Roland Yeomans's Blog, page 88

Bottleneck At Our Nation's PRINTERS!

Hardcover sales are up, and
unit sales at independent bookstores 
have risen 5 percent.


But what should be good news for publishers, agents and authors 
has created headaches during the crucial holiday sales season, 
as printing presses struggle to keep up with a surge in demand.
Midnight has a solution: 
Kindle Books

Ah, He's a cat.   Cats don't know shame.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KQ8XMJR
Midnight does have a point ...
ah, a mouthful of them actually!
But it is never too late to give an eBook.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE and its MAGIC of THE THRESHOLD

There are moments that happen that change how you look on life and on what is and is not possible.    You are never the same afterwards.  
 The Nativity was one of those times.

 There is even a word for this situation: “Liminality.” 
“Liminality” is the word for the threshold moment: 
from the Latin root limin, meaning the centerline of the doorway.
  Liminality is the moment of crossing over. 

It describes the transitional phase of personal change, 
where one is neither in an old state of being nor a new, 
and not quite aware of the implications of the event. 
All the stages of life include liminality. 

Life is nothing but moments of crossing over. 

Liminality is why we celebrate Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve but not other holidays’ eves.



We celebrate Christmas Eve 


because Jesus is traditionally thought to have been born at midnight.  



And we celebrate New Year’s Eve because midnight is when the year changes. 




Christmas Eve is a threshold moment.




We can choose to stay on the other side of the moment, 


refusing to enter and accept what gifts await us.


After all, for most of the world there is still no room in the Inn for He who breathed the world into existence.



Christmas Eve is the time to reflect on what awaits us beyond whatever threshold we choose to cross ...


to reflect on what thresholds we thought would always be there but now are gone, 


along with the mortal hearts that waited for us beyond them.



Whatever you believe, 


it can be a healing thing to take Christmas Eve to reflect on all the gifts given to you this past year


and on what needs exist in your surroundings that you can be an agent of healing by meeting. 



Christmas Eve revives the wonder of childhood 


where snowflakes sing on their way down to the ground, 


where faeries ice skate on bird baths, 


and magic waits for us to open the door of our hearts to let it in.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE, MY FRIENDS!

DEMOLITION MAN is TODAY!

 Ever see  DEMOLITION MAN?
It predicted so many things warping our society today.  
Hate Speech. Political Correctness that permeates all through society. 
Many More:
1.) Arnie’s political career
 We all laughed in 1993 at the concept of Arnold Schwarzenegger running for any kind of political office, never mind the presidency. 
But after two terms as the Governor of California it’s not looking so un-likely anymore.



  2.) Self-Driving Cars, iPad and Skype
Almost all the cars in the film (with the notable exception of the red oldsmobile) are self-driving. 

3.) Voice Activated Appliances
 Everything from the lights, to the cars, to the automated ticket machine for breaking the verbal morality statute 
has voice controls in Demolition Man’s future. 
We already have siri and Google voice search, how long before they take away our profanity?!

4.) Political Correctness Is The LAW 

HAVE YOU SEEN DEMOLITION MAN?
HOW DOES IT COMPARE  TO TODAY'S CULTURE?

The CHRISTMAS CLASSIC that ALMOST WASN'T

A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
"There will always be a market for innocence."- Charles Schulz
The only Christmas Tree I have had for the past few years is a reproduction of Charlie Brown's famous Christmas tree.
It is a musical one which I set off when I leave for work each day, 
reminding me to show love to all the lonely souls I might see that day.

On paper, the show's bare-bones script would seem to offer few clues to its enduring popularity. 
Mendelson, its producer, says the show was written in several weeks, 
after Coca-Cola called him just six months before the program aired 
to ask if Schulz could come up with a Peanuts Christmas special.

 Scholars of pop culture say that shining through the program's skeletal plot 
is the quirky and sophisticated genius that fueled the phenomenal popularity of Schulz's work, 
still carried by 2,400 newspapers worldwide even though it's repeating old comic strips.


What makes A Charlie Brown Christmas the "gold standard" 
is that it somehow manages to convey an old-fashioned, overtly religious holiday theme
 that's coupled with Schulz's trademark sardonic, even hip, sense of humor.

While Schulz centers the piece on verses from the Bible, 
laced throughout are biting references to the modern materialism of the Christmas season. 
Lucy complains to Charlie that she never gets wants she really wants.
 "What is it you want?" Charlie asks. 
"Real estate," she answers.

 Parents say the combination of humor and bedrock values is what draws them and their children to the show. 
It does provide a balance, but it's a balance that we as a society seem to have forgotten about.

