Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo

Dragon Mood? -- trying to yodel and not spit fireballs at the same time

Well, it's official -- S and I have entered "old folks-hood." Instead of going out and Christmas shopping last night, we opted to stay in and excitedly discovered that "The Sound of Music" was airing on a local channel. Oh boy, oh boy, we're gonna watch The Sound of Music!

We have a joke in our family about the puppeteers in The Sound of Music being Wendish, a wonderfully playful falsehood imagined by Yosh and perpetuated by the rest of us, me in particular. I LOVE the idea of Wendish puppeteers, especially in The Sound of Music.

S and I sat in our little TV room, singing, smiling and bouncing along to the delightful, joie-de-vivre song, "The Lonely Goatherd." I woke up this morning with the yodeling still reverberating in my head. I googled it and found many sites with the lyrics. I reprint them here for your and my amusement.

Come on, come on, I bet you can't read it without singing along:

The Lonely Goatherd

Maria:
High on a hill was a lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Loud was the voice of the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

Folks in a town that was quite remote heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Lusty and clear from the goatherd's throat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

the Children:
O ho lay dee odl lee o, o ho lay dee odl ay
O ho lay dee odl lee o, lay dee odl lee o lay

Maria:
A prince on the bridge of a castle moat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Kurt:
Men on a road with a load to tote heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

the Children:
Men in the midst of a table d'hote heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Maria:
Men drinking beer with the foam afloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

One little girl in a pale pink coat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Brigitta:
She yodeled back to the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

Maria:
Soon her Mama with a gleaming gloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
What a duet for a girl and goatherd
Maria and the Children:
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

Maria and the Children:
Ummm (ummm) . . .
Odl lay ee (odl lay ee)
Odl lay hee hee (odl lay hee hee)
Odl lay ee . . .
. . . yodeling . . .

Child:
One little girl in a pale pink coat heard
Maria:
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hoo hoo
Child:
She yodeled back to the lonely goatherd
Maria:
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

Maria:
Soon her Mama with a gleaming gloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hmm hmm
What a duet for a girl and goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

Maria and the Children:
Happy are they lay dee olay dee lee o . . .
. . . yodeling . . .
Soon the duet will become a trio
Maria:
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

Maria and the Children:
Odl lay ee, old lay ee
Odl lay hee hee, odl lay ee
Odl lay odl lay, odl lay odl lee, odl lay odl lee
Odl lay odl lay odl lay

the Children:
HOO!

I think, in the spirit of aspiring to be an eccentric, I may just take up yodeling as an elder pastime. Whaddaya think???

Odl lay ee, old lay ee
Odl lay hee hee, odl lay ee

Which reindeer are YOU??

Dragon Mood? -- dragons EAT reindeer as hors d'oeuvres!

Being silly on my last day of work --for the year-- I took THE test ..........

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

You Are Blitzen

Always in good spirits, you're the reindeer who loves to party down with Santa. Why You're Naughty: You're always blitzed on Christmas Eve, while flying! Why You're Nice: You mix up a mean eggnog martini.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

Turning 53

Dragon Mood? -- celebratory

Yesterday was my 53rd birthday.

I woke up sleepy and cotton-headed. I moved slowly. S wished me "Happy Birthday" with a sweetness rarely heard so early in the morning. I fixed coffee and hot oatmeal for us, a morning ritual that I'm growing to love.

I dressed carefully, putting on my red turtleneck, my brown cashmere sweater and my fiery, oh-so-Sagittarinan scarf from Ruth. I spent extra time with my hair. I rubbed moisturizer into my face to ease the dry tightness of my skin and hopefully diminish the increasing number of wrinkles. I looked good, I felt good.

My first phone call was from Yosh. (Actually, Lina called earlier but I missed her call.) My first received phone call was from Yosh. Did he sing to me? Yes, I think he did. Then Ruth called. She sang Happy Birthday to me in her smiling, soprano voice and offered lots of loving, congratulatory thoughts.

