I imagine most people have their favorite Christmas movies selected with a combination of nostalgia, family tradition, the era in which you grew up. I’m no different. Here are my top five favorites:
Charlie Brown Christmas
Home Alone
The Harry Potter Series
The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
I’ve even found a way to incorporate my favorite story into a Christmas sermon or two.
For some reason, as much as I loved Twitter, it began to feel like a chore. Probably in part because:
I’m enjoying the simple delight of this blog and using #Mastadon. Meeting new people. Learning new networks and communities is a joy to me. I don’t feel like I have to be on but I do feel like I want to check things out with no real pressure to perform and get boosts. I also like watching other people be excited to discover these new systems.
This came to light today when I was waiting for an invite to a new app, hoping to get a link to be an alpha tester. Sitting there refreshing the developer’s Mastadon page repeatedly for 10 mins struck me as something I have never done before – at least not for an app. Even though I didn’t get in, the excitement was fun and kind of silly. Then I realized, I’m enjoying the internet again.
#Twitter banned the main Mastadon account yesterday and folks are not exactly sure why. But Mastadon continues to grow and pull users away from Twitter, with more and more users on Twitter sharing their Mastadon handles.
What really surprised me though was the fact that Twitter is blocking links to Mastadon from being posted and treating their links as though they are malicious.
This was the warning I got when linking on another user’s profile link:
Birth Stories, The Magnificat, and the Revolution of Christmas Tags: #sermon #advent
This is the message I gave at Deep River Friends Meeting this past Sunday based on Luke 1: 46-55:
46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
In our family, the advent season is extra special. M, our middle daughter, was born on Nov 27, 2009. Just a few days before the start of advent on the liturgical calendar.
L, our oldest daughter, was born on December 19, 2007. She was due on Christmas, but thankfully my wife Emily’s prayers were heard and L was born 6 days before. Now she doesn’t have to competing for spotlight with the Son of God.
As you can see advent is special in our house the birthday boy, Jesus, notwithstanding.
Today, I was approached by a member of my workplace about hosting a space for grieving for folks who continue to struggle after painful decisions made in 2019-2020. The desire for this person was to process grief with the hope that we could find a space to do that as a workplace and community.
In the fall of 2020 and Spring of 2021 my office organized I think 4 of these spaces. The first few were well-attended but then attendance dipped. Then another member of the community approach me and wanted me to plan something (after having not attended the first 4 we hosted). I told this person that I would do if if they helped plan something. We did and it was nice but only a couple folks came. I began to wonder who we were doing these for. Finally, another group came together, and this time we came up with an idea for an embodied approach to grieving. We made a life-sized COVID cell and invited folks to fill it with their grievances and we burned the thing down.
Robert Bell, from Guilford College, interviewed me and did a really nice write up about the new book Rhiannon Grant and I co-edited.
The book is unique in its approach to #QuakerStudies for a variety of reasons, including those we invited to write, the chapters covered, and some of the methodology behind the formation of the content. For one, we are proud of the book having a number of biographical offerings throughout the book, following inspiration from McClendon's “Biography as Theology,” acting as case studies for how individuals have lived out their witness in the world.
Read Bell's piece on The Quaker World here.
Get a copy of the book on Amazon or Routledge Books.