Yet, when CBS bigwigs saw a rough cut of A Charlie Brown Christmas in November 1965, they hated it.
 "They said it was slow," executive producer Lee Mendelson remembers with a laugh. 
There were concerns that the show was almost defiantly different: 
There was no laugh track,
real children provided the voices, and there was a swinging score by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi. 
And Schulz's insistence that his first-ever TV spinoff end with a reading of the Christmas story 
 from the Gospel of Luke by a lisping little boy named Linus was madness all the experts said.
"You can't read from the Bible on network TV!"

Good grief, were they wrong. 
The first broadcast was watched by almost 50% of the nation's viewers!

 "Lee didn't want to use Hollywood kids. He wanted the sound of kids who didn't have training," 
says Sally Dryer, 58, who did the voice of Violet and later was the voice of Lucy.

 The show was also novel in that it used no laugh track, an omnipresent device in animated and live-action comedies of the era.
Schulz strongly believed that his audience could figure out when to laugh.

 Perhaps the most enduring aspect of the show has been its score — 
a piano-driven jazz suite that was absolutely unheard-of for children's programming in 1965.
 The driving tune that the Peanuts children keep dancing to in the special, called Linus and Lucy,
 has become a pop staple that's been recorded countless times in the intervening decades.

 To me, the reason it's endured is because of its simplicity and its very basic honesty to real life.
 Who would have thought this would last 50 years? 

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE REASON FOR ITS POPULARITY?
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT FROM THE SHOW? 

Beware the HOLI-DAZE!

Ratatoskr conked out on my dash as I do a blood run!
The Great Mystery's Light visited our world in the human form of a tiny infant.

Take a moment to reflect that that very Light might reside in the hurrying body of the person next to you, 

that very Light formed the stars and the seas and the birds of the air.

Breathe in deeply and pause to soak in the wonder of His caring for the sparrows of the field ... 

and you  ... and what it cost Him.


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MT8DNLY

 2.) SLOW DOWN AND SMELL THE MISTLETOE



And the cinnamon and the chestnuts and the turkey 

and all of the other delicious smells, beautiful sights, and familiar sounds 

that have become symbols of the joy of the holiday season.

Enjoy it in the way it was meant to be enjoyed, 

by relaxing and sharing quality time with family and friends. The rest is just window dressing.





3.) SLEEP



Don't allow the hustle and bustle of the season to cause you to sacrifice sleep. 

It's normal during the holidays to have more on your to-do list than usual, 

but that shouldn't result in cutting SLEEP from that list!

Sleep is restorative. 

It's the time when your body replenishes itself at a cellular level 

and repairs itself from the damage of mental stress, physical strain, infection, sun exposure, and pollutants. 

Without enough sleep, 

our minds and bodies don't function as well as they could, which makes us less productive.

And sleep even aids in LOSING WEIGHT!
http://www.webmd.com/diet/sleep-and-weight-loss

SO SLEEP MORE & WEIGH LESS!!



4.) AIM FOR PROGRESS NOT PERFECTION!



When you expect perfection in your holiday preparations, 

expect a lot of added and unnecessary stress and fatigue as well. 

No battle ever went as planned -- ask Napoleon.  
And Christmas can be a BATTLE!

If you're planning to host a party, why do you need to prepare a major feast? 

Why not try an assortment of easy-to-make side dishes or appetizers? 

Or why not consider sharing the load by making the event a pot luck? 

Most holiday guests feel compelled to bring something anyway, so why not let them bring a dish?




5.) PLAN A SILENT NIGHT

Block it in your calendar as if it were a visit from the Pope.

Plan a night for just you.  

Listen to your favorite music no matter if it is POLKA!  

Dance by yourself if the whim takes you.

Whatever would heal you in your down time, do it.


Even when you are alone, you are not alone if you love:




 6.) ELF YOURSELF




Or your boss.  Or your friends.  

Laughter has been around for awhile now.  There's a reason for that.  
Laughter heals!
Mark Twain has young Satan ask:

"Will a day come when your race will detect the funniness of these juvenilities and laugh at them--and by laughing at them destroy them?

 For your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably only one really effective weapon--laughter. 

Power, Money, Persuasion, Supplication, Persecution--these can lift at a colossal humbug,--

push it a little-- crowd it a little--weaken it a little, century by century: 

but only Laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand.
 
- "The Chronicle of Young Satan," Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts



7.) START AND END WITH GRATITUDE





In a sense THANKSGIVING starts the HOLIDAY season and there is WISDOM in that.


If you are not grateful for what you have, you will soon find yourself with even less.
Remember:
Somewhere in this world someone is happy with less than what you have.

The way to start and end the day is 

to pause and list the things and people that have made and make your day better just by being in your life.

You may have lost some things, beloved persons in your life -- give yourself permission to grieve.

Take ten minutes to feel shitty.

