Sentential Links #233

The final Sentential Links of 2010. Enjoy!

:: On Wednesday, I pulled into the gym parking lot on my lunch break. As I was gathering my stuff together to get out of the car, a gym rat strutted slowly by. We all know the type, thanks to “Jersey Shore.” Oversized muscles, tanning-bed-orange in hue, ripped sweatshirt hanging off one shoulder. He ambled with self-importance toward his vehicle, which was a truck.

:: Part of the difficulty with this Christmas is that The Daughter did not seem to want to give up anything she already has. Games and toys, especially stuffed animals, that are well past her presumed age range she holds onto like a canteen of water in the desert.

:: “MONSTER. END.”

:: I'm building. I'm building up to being a person again.

:: And I have to use Christmas as the only example here, because in my experience, no one ever gets made at you for assuming that they aren’t celebrating Ramadan, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, etc. — no, it’s only Christians who get self-righteous when you’re polite enough to not make assumptions about their religious beliefs. (Yes, two links to the same blogger...but they're writing on different blogs, so it's OK. And I cannot stand it when people argue that we've somehow "lost something" as a society because we're slowly becoming aware, as the years go by, that "Freedom of Religion" means exactly that, and we're never going to be living in 1953 again, when "Freedom of Religion" meant "pick your favorite brand of Christianity".)

:: Dammit, they always leave something out that I want to hear! (Looks like SDB has learned the frustrating truth about film music collecting.)

:: With my decidedly non-judgmental stance how could I ever be an authority when it comes to wine and pie pairing? The most I could say is all wine goes with all pie. (Well, sparkling wine tends to go well with just about anything, in my opinion!)

:: I always cry a lot this time of the year , never sadness tears, even of those I have loved so and lost along the way …those tears are special to me and each represents my own personal connection to those that made me who I am. The regular Holidays tears I always consider my yearly ‘soul cleansing’ …tidbits of sentimental and emotional chaff that builds and then releases upon the hearing of the first Christmas Carol of the year…and then does not stop until Auld Lang Syne is heard…. ("Soul cleansing"...what a nice way to think of the holiday sadnesses that come along!)

:: The feeling comes from within and you all know that. The Gold and Green….a lovely way to share with the world how we feel.

:: Tonight, somewhere in the world, a new father is passing out cigars, a child is receiving a new puppy, a daughter is feeding ice-chips to her dying mother, a man is putting flowers on his wife’s grave, a family is celebrating a new job in a new city, a couple is breaking up.

Tonight – God gathers all of our hopes and fears, all of our joys and sorrows- and God says, “I want to be part of this. I want to be there with you.” (Kris is an old friend of mine from college, and she has written here the single most beautiful Christmas sermon I've ever encountered, either by reading or by hearing.)

All for this week. More next week!