I got a lovely sotto-voce call from mijita, Lina, and we laughed heartily about my not recognizing her cold-induced baritone voice. I heard from Dad and Evelyn; from S at midday checking on how my birthday was going; from Don, a former boss; from Ron, a sweet guy (who I know is just dying to find out how truly good my omelets can be!); from Trice, my knitting buddy, with a silly, naughty e-card; from my cousin, Brenda, down in Texas who will always be four days older than me(!); from (in the most surprising call of the day) S's mom, Sally, and Grandma; from a former co-worker, Dennis, in California who never forgets my birthday; from my dear Uncle George in Texas; and finally, from our very own hurricane-survivors, Doris and Hemie, in Port Arthur, Texas.

By the time I left work, I felt remembered, lifted up and truly celebrated! Life can be wonderful and my birth day was definitely a wonder of love and care.
----
UPDATE: I also received a form letter from the car salesman (make that used car salesman) that I bought my Mazda Protege from this summer, wishing me a Happy Birthday. At the bottom he wrote, "No table dancing!" But of course!

Imagining a new kind of spiritual community

I read Real Live Preacher on a fairly regular basis. There is something about RLP's writings that moves me beyond my cynical, secular self and opens me to deeper, more tender ways of seeing people and the world.

He recently wrote a posting entitled "If We Could Do Church." I read his words, growing more and more excited as he outlined so many of the objections and concerns that I have felt about the direction of American "churchdom." I want to repeat some of his posting here:

First of all, we probably wouldn’t call ourselves a church. That English word is rather tired, I think. It really doesn’t communicate very well, and it’s not a biblical word in any case. We might call ourselves “A Gathering of Friends,” or perhaps, “A Community Living in the Way of Christ.” I don’t know what we would call ourselves; maybe we wouldn’t have a name at all.

I don’t think we would concern ourselves very much with what individuals in the community say about Jesus or even believe about Jesus. It’s not that what we say about Jesus doesn’t matter, but this community would begin with real living. There will be time enough for pretty Jesus words later on.

We would begin with between five and fifteen people who are committed to following in the way of Christ, confessing their weaknesses and turning their lives over to God as they understand him or her. We would make certain commitments to God and to each other:

We would meet once or twice a week to worship together. This meeting would be a very high priority in our lives.

We would make these friendships intentional ones and make it a point to spend time together.

We would agree to pray and study the scriptures together and on our own.

We would nurture each other and care for one another, especially if one of us was hurting or in need.

We would simplify our lives to the point where we could give 10% of our income to the community. Some who have been on the journey longer might give more.

Each of us would find a personal and fulfilling way to serve God by serving the world. Finding your joyful place of service would be a central part of being in this community, for we would agree that Christianity is a way of living more than a set of doctrines.

We would never pay anyone to be a professional Christian. There would be no staff, no paid ministers, no salaries, and no overhead. If there were even ten wage earners among us, our collected offerings might be between twenty and fifty thousand dollars. With no salaries, buildings, or other administrative costs, almost all of this money would be used to do good things in the name of Christ.

Maybe once a year we would sit around a kitchen table and say, “What do you want to do for God this year?”

There would be a little money left over to buy coffee or even a guitar if someone wanted to play it during worship. Maybe twice a year we would all go on an extended retreat together. Those with limited funds would never have to worry about being able to afford that sort of thing.

If there were children among us, they would sit on our laps and worship with us. We would not have children’s classes. We wouldn’t need them. We would teach the children ourselves and let them be a part of everything we do.

We would never purchase or rent a place to worship. Homes would suffice. If and when the gathering became too large to meet comfortably in a living room, we would divide into two groups. Perhaps the two living room churches would meet together once a month at a park or in some borrowed space. We wouldn't worry about what will happen someday. These things will work themselves out. I’m of the opinion that there is far too much planning in churches nowadays.

We would never advertise our faith community. Advertising tends to cheapen things, and I think we wouldn't want to start going down that road. We would bring friends with us as we felt led. I’m sure some would find us in very mysterious ways. We would trust that those who are ready to find us would find us. Anyone would be welcome to meet with us in the living room, of course. Some might join the community when they felt ready to embrace our commitments.

