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When I was in elementary school in Argentina, kids from over 40 countries and every religion imaginable were my classmates and friends and, mostly, we didn't allow our backgrounds or beliefs to be in competition with one another ... except that the Catholic kids got to skip portions of classes during catechism season. And I thought, really? They couldn't have learned their answers to confirmation questions after school or on weekends??
This memory came unbidden this week as I realized that Sunday (the beginning of a month in which our congregational theme will be "Mystery") is both the first Sunday of Advent and the Sunday before the beginning of Hanukkah (starting at sundown on Thursday, December 7th). Of course, in our pluralistic, welcoming way, at UUCMC, we will celebrate both! But perhaps at the kid level, some competition among the faiths remains, especially with the cultural juggernaut of Christmas overlying so many traditions of bringing light into the darkness this time of year (we'll salute them all on the 17th at our annual Litany of Lights). In that vein, I offer a piece by beloved poet and children's book author, Richard Michelson:
Elijah vs. Santa
Richard Michelson
Weight advantage: Santa. Sugar and milk
at every stop, the stout man shimmies
down one more chimney, sack of desire
chuting behind, while Elijah, skinny
and empty-handed, slips in invisible as
a once favored, since disgraced uncle,
through the propped open side door.
Inside, I’ve been awaiting a miracle
since 1962, my 9 year-old self slouching
on this slip-covered sofa, Manischewitz
stashed beneath the cushion. Where
are the fire-tinged horses, the chariots
to transport me? Where is the whirlwind
and brimstone? Instead, our dull-bladed
sleigh rusts in the storage bin beneath
the building’s soot-covered flight
of cellar stairs. Come back to me father,
during December’s perfect snowfall
and pull me once more up Schenck
and down Pitkin, where the line wraps
around Church Hall. Show me, again,
the snapshot of the skull-capped boy
on Santa’s lap. Let me laugh this time
and levitate like a magician’s assistant,
awed by my own weightlessness. Give me
the imagination to climb the fire escape
and look up toward the Godless Heaven
and to marvel at the ordinary sky.
Did you experience any competitive feelings regarding your religious tradition as a kid? What are your late-in-the-year memories of family or winter or the holidays?
What imagery stands out to you in the poem?
The author seems to want, even in his adult-self''s conception of a secular sky, to recapture the imagination required to appreciate the wonder of the season. Can you still recapture some of the mystery at the heart of your childhood holiday dreams?
This will be a month full of wonder and excitement at UUCMC. This Sunday, we welcome our sole living founding member, Lee Rossbach, and wish him a hearty 100th birthday! We also have an interim congregational meeting following the service. After the service on the 17th, the Community Room will become the epicenter for a Holiday Gift-Making Extravaganza. And, remember, no morning service on the 24th, but two later services, at 4:00 and 8:00 PM, complete with lessons, carols, and stories of the season. The month rounds out on the 31st with a joyous Hymn-fest at the hands of our Music Director Emerita, Elaine Held.
Tea Times will be observed this week, Nov 30, as well as December 14th and 21st. It's hard to believe 2023 will become the past, but what a rich source of memories it will always be for me, for it was this year that you voted for and installed me as your settled minister.
I am looking forward to saluting many of the season's holidays with you in the weeks to come!
Rev. Craig
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