Marley was dead, that's for sure. There, now I have a little touch of Charles Dickens in my writing here. I once checked out the original "A Christmas Carol" from our Morris Public Library, presented exactly the way Dickens wrote it. It seemed like a foreign language. Amazing how our language is fluid. Change can happen so slowly, we don't even notice it.
I have read that Dickens served to prop up Christmas after the holiday had been fading some. What a different sort of Christmas we are having in 2020. We feel varying degrees of isolation. We have been deprived of the grand public events, both religious and secular, that we have always taken for granted. I grew up an only child so maybe I can deal with isolation better than most.
I had immediate family up until three years ago. It's a sea change as I try to absorb and maybe project the Christmas spirit. My neighborhood of Northridge Drive might start getting a reputation for Christmas lights. We are well positioned for this, located as we are across from the Shopko highway. In the past we have made no special mark. There's a new family on the street that is making a Chevy Chase-like commitment.
I felt pressure to hike my own effort. So the Williams place has become rather colorful too with lights. I guess the LED lights mean negligible cost. Why not have fun? Anything to counteract the dreariness of the shutdown for the pandemic.
Where would we be without Willie's Super Valu, not only as a source for our quite essential food (including krumkake!) but as an oasis to experience just a taste of normal social contact. I feel sorry for the restaurants.
At first my only real commitment was going to be my annual original Christmas song. My song was posted on schedule right after Thanksgiving. Quite topical: "A Social Distance Christmas." Nice built-in rhyme! A friend tells me that perchance the song has an uncalled for political touch. Music writers can be subversive. I didn't need Pete Seeger to sing this, I just suggested that more upbeat days are ahead with Biden/Harris. "Now with Biden we can hope." My alternate non-partisan line that I weighed: "Red, blue, we can always hope."
Some residents in Morris might resent even hearing the word "blue." It has gotten that bad here in our outstate Minnesota community. I cannot get to Willie's without seeing a couple of Trump-Pence signs still along the Shopko highway. I turn left into town by Subway/Pizza Hut. There's a Trump sign between Subway and Greeley Plumbing. The responsible party must like being associated with losers. I would hope that Morris does not.
There's another Trump sign in front of a private business to the east of that. I'm quite sure I know who is responsible for that sign. Much as the Trump supporters can chafe on me, I have been a long-time friend of many. Not sure what has gotten into so many of them. The private business owner to whom I allude, is someone who did me a favor once: he got me a seat in a crowded Morris Area concert hall for a spring choir concert which I would suggest should have been divided into two nights. It was the concert where Barb Wilts was honored on occasion of her retirement.
I don't forget favors like this. I'd like to give the guy a gentle nudge and suggest he ingest some holiday grog to maybe adjust his political feelings.
The death throes of the Trump administration - actually he's just president for the Trump Organization - hovers over our 2020 Christmas. I see a headline on "Mediaite" that reads: "CNN's John Harwood explains why 'absolutely lunatic stuff' is being discussed in the White House: 'the president himself is a kook.' "
So, the Pope is Catholic, in effect. We read a news item that should have been stuffed in our brains long ago. "Let daddy do his work," "Dr. Evil" said to his son "Scott." We are all letting Trump continue to do his work or perform his shtick as if he's a crazy uncle we just understand. Cute to write about this. But of course the presidency confers incredible power even if we sort of dismiss the guy. That's why I personally feel scared.
Like I said, I grew up as an only child and maybe that's why I tend to think quite independently. I smile as I notice the headline next to the one just discussed: "Former Trump justice department lawyer says she's 'haunted' by her work in confessional NYT op-ed: 'We were complicit.' " I'm amused in an "I told you so" way. That's because maybe 3-4 months ago, in my occasional correspondence with John Zeigler - yes, he does answer me - I predicted that a number of former Trump insiders would come forward and say: "I knew it was a disaster all along but I didn't want to say anything."
I also predicted a mountain of books coming out, fulfilled as well. But that's rather a no-brainer. We'll be waiting with bated breath for the Kellyanne Conway book, being touted as a "tell all." But wasn't she a front-line Trump sycophant? It was "Alice Through the Looking Glass," IMHO due to her husband George and daughter Claudia being so contrary to Trump. Good God, couldn't Trump have been suspicious, if he had any potential for rational thought in his head?
God bless teen Claudia especially, for "a little child shall lead them."
I imagine the circle of people around Trump have as much sincerity in their relationships as. . . Well, they have no sincerity. Complete the analogy as you wish.
Here's the next headline from "Mediaite": "Maggie Haberman raises alarm over Trump's 'screaming' oval office meeting with Sidney Powell." Powell is of course the nutcase lawyer. Raises alarm? Really? Haberman writes for the New York Times. She has been criticized in the past for being too restrained in her reporting. Well, I'm an old-timer who came out of Watergate, and us folks hardly know the meaning of "reserved." The tempest over the Vietnam war also cultivated us, weaned us into the media landscape. We've never changed.
I was never known for being restrained even when writing for the Morris newspaper. It got treacherous at times. Some would say it was foolhardy. It's a path I chose and I continue to navigate.
Why would a New York Times writer be restrained? She wants to maintain her position obviously. It's "looking out for number one" and in the case of Haberman, she walked a fine line so as not to tempt Trump into an insulting "tweet." Far afield as Trump gets - that's sanitizing it - his tweets can have real power. Kudos to Jim Acosta for surviving. It takes real savvy, a real instinct.
Another darker reason for the restraint by Haberman and others is the "gravy train" for the media, in terms of just getting eyeballs for all the coverage and analysis of the ridiculous circus. Ziegler has suggested that a top reason for Trump getting the Republican nomination was the media's grave fear that a Clinton-Bush race (Hillary and Jeb) would be incurably boring.
But look how dangerous these impulses become. We have arrived at talk about martial law and a military coup. Such talk has reached the corridors of the White House and it's no joke. I suppose Trump continues to have the power to jettison all sorts of people around him who would respond sensibly and veto such talk.
Meanwhile, Fox News inundates us with talk daily about Eric Swalwell and Hunter Biden.
Compare this media universe to the far more rational universe of Watergate times, pre-digital. The kooks got thrown out. Today they can stand at the forefront, getting our attention. Trends happen slowly just like with the English language since Dickens' times. The trend from the gatekeeper media to the wild west of today - Newsmax - has been gradual.
We can read the original "A Christmas Carol," or at least try to, and be surprised. The wild west media with Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo could lead to more than just surprise. We have already experienced suffering and death from the pandemic that is beyond what would have been seen with either Hillary or Jeb. We need this realization to sink in more.
"Marley was dead, that's for sure." Ernest Hemingway had some "rules for writers," one of which was to always use positive language. Well, looks like Dickens crossed that line. I suspect Hemingway was a great writer not because he developed rules, but because he just had talent.
The best wisdom for Christmas
I suggest that if you call up just one church-based video from YouTube, you listen to a ten-minute post by Rev. Ken Ranos of Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church of Indianapolis IN. He beats anything I can write.
My podcast for Dec. 21
The focus is on Christmas for my "Morris Mojo" podcast. The headline is "If only in my dreams," from the beloved old Christmas song. Think of the families who have lost loved ones to coronavirus. Think of the grieving, and how they can now only imagine their departed loved one with them for Christmas.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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