If there is preaching, it would be done by everyone. All who feel ready to share would take their turn. You would have weeks or even months to read your passage of scripture prayerfully. Then you would simply share the wisdom you found in the scriptures with your good friends.

The best news of all is that we would lay down the terrible burden of planning and strategizing for the business of church. Large budgets, buildings, and programs require business plans and outreach strategies. But you see, the big picture would not be our concern. The future would be left in the hands of God. We would content ourselves with our simple lives of service and devotion. What happens beyond that would be God’s business and not ours.

It sounds refreshing, does it not? And vaguely familiar. Even if you’ve never been a part of something like that, your heart knows that it would feel like going home.

from the inimitable Dr. Seuss

• "From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere."



• "How did it get so late so soon? / It's night before it's afternoon. / December is here before it's June. / My goodness how the time has flewn. / How did it get so late so soon?"



• "Today was good. / Today was fun. / Tomorrow is another one."

-- from Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, 1904-1991

A lamb's wool sky here ...

... in beautiful mid-Michigan for the next SEVEN days!

Geez, we can give Seattle-ites a run for their money when it comes to gloomy, depressing weather!

'Tis The Season To Be Broke

I heard Robert Reich's commentary on NPR's Marketplace last night as I was driving to my physical therapy appointment. I don't usually get too excited when listening to economists, but this guy hit the nail on the head! Read on ...

'Tis The Season To Be Broke

'Tis the season for retailers to be jolly if American consumers empty their wallets over the next three weeks. But how can we empty our wallets if our wallets are already empty?

Consumer confidence appears to have bounced back from the low brought on by the hurricanes and subsequently high gas prices. But it’s still below what it was before Katrina. And last week’s survey by the Conference Board showed something of a drop in shopper enthusiasm. Households say they intend to spend a bit less this holiday season than last.

Consumer spending is now more than three-quarters of the whole national economy – a record high. There’s nothing left to spend. Yes, gas prices have settled down a bit, but so have paychecks. General Motors, Merck, and major airlines are laying off tens of thousands. Job growth is anemic and pay is lousy. American families have exhausted all the coping mechanisms we’ve been using for years to spend more.

The first coping mechanism, which began decades ago when mens’ hourly wages first began dropping, was for spouses to go into paid work. But now that most adult women are on payrolls – including even the mothers of toddlers – this strategy has generated just about all the cash it can.

How else to pay for more spending? The second coping mechanism has been to work longer hours. This past year, the typical working American put in two full weeks more at the office or factory than was the case two decades ago. Americans are now working harder than even the notoriously industrious Japanese. But we’ve reached the limit. I mean, we have to sleep.

Which brings us to the third coping mechanism – taking equity out of our homes. Last year alone, Americans pulled out $600 billion through refinancing. But this cash machine is also about depleted because housing values have leveled off and mortgage rates are rising.

Where else to find the money? The final coping mechanism is to go deeper into debt. For five years now, American households have spent more money than they’ve earned – pushing their debt to a record high. But we’ve hit the wall here, too, folks. Interest payments on all that debt are exploding.

On top of that, there are tens of millions of baby boomers within sight of retirement. They have to start saving, or else their twilight years will be spent in darkness.

Put it all together and you see why we’re running on empty. We’re busted. We’ve exhausted all the coping mechanisms for spending more. Our buying binge has to come to an end.

The only question is whether the binge stops before Christmas shopping season, or American consumers make one big, final, irresponsible splurge over the next three weeks, and then call it quits.

Scary, scary and too damn close to the truth!

Thursday morning

Working.

Listening to Missa Gaia / Earth Mass with the Paul Winter Consort. Glorious sound!

From the CD cover:

A Mass in celebration of Mother Earth recorded live in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and the Grand Canyon.

I've never been to the Grand Canyon but I did have the opportunity to attend St. John the Divine one Sunday morning with my good friend Carol T., as we visited NYC. For such a large and imposing cathedral, the congregants were particularly welcoming and warm. Good memories!