Friends,

Happy New Year!

Daughter Rachel’s and my third book is up at Amazon (see links to our three books below). It will be available for delivery in a week or so.

Donald Trump, Jr’s book made it to the New York Times Best Seller list because Republican operatives bought it in bulk.

Well, if you would like to follow suit and buy our book in bulk so that we make it to the NYT’s Best Seller list, I’m sure there will be a special reward for you in heaven. Well, actually, I’m pretty sure that won’t happen. 😇

Bob

Amazon: “Comedy and Tragedy – and what’s in between” Musings, Vignettes, Poems III 2020
Amazon: “The Nine A.M. Jog” Musings, Vignettes, Poems II 2016
Amazon: “The Ten P.M. Walk” Musings, Vignettes, Poems 2014

And if those don’t work, try this:

It wasn’t just baby Jesus who was born in the way
the story goes to fulfill prophecy.
The mythic, cosmic Christ was born that day
so he could live in me and thee.
and then each and every day
we would give birth to Jesus’ mercy, peace
and justice to all for eternity.

*idea from Matthew Fox paraphrasing Meister Eckhart
as stated in a meditation by Richard Rohr

The guy sitting next to me at the bar
is named Harley. I said, “Nice to meet
you, Mr. Davidson.” “Oh, no, but I
would like his money. My last name is,”

and then I never did catch it. He is
from Minnesota and this is the first
winter that he and his wife would be
wintering at Gulf Shores. He was a

loud talker and a louder laugher and
his big body rose and fell with every
guffaw. I pictured him in a Santa out-
fit. “We’re about the same age but you

look a lot younger than I do,” he said,
which didn’t make any sense to me be-
cause we hadn’t shared ages and then
he said that my wife looks a lot young-

er than I do and his wife chimed in on
how she believed it was because I was
bald and that always makes guys look
older. I bit my tongue and added that

I am glad to be vertical and taller than
the grass and I was glad she went back
to her beer and a conversation with a
loud-mouthed woman sitting next to

her.  I told Harley a semi-dirty joke and
I thought he was going to fall off the
stool as he exclaimed for all the snow-
birds to hear, “And a dirty joke from

a preacher,” and I said to the bartender,
“Check please.”  As my wife and I headed
for the door, I exclaimed, “Merry Christmas
to all and to all — goodnight.”

“I’m going to be
all over you
like a bad suit,”
and then…
he was.

winds from the south blow
warmth across northern gulf sands
while waves crash onshore.

It was Christmas day in Gulf
Shores, and the man stopped
in a store to buy some Christmas
cheer. The clerk’s name was Chris

and he told her that his wife’s
name also is Chris and that this
is her birthday. Chris, the clerk,
exclaimed, “A Christmas baby.”

And the man said, “The poor
girl has been robbed of a birth-
day. How can you compete with
Jesus for a birthday?” Chris

laughed and the two spoke of
Christmases past and Christmases
on their own away from family
and both agreed that was really

good because it frees children
from hard decisions about whom
to visit. They spoke of unloving
mothers who kept trying to be

filled spiritually by taking
things in from the outside —
accumulating things, stuff
and how it never, ever work-

ed and it left them empty,
bitter people. He said it is
a spiritual matter. She said
she was very spiritual. They

agreed that the spiritual life
comes from within and is all
about giving from inside out.
As he left the shop with his

bottle of holiday spirits, he
said, “Keep that spirit alive and
keep giving.” And then she did
that exact thing. “Merry Christ-

mas to you and happy birthday
to Chris. Please tell her.” “Will
do. Thanks and Happy Holy
Days.”

I have always said “Merry Christmas,” and still do,
but I don’t get the new ha, ha, brew
that you can’t say “Happy Holidays,” instead or too.
It’s good to be inclusive,
Carl Sandburg once said the ugliest
word in English is exclusive,
so let’s recall that the origin of “holiday”
is “holy day” and wish Happy Holidays or Holy Days
of Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan (in the spring),
Kwanzaa, and Winter Solstice
to Christians, Jews, Muslims, African Americans
and Pagans, too.

Myth has it that family Christmas
celebrations are as smooth, relaxing
and enjoyable as Bourbon laced eggnog,

but he knows that family holiday cele-
brations are more like National Lam-
poon’s Christmas and that is why he

and his wife celebrate birthdays and
major holidays all on a non-holiday
weekend, every other year with the

whole famdamily, so everyone can
go wherever they want and celebrate
with whomever they want on holidays

and not worry about offending anyone
in the family. Hallelujah, hallelujah,
hallelujah!!! Amen.

The woman’s junior high daughter came
home from church crying. The woman asked
her daughter what was wrong. The daughter

really wanted to go caroling with the
senior high school church school class,
but the junior high students weren’t in-

vited. Wanting her daughter to feel better,
she said, “Darling, don’t feel so bad.
There have been other junior high students

who didn’t get to do what the senior
high students did.” And with that, she
told her daughter the following pun:

Every fall around Halloween, the senior
high youth group from Froggie Presbyterian
Church went on a horseback ride. The Junior

high frogs couldn’t go because they couldn’t
jump high enough to get on the horses.
So they practiced and practiced jumping.

You might say that every fall they hop
for dapples. And with that, her daughter
groaned and turned to her I-Phone.

Karl Marx, who spent his life studying the subject, observed
that history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the
second time as farce. This topsy-turvy election year makes
one wonder whether he might have gotten that backwards. We’ve
had farce, that much is certain. What will the next time bring?
— The Prophecies of Jane Jacobs, Nathaniel Rich

We certainly have had unprecedented farce
From the guy in white golf shorts with a big arse.
What will be our best strategy
If history brings us to the brink of tragedy?
We have the vote to save our democracy
From this assault on our fragility.