Then 

THINK OF HOW LUCKY YOU WERE TO HAVE THEM AT ALL --

HOW DIFFERENT A PERSON YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN WITHOUT THEM.

Decide then and there that at least for Christmas, 

you will be a healing presence in at least one person's life -- 

even if it is only to let some harried driver in the crowded lane ahead of you.


MY PRAYER FOR ALL YOU, MY FRIENDS, THIS HOLIDAY SEASON
HAVE A HEALING, PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS!

Ratatoskr just rolled over and told me to ask you guys:

"What do you call Batman when he skips church?

Christian Bail!"


Great!  
You groan at me, and Ratatoskr is fast asleep!!

My Christmas gift to you:

Sins of NATIVITY SCENES

I drove past a Catholic Hospital on my way to work this morning, and I saw a lovingly crafted Nativity Scene.




I felt a bit more in the Christmas mood just seeing it
despite the "summer" temperature here in Louisiana

 since you do not see them very often anymore.


After all this is the Age of Enlightenment, of Sophistication, of Religious Tolerance ...




Unless you are a Christian ...


then, keep your beliefs to yourself, thank you very much!


Kindly stay hidden




and do not bother us with your world-view ...

though you are a lout if you do not give us the freedom of expression to beat you over the head with our beliefs.


But that is fitting in an odd way actually ...






The first Christians in the Roman Empire were hunted and persecuted.


Say at an inn, you sat across from a traveler and wondered from his words if he were a fellow believer,


you took your finger and drew the top swirl of the fish image from the condensation of your drink ...


If he completed the bottom image of the crude fish with his own finger, 

you knew you were in the company of a fellow believer.




The Greek word for fish is "ichthys."


 As early as the first century, Christians made an acrostic from this word: 


Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter, i.e. Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.


The fish has plenty of other theological overtones as well, for Christ fed the 5,000 with 2 fishes and 5 loaves.




So if we are now once again cordoned off because of our beliefs, we are in good company.




But we can still reach out quietly in Christian Love, 

giving comfort and compassion during this season, silently living the world-view in which we believe.


Once again, I end with Alan Paton's wise words:

“There is only one way in which one can endure man's inhumanity to man and that is to try, in one's own life, to exemplify man's humanity to man.”


Now, for a bit of Christmas cheer:

TO TELL THEIR STORY

“The living owe it to  those who no longer can speak  to tell their story for them.”  -  Czesław Miłosz
 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KQ8XMJR/
In my Christmas Ghost tale

you will meet dapper young men in the 1920's who court the mysterious, deadly Senorita ...

to their eternal sorrow. 
Here is a glimpse of New Orleans in the 1920's where you can see the styles ...

Look closely, and you will see a glimpse of the Jade Christmas! 


Most of the action in my Christmas Ghost Story takes place in 1946.

To us, that time seems so far away.

Those living then did not realize they were living history ...

as we are today.

Take a peek:


For just $1.99 you can time travel to a Christmas Eve lost in time and mystery.

Give it a try.  :-)

Friendship Beats SEX!

FRIENDSHIP BEATS SEX!

Yes. It surprised me, too.

I keep track of what countries visit me and what key words on Google led them to me.

SEX. DOMINATRIX. SEDUCTION.

They were all popular. 

But every day my post “WHY FRIENDSHIP?” is a magnet for visitors.
 
FRIENDSHIP.

We yearn for it,

For we are the Hollow People.

Science will tell you that. Inside an atom is a nucleus, composed of flying neutrons and protons.

The nucleus is orbited by electrons, travelling so fast, they seem to form a solid shell. In between them? Empty space.

Squeeze all the empty space out of each of our atoms, and we would be but a handful of dust.

Like an atom’s nucleus, many of us fly through life so fast, we project the illusion of solidity.

But like the atom’s nucleus, we are hollow.

Walk the streets of any large city and look into the eyes of those you pass. Slip through the veneer we put up to keep the predators at bay,

and you will see the hollowness of their spirits,

yearning for friendship, for connection with a kindred spirit.

To no longer be hollow.

That is why friendship plays such a large role in all of my novels, 

even in the last fantasy in my Silhouettes in the Key of Scream 

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GVFH1PF/
I said, “All in the House Eternal are my charges.  I will see to them or die.” 

Mouse chirped, “I vote for a greater margin of error.” 

I patted his small head.  “I give you leave to flee to the shadows, little friend.” 

Mouse’s eyes deepened.  

“You may not remember the time you first fed me. 

Or the time you first scooped me up into the safety of your shirt pocket. 

Or the time you waited at the crossroads for me to catch up. 

But I do, and the end of your skein of days will be mine.”
 
Have a lovely Christmas Season, my friends.

AGES of CHRISTMAS

CHILDHOOD

Last post I talked a bit of the wonder of a child's Christmas.  

Christmas as a child is a beautiful time when magic is real, anything is possible, 

and the Big Day seems to drag closer ever so slowly.

And well it should.  When you are five, a year until next Christmas is literally 20% of your life! 

As you age, the holidays seem to fly by as your perspective stretches out 

along with the number of holidays you have seen.

But as a child ...  The whimsy of the day is real. The unbridled, child-like innocence is real.

No gift you will receive as an adult with thrill you like your Christmas gifts of childhood.  


ADOLESCENCE 

The focus switches from magic to materialism.  The Macy's Day Parade becomes old hat.  

What your school friends want finds its way on your gift list.

Giving?  

Use my allowance or after-school job money on others?  What are you talking about?

The Red Sea both receives and gives water.  

The Dead Sea only receives, never gives.  

One over-flows with life; the other is stagnant and dead. 


TWENTY-SOMETHING WITH KIDS

The old joy of Christmas is re-kindled with seeing the joy in their children's eyes.  Old faerie tales are now read aloud to wide eyes.  

The magic is reborn.

Putting the lights on the Christmas Tree becomes a family tradition.  Happy Memories are sowed in the hearts of both parents and children alike.


TWENTY-SOMETHING WITHOUT KIDS

Materialism goes on steroids.  

Yet, with the focus on the self, Christmas becomes emptier.  The giving of gifts to co-workers and friends make of the holidays a drudgery. 

Some yearn for the wonder and innocence of their childhood Christmas.  

Some find the magic again by giving at homeless shelters and food tents.



THIRTY TO MIDDLE AGE

We look back at our younger selves and realize how much we've changed. 

The answer, of course, is that we all grow up -- 

and for many of us, what it means to be "happy" slowly evolves into something completely different.

 Social psychologists describe this change as a consequence of a gradual shifting from promotion motivation -- 

seeing our goals in terms of what we can gain, 

or how we can end up better off, to prevention motivation -- 

seeing our goals in terms of avoiding loss and keeping things running smoothly.

And how we experience Christmas is colored by those changes in perspective.


OUR SILVER AGE

Those of us with grandchildren get the best of both worlds.  

We get the joy of basking in the love of young children with the plus of being able to hand them back to their parents!

Cradling young infants in the middle of the day gives us an excuse for an mid-day snooze, too.


AS THE SHADOWS GATHER

Many brood over what they have lost and not upon what they still have left.  

Christmas carols spark memories of lost friends and of lost opportunities.

Yet the wisest in this age group find that Christmas is for the young ... at heart 

(no matter their physical age.)

In a strange way, sixty is the new twenty.

The youngest people, teenagers, people in their 20s, are the least happy group of people. 

There's a lot of uncertainty and you are forming your identity and you're not really sure who you are.

 Old age actually can bring happiness.  

Now why are older people happier?  

I think one of the main reasons is when we're older we're emotionally wiser.

SO?
HOW DO YOU VIEW THIS CHRISTMAS?

When WONDER Filled CHRISTMAS

Even a child of poverty like myself saw Christmas through the eyes of innocence.

I was too young to know our Christmas meal of meatloaf

was lovingly, carefully cooked dog food fresh from the can ...

Its red topping from packets of ketchup plucked from the garbage bin behind our basement apartment.

The meatloaf tasted great to me ...
  
You see, it was served with the most magical of sauces:


Love.
The candle atop it was saved from my birthday cupcake,

but its brightness filled our dark apartment with love and magic.

Veteran of so few Christmases,

I didn't recognize our Christmas Tree was really a wiring together of broken pine needles

Mother had stealthily scooped up from a near-by lot selling whole trees.

All I knew was that their aroma filled our small basement apartment

with the magic that anything was possible.

Looking up through the lone window at sidewalk level,

Mother and I would sing carol after carol, their titles sparked by what we saw ...

Silver Bells. Let It Snow. Pretty Ribbons. O Holy Night.

I would eventually drift off to sleep,

awakening to my present not knowing the terrible price Mother had paid for it.

The red wagon bought from the money Mother received for selling a pint of her blood,

though she was so weak and frail.

The humongous stuffed tiger nearly as large as me

kept on layaway for 8 long months by a kind, patient store owner.

(I still have stuffed tigers in my apartment, standing vigil over a perplexed Midnight and myself.)

By the way,

my childhood love of tigers nearly killed me on my first trip to the Detroit Zoo. 

That story, however, is for another time.

But the Christmas and its carols of my childhood

( and I suspect from the childhood of most children)

are captured by ears still hearing the clatter of reindeer hooves atop roofs

and the chimes of snowflakes singing.

Let us cling to that child-like wonder this Christmas for as long as we can, shall we?


What do the memories and carols of your childhood Christmases bring to mind?