RESOLVE TO THROW OUT THE TRASH FROM YOUR LIFE

With the first day of the first month of the new year just hours away, let me remind you that January gets its name from the Roman god Janus or Januarius. 

This pagan god was represented as having two heads and two pairs of eyes. Each head faced in the opposite direction from the other, and each pair of eyes looked in the opposite direction. 

It is believed that from this representation of Januarius came the custom of the New Year's resolution. Those of us who make New Year's resolutions are simultaneously looking back at how we lived in the old year while looking ahead to how we will improve our lives in the new one.

Those who have spent New Year's Eve in Rome say that the celebrations are unlike anything we might have experienced here at home. The festivities begin at noon on December 31st with a booming cannon and a mounting crescendo of noisemakers. As night comes, bright tracer flashes cut across the sky and, finally, at midnight, the cheers go up, and there is lots of hugging and kissing and dancing in the streets. But that's not all. 

The Romans think New Year's Eve is an appropriate time to rid themselves of the old and take on the new. In the past, some of their New Year's traditions have included throwing old, worn-out things from their windows -- a cracked dish, a broken chair, and so on. Visitors were warned, quite seriously, to stay indoors to avoid being hit by one of the flying objects during "Throw Away Time."

Let me suggest that we resolve on this New Year's Day to adopt a "Throw Away Time" for getting rid of the tired-old thoughts and attitudes that infiltrate our lives. Perhaps a good resolution would be establishing a nightly ritual of deliberate thought -- emptying our minds and hearts for the coming day. There we could summon up all the resentments, jealousies, anxieties, and feelings of depression of the day and visualize them being thrown out of the window of our consciousness.

As a pin cushion for more than a fair share of mental and emotional trash, I'm going to take my own advice...Out the nearest window it all goes from now on. Let the universe deal with it!

THANKS FOR VISITING!

 We hope your Christmas was merry and that the New Year will be happy!

Shepherding, above all, requires a profound bond of love between a shepherd and their flock. 

In biblical times, shepherds would gather their animals into a sheepfold, a round enclosure that provided protection against thieves and wild animals. The only entrance was a narrow opening called the “gate,” which had no door. Instead, the shepherd obstructed the opening with their own body. This is precisely what Jesus meant when he said: “I am the gate for the sheep” (John 10:7). 

The bond between a shepherd and their flock is even imbedded in Hebrew! The Hebrew word for “shepherd” is ro’eh (רֹעֵה). This is closely related to another Hebrew word, re’ah (רֵעַ) meaning “companion.” Thus, Hebrew affirms the idea that shepherds guard their flock out of fellowship and devotion. 

It is not surprising that many of the great biblical leaders were shepherds: Abraham, David and Moses, to name just a few. Of course, that was then and this is now...We don't have real life shepherds today. That's why so many of our flock go astray.

MEANING OF THE MANGER AND SWADDLING CLOTHES

Like most of what I write, this Wrights Lane offering will either be rejected out of hand or taken with a grain of salt. Be that as it may, however, I take the time and effort to continue exploring the birth of Jesus the Christ because so much of the story has been misrepresented through countless language interpretations and creative embellishment of history writers and artists, thousands of years after the fact and passed down over the centuries. I strongly believe that that it is important to really dig deep into scripture. People too often just read it out of some perceived duty to God but the fact is that it should not be a duty but a yearning to draw closer to Him. And what better way to draw closer to Him than to understand the depth and richness in which it is written. It is not by happenstance that scriptures are written the way they were. When you understand passages from the original Jewish perspective from that time period, the fullness of the Gospel comes out and presents itself in all of it's glory for us all to see.

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According to The Gospel of Luke, Mary lays her newborn child in a manger (2:7). While nativity scenes tend to represent this manger as a pristine, straw-filled crib, a manger was actually a feeding trough for animals like donkeys, sheep and oxen—a less-than-pristine place, indeed. Luke highlights the manger not only to underscore Jesus’ humble beginnings, but also to foreshadow the Last Supper, when the Messiah would perform a symbolic act in offering his own body as food for those who follow him. The manger serves as a prophetic object that presents Yeshua to the world and points to his salvific death for the salvation of that world.

Just after Jesus is born, Mary “wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger (φάτνη; phátne)” (2:7). 

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Two things that are not common knowledge, yet need to be understood: 

1) Where did the swaddling clothes Jesus was wrapped in come from? The manger was a trough that was also used to sacrifice the most unblemished lambs. The shepherds would wrap the lambs in swaddling to protect them until such time of sacrifice. These were no doubt the only materials available to Mary and Joseph at the time of birth. Perhaps symbolic of Jesus' destiny.

2) The Greek term translated as "inn" (κατάλυμα; kataluma) does not mean a "hotel room." (There were no inns in those days.) Rather, it refers to a guest room or general living/dining space in a home, undoubtedly in this case a relative of Mary and Joseph. If you check biblical text closely, you will likewise find no mention of an inn-keeper, the figment of imaginative story tellers' minds in recent times. When the Gospel states that "there was no room for them in the inn," it means that there was not enough room for them to labor and give birth to a child in the living quarters of a home occupied by other visiting relatives, so they needed to go to the stable, generally located in the lower level of the structure where animals would be sheltered over night.

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I was particularly enlightened by the recent writings of Dr. Nickolas J. Schaser who pointed out that when the angel of the Lord appears to the shepherds, God’s messenger says to them, ‘For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger (φάτνη; phátne)’” (2:12). In response to the angel, the shepherds declare, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.’ And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger (φάτνη; phátne)” (2:15-16).

Thus, Jesus’ manger plays a major role in Luke’s birth narrative: it is the first earthly location that Jesus encounters after leaving his mother’s embrace and it serves as a “sign” (σημεῖον; semeion) from God that the shepherds use to identify their Messiah.

Later in the Gospel, Jesus’ reference to a manger reveals its function as an animal feeding trough. Jesus asks the head of a synagogue, “Does not each one of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger (φάτνη; phátne) and lead it away to water it?” (Lk 13:15). 

That Jesus is laid in this kind of a food receptacle at his birