Decade Changes Without Fanfare

The passing of the “00s” into the “10s” leaves me somewhat less than captivated by the permanent numerical change in the calendar.

It seems to me that the changing of a decade used to mean more. I remember sitting with my mother in the family room wondering what the 1980s would bring. We were blissfully unaware of the coming Reagan years which would roll back social progress and make greed fashionable. We had no idea I was about to burst through the closet door, beginning adulthood as an out and proud gay man, surviving one of the most terrifying periods of gay history when thousands were felled by AIDS.

1990 brought a full set of fresh hopes and expectations: a new career, new home, a wide open future. I didn’t know yet that I would feel the full effects of homophobia, get married and divorced, change occupational paths multiple times, or buy a home all by myself.

The last change of decades, of course, also brought a new millennium. Perhaps that’s why this new decade seems less interesting. It will be another thousand years before we match the excitement of Y2K when I drove up to Nebraska and celebrated the four-digit calendar turnover with my brother’s family over fireworks and a giant cookie on which I mistakenly wrote in frosting a welcome to the year 200 (yes, two hundred).

Prior to this millennium, talk of the future always began with the phrase, “By the year 2000 …” Predictions were as much hope as fact. By the year 2000:

• Our cars would fly.
• Robots would serve us in our homes.
• Colonies of humans would populate the moon and Mars.
• We would no longer eat food because all nutrition would be consumed in pills. 

Ever since 2000 I have felt like I was living in the future. In some ways, actual change in this decade has been as amazing as we imagined in the 1970s.

By 2010:

• Everyone carries their phone with them. Remember when the Star Trek communicator seemed so astounding? It didn’t do half that of our modern cell phones.
• There are hundreds of channels on the TV. There are even multiple channels dedicated solely to golf – quality is another subject altogether.
• The President of the United States has African ancestry.
• Ordinary, everyday information can be sent around the world in less than seconds – from my sofa, no less (while I watch one of hundreds of TV channels).
• Everyone can distribute their own writing or broadcast their own video with the technological potential to reach millions. If I wanted to, I could publish a text reporting to the entire world what I had for dinner or when I last went to the bathroom. Whether anyone cares is somewhat irrelevant.
• In some states and many countries, including now Argentina and Mexico, men are marrying men and women are marrying women. I couldn’t have imagined. 

Perhaps we’re just too tired to celebrate the passing of a decade like we used to. In addition to coping with the many changes, and adapting to the new technology, the past 10 years have been tough.

• A controversial President was put into power without a majority vote.
• Evil forces we didn’t understand attacked our country and caught us unaware, unleashing our own irrational response in the form of two wars we cannot seem to end.
• While the world is brought closer by technology, our country is increasingly divided and polarized, neither side willing or able to consider the others’ point of view. The world’s poor are left out of the conversation completely, but perhaps that is not so new.

The changing of a decade reminds us that time passes on a personal level as well. Some loved ones pass away while others are born. Marriages begin and end. Jobs and careers come and go. Friends drop out of our lives and sometimes drop back in.

 

The youthful hope of 1990 is calmer and more confident now, somewhat wizened, with a bit less stamina, and a little less arrogance. Certainly there is less hair on top and a few more wrinkles down below. Whatever this new decade brings, there will certainly be change, and there’s no telling what we’ll be remembering in 2020.

The Truth Behind the Christmas Myth

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior… He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.”
- Mary, mother of Jesus, in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 1

Some expected the messiah to come in a huge, apocalyptic ball of fire swallowing up evil doers. Others expected a new King, dressed in a purple royal robe, riding in on a fine white horse with a huge righteous army to overthrow the corrupt government.

When John the Baptist started to publicly repeat the prophecies of Isaiah, it caught the attention of the religious power elite (perhaps the equivalents of our Pat Robertson or the Pope). The idea of a messiah coming to upset the status quo was distressing to them. Their power was threatened. But John was too elated to care what they thought. "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord'".

Mary's words in the Gospel of Luke (the Song of Mary, or Magnificat) are meant to be sung. She rejoices in being blessed with the chance to serve God. She magnifies the Lord.

Most mainline American Protestants are not good at expressing faith with outward joy. At best, we might utter a monotone litany of praise.

Rather than reflect quietly on the meaning of it all, we could be moved, inspired by John's and Mary's joy, to proclaim to the world that our Savior is coming to save us from the darkness of sin.

The “S” word.

Please don't cringe or roll your eyes at the mention of sin.

Sin is nothing more, and nothing less, than separating ourselves from God.

This estrangement is at the root of bad things like hate, discrimination, dishonesty, abuse, oppression, racism, all the "isms," - and things less dramatic, like just being so busy that we don't seem to have time to care for the people around us.

As human beings, we are always to some degree, separated from God.

But as Christians, we believe that while we don't always see God or feel God's presence or grace, and though we neglect to remember God through prayer and deed, God never forgets us - God never leaves us.

Of course, life doesn't turn into a fairyland of gum drops and lollipops the minute we remember that God loves us. We continue to live in a tough, churning world. But the knowledge that God hasn't turned a cold shoulder gives us the chance to hope and to have courage and to take steps to overcome the separation. This is grace.

This time of year, we remember the promise that God loves us so much that he sent a simple, human representative to share that grace with us.

Don’t get hung up on whether it literally happened. The truth behind the myth is valid. The story conveys God’s love in a way that we can understand.

Jesus was said to be a simple sandal wearing man, wandering through the country, like John the Baptist, peacefully challenging structures of oppression, upsetting the status quo, caring for the reviled sick and outcast, feeding the hungry, nurturing the poor in spirit with teaching and compassion – things that we should do ourselves, today.

This is more revolutionary than if Jesus were a King with a big army. This is revolutionary because it was and is done without the threat of hellfire. It is done without bombs or violence. In fact, power isn't taken from the authorities as much as it is given to those who never had it before. The power is rooted in the knowledge that nothing, nothing separates us from God.

This message of freedom and love is how Christ continues to live among us. No wonder we are excited.

And our excitement, our elation, like Mary's, moves us to throw up our arms and sing for joy.

We celebrate the birth of a savior who, because we Christians live in his name, because he lives in us, empowers us to share that freely given grace by fighting for justice, working for peace, and living as an example to others.

Our souls magnify the Lord this Christmas. And sincere Christians everywhere, despite our differences, proclaim the coming of a Savior, the triumph over sin, and the anticipation of joy.

Social Media and Technology: When Will the Madness Stop?

This week I joined LinkedIn, the networking site for professional people seeking connection with other professionals. I think it’s the 21st century version of the cocktail party where you used to drink martinis and hand out business cards. It’s like Facebook, only you don’t put personal stuff on it like what your cat threw up that morning. Instead, you record your professional news and accomplishments. Rather than collecting “friends,” you cast your network for as many “connections” as possible. The more connections you have, the more successful you must be. Or something.

I only linked in when a respected adviser basically told me I had to. She said that many corporate recruiters won’t consider anyone who is not part of this version of the social networking craze. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not looking for a job right now, but in this age of shifting corporate landscapes, layoffs, reorgs, and whacked-out bosses, one can’t be too prepared.

What troubles me is the growing necessity to either be a part of these social networks or be left out of society all together.

Facebook is fun, but I was shocked to discover a whole world of electronic communicating, even among people I see every day, that I didn’t know about. I’d evidently missed volumes of important electronic conversation. And pictures.

So far, LinkedIn is not fun. I have absolutely no idea what I’m supposed to do. I filled in some of the basics of my profile but other than connecting with people I already know, it’s a pretty sad compilation of dull information.

I’m starting to feel kind of whiney and oppositional about technology. I just don’t want to incorporate any more into my life.

I was the last person in the entire world to get a cell phone, and that was only because my mother insisted that I wouldn’t be safe without it. This is the same woman who let me and my sister drive across Nebraska to school in a car with no heater in the middle of winter, but that’s neither here nor there. That first cell phone didn’t work anywhere except in the 303 area code, and subsequent improved phones and plans didn’t work in such places as the inside of my condo, and anywhere I visited in Nebraska or Wyoming.

I was also the last person (in about 2002) to get cable TV, and at first I only got the old fashioned analog kind. I joked at the time that I was being dragged kicking and screaming into the 1980s.

I got a nice CD player only after everyone else started getting ipods, and I only got my first ipod this year when a coworker upgraded to a fancy new one, giving me his old one. Now I have all these CDs gathering dust where my vinyl LPs and cassette tapes used to be.

I have VHS tapes in my bookcase but nothing to play them on. I have these holes in my walls where my old landline phones used to be. I can’t figure out how to change the password on my wireless router. I only know how to utilize about 10 percent of the buttons on the four remote controls I use for watching television.

I haven’t even mentioned the many other virtual worlds I belong to. Netflix not only allows me to select the movies I want to view, it enables me to see what my friends and family are viewing. I’m not sure I want them to see everything I’m watching. And then there are the dating web sites. ‘Nuf said about that.

Is this all too much, too fast, or am I only getting old? No need to answer. Just let me shuffle through my dotage in peaceful ignorance.

Except I still have to figure out how to link to enough connections so I don’t look like a professional failure.



(If you want to leave a comment and are having trouble, try entering your name and leaving the URL portion blank. If that doesn’t work, I don’t know what to tell you. It’s technology, after all.)

Holiday Newsletter Print Edition In Decline

Depending who you listen to, the demise of print media is either a tragedy leading to the downfall of civilization or an inevitable result of the democratization of information sharing via rapid advances in technoogy.

In any case, I'm not going to buck the trend. My annual holiday newsletter only went out to about 40 friends and family this year, mostly those who can't or don't use a computer. To save on postage and ink (I spent $80 on ink cartridges - that's more than the cost of the printer! What a racket!), I am posting my annual greetings and news online for my Facebook and blog friends to see.

I know it's a little less personal. I'm sorry if it makes you feel less special to me and I assure you that is not the case. I just believe in the democratization of information sharing via rapid advances in technology.

If you aren't mad at me, please read my Holiday Newsletter by clicking here.

And have a wonderful Holiday Season!

A BillsWeek Guest Entry: How to Leave Hialeah

By Joey Halligan

When I first came across this title, I was browsing through new books on Amazon.com. I’ve never seen a book with my hometown on the cover - nor did I ever think I would. You probably have never heard of it, and I don’t blame you.

When it boils down to it, Hialeah is simply a heavily Cuban populated city in the greater Miami area. It may sound a little more interesting to the average passerby - just imagine... the culture, the arts, the music, the beauty! And the food is to die for! However, those that pass by just keep right on going. The people are rude, the traffic is insane, and the crime rate is sky high. So why is it so hard to leave Hialeah when Hialeah is your home?

Hialeah found its way on the map during The Roaring Twenties. It was during this time when sports and film began to carve the culture of this Southern Florida prairie, snuggled between the Atlantic Ocean and the great Everglades. Perhaps one of the most famous landmarks in Hialeah - the Hialeah Racetrack, was erected during this era. Its Mediterranean architecture and grandeur brought tourism and curiosity. In fact, to this day, brides-to-be flock to the racetrack for their wedding photo session. Just make sure to crop out the factories and smog.

Today, the city is over-populated, dirty and has lost its old world charm. All the signs are in Spanish, no one holds the door for you, and the moment the traffic light turns green, the car behind you honks their horn. Yet for some reason, each time I visit home, I feel like everything is right in the world - even though I know it couldn’t get any worse. And that’s basically what draws us back to our hometown - it’s where we’re from... whether we like it or not. We will always have a sense of pride for what is ours, and where we come from.

It’s been five years since I’ve lived in Denver and I wouldn’t dream of moving back to Hialeah. Once you get a taste of life outside the city, it’s pretty easy to feel satisfied with life somewhere new. So how did I leave Hialeah? I packed everything I could into my car and drove for two days. I started fresh without knowing what to expect. Now, every time I make my descent into the Miami International Airport, I always look out the window and spot the new construction sites and the heavy traffic on the main roads and highways. The best view, however, is the same one when I leave Hialeah on my way back home.



Joey Halligan enjoys frolicking in the snow, eating pho, and drinking Starbucks in Denver. He can be reached at joeyhalligan@me.com.

Secular Holiday Hijacked by Religious Radicals

Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I am a life-long practicing Christian. I have a degree from a theological school. I go to church every week. I participate in faith-based rituals around Advent and Christmas Eve. I love the beautiful sacred music this time of year.

And unlike the vocal zealots on the news, I have no desire to cram my faith down the throats of those who simply wish to gather with friends and family over some eggnog, exchange gifts, and enjoy some colored lights during this gloomy month.

I contemplated many titles for this entry of BillsWeek:

• Waging Peace in the War on Christmas
• Let’s Take the Christ Out of Christmas
• Jesus is NOT the Reason for the Season

The point is, I’m sick to death of hearing from right wing Christians about the “true” meaning of the holiday and how those who celebrate secularly are misconstruing “the reason for the season.”

Merriment this time of year goes way back before the time of Christ. At least 10,000 years ago in the northern hemisphere, people celebrated the returning of light after the darkest nights of the year.

Light was no trivial matter to these pre-common era people. In Europe, in particular, light meant warmth and the ability to grow food. Light meant survival.

Solstice traditions and festivals evolved into major celebrations. When the Christian church started taking over in the first millennium, these celebrations were seen as dangerously frivolous, probably the work of the devil himself. Universal popularity made it impossible to forbid the festivities, so the church cleverly usurped the time and turned it into a celebration of Christ’s birth.

The timing of Christmas has nothing to do with Jesus’ actual birth. If you are really a fundamentalist, you shouldn’t celebrate in December at all. Indications from the Christian scriptures point to a spring birth (were those shepherds watching over lambs?).

The church still couldn’t subdue the revelry, however. In England, as late as the 1600s, this time of year was marked by major carousing and hooliganism. Respectable people stayed off the streets for their own safety.

In some places, only the Roman Catholic Church celebrated Christmas. Protestants, including those Puritans who so faithfully established some of the original American colonies, distained Christmas. The only reason Protestants began to celebrate Christmas in church was because so many were sneaking over to experience the beautiful Catholic Christmas mass.

So I’d like to invite all those extremists who are offended by the modern celebration of Christmas to celebrate the season in whatever way is meaningful to them. But this is The United States of America. We have freedom of religion here. If we want to visit Santa at the mall, put a plastic snowman in our yard, play hockey with a fruitcake, light a menorah, or observe the solstice in the manner of Pagans and Wiccans, get off our backs.

I think most people are like me: enjoying a combination of religious tradition and secular celebration. But because I don’t want to assume that your beliefs match mine, I will simply wish you:

Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving Chronicles

It seems strange that to cope with all the Thanksgiving work and stress, I kept taking Facebook breaks. How did I get through last year without the web’s most popular social networking site? Reviewing the posts reveals the drama of the holiday. Here’s a sampling from Facebook.
First, the cast of characters:

• Bill – you all know me.
• Neda – friend and former coworker
• Linda – high school classmate in Nebraska, reconnected via Facebook
  Forrest – friend and former colleague in Georgia
• Wendy – lives ten minutes away and never forgets anything I say
• Katherine – next door neighbor who I could talk to through the wall, but FB is often the medium of choice
• Thomas – world citizen, friend who delights in brutal honesty
• Debra - high school classmate in Nevada, reconnected via Facebook
• Susan – sister in Wyoming
• Kim – irreverent Reverend
• Jeff – national reporter based in Denver, visiting New Hampshire
• Kris – nonprofit director in Oregon

Thursday, T-1 Week
Bill: Stuff I’m Thankful For – A BillsWeek List
Friday, T-6 Days
Bill: Kathy Griffin tonight. Feels like the beginning of the holidays!
Sunday, T-4 Days
Bill: … bought most of the Thanksgiving dinner stuff today. Charles is already playing in the foil roasting pan I bought for the turkey. Long day, but at least the shopping is mostly done. Now up to 14 guests at my place. Cooking and cleaning the next few days ...
Neda: Wow … Did you party grow?
Bill: (Certain family members) keep inviting additional people … it’s really ok, but a little overwhelming at the moment. It will be fun when the big day comes …
Tuesday, T-36 Hours
Linda: Share some kitty stories. Life would be so dull without kitties.
Bill: I would be so lost without them. Right now, Lily is annoyed that I’m typing and she keeps bumping my hand. My younger kitten Charles is so active, I’m going to have to assign someone to manage him while the house is full of people Thursday.
Bill: Cleaning is more or less done. Dining room table is extended. Tomorrow, cooking and counting chairs, plates, etc.
Forrest: Will the cats hide with all the company?
Wendy: Charles is going to hide in the turkey --- according to Bill!
Bill: That’s my fear – Lily will hide at first, but she’ll eventually come out and grace us with her presence. Only a few will be deemed worthy to pet her a little. Charles will be the life of the party, jumping from lap to lap, because he knows all humans love cats, and him in particular. He will be on the counter trying to get food, on the table trying to get food, and yes, I’m afraid I’ll turn around and find him with his head in the turkey. Usually he’s locked down in the bathroom when I can’t handle him, but with so much company, I don’t think that will work…
Forrest: Sounds like organized chaos is about to happen…
Wednesday, T-30
Bill: I got out my pretty red table runner with the tassels to hang it up and de-wrinkle. Guess who discovered the tassels not 15 seconds later. Yep, my little kitty boy. Now I have to figure out where to hang it where he can’t get to it.
Katherine: No, you have to find a place where Charles won’t create problems! Try putting it back out, and when he goes after it, point the water bottle. He will get the message …
Thomas: Good luck with that.
Bill: Ok-he found it. Tassels are history. It will be a pretty red runner without tassels. (Later) Needless to say, there will be no Christmas tree this year.
Thomas: Come on, be daring.
Wendy: Since there will not be tassels for the table, perhaps you could wear the tassels …
Thomas: Post pictures of that!
Debra: Cats and tassels – temptation is just too great … Try hanging it over the top of a door and hope he does not decide to high jump. (Editor’s note: I did exactly that and the jumping was fantastic, tassels wrestled to the floor and leapt upon with wild abandon.)
Susan: Who needs tassels? Have a wonderful day …
Wednesday, T-16
Bill: Turkey isn’t thawing. Is now in the shower where Sir Charles can’t get to it. SURELY it will be thawed by morning.
Kim: At least it will be clean!
Linda: Don’t let it spoil. My 18 lb. bird did … We threw it out. We followed the unthawing instructions so it must have been tainted from the beginning. We went turkey shopping late today… Bill, the cat will find it. Good luck!
Kris: hello, roasted Brassica oleracea and Cucurbita moschatta pie! (Editor: Huh? What ever happened to mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie?)
Thursday, T-8.5
Bill: I was conscious of the spoilage factor. It was cold the whole time and I put it back in the fridge after a couple hours. … All is well.
Bill: Up at 4:30. Finished thawing turkey under cool water in the sink and stuffed and seasoned it. Both Charles and Lily quite agitated. Poor kitties’ first bedroom lockdown of the day. Thanksgiving is difficult for poor starving kittens.
Linda: Did the cat get the turkey? Ours wants in the roaster as it was sitting out waiting to be cleaned.
Bill: No, Charles didn’t get the turkey, not for lack of trying. It’s safely in the oven now and he’ll be locked in the bedroom during carving and serving.
T-4 and Counting
Bill: Taking a coffee break now that as much food is prepared as can be until the last minute. So far, Charles has been in lockdown three times. Lily once. Made it to the health club to work off some of the stress of the day. I feel ready now. Except I’d better set the table.
Thursday Night, T+9
Debra: How did everything go? The turkey-cats saga must go on!
Bill: The dishes are clean. The leftovers are put away and sent home with the guests. Tablecloths laundered. There are two cats sacked out on the sofa and I can’t get them to move. We’re all three just pooped. It was a wonderful day. Of course, Charles spent much of it locked in the bedroom, but he got to socialize too. I hope all of you had a good T-day too!
Jeff: Thanksgiving is over. Merry Christmas.
Bill: Ugh
The Morning After
Bill: “Please dear. Auntie Mame is hung.” Charles and Lily are wide awake now and wanting breakfast. All I can muster from my bed is this quote from Rosalind Russell in the 1958 movie, Auntie Mame. For the record, I didn’t touch a drop of alcohol. I just feel hung over.
Katherine: Poor Bill. It must have been too much turkey or pie or something. Drink lots of water, watch Netflix, nap, and call me in the morning.
Kim: LOL! I hope you had a wonderful time in spite of the stress of it all.
And you know, I did. Let’s just try to recover for a while and not think about Christmas. How can millions of people go shopping so soon after all this?