quip that caught my attention lately is this: Don’t believe everything you think.
We don’t consider that we’ve got to be wrong a certain percentage of the time. This is what I tell myself when I am being pessimistic.
When I get into negative thinking I try to counteract it by thinking of all I have to be grateful for, such as:
Gifts. I’ll be upfront about being materialistic and proclaim gifts as one of the best things about the holidays. I like giving and getting. Some of the cool ones I received this year are Imagination Book by Nick Cave (which is where I got my fancy suit in photo above) and Amerigo Vivaldi Pigasus.
Never heard of a pigasus? I hadn’t either but here’s the squeal: “Since the earliest times twelve tribes of Flying Pigs or Pigasi have crucially influenced human history in their covert roles as friends and counselors to statesmen, soldiers, philosophers, inventors, musicians, painters and actors. Of all the twelve tribes the Italian Pigasis, possessing volatile and creative temperaments, are the most devoted to the theatrical arts. Instrumental in the founding of Venice in 421, their artistic influence spread through the following centuries across the whole of the Italian mainland, inspiring up to the present day a constellation of Italian composers, singers, poets, actors, and the occasional athlete.”
Traditions. As I get older I am more sentimental about traditions, like the Heath Bar dessert and mini pecan rolls, the Christmas crackers we started using as favors when one of our guests was from England, the white elephant gift exchanges we do with both sides of the family. This year, I saw Stephen Karam’s play The Humans at American Theatre Company in Chicago. The family in the play is from Pennsylvania and one of their traditions is a peppermint pig. I’d never heard of this before so I Googled it and found one to order. 
Family. Like everyone, my brothers and sisters are getting older (and so am I, I am loathe to say). What’s cool is that age has made my family appreciate one another even more. My parents would be happy their kids love one another.
Well, that’s what’s been on my mind these first dozen days of 2015. I’ll check in again before the next twelve are over. Hope something has made you happy today.
Peace, love, and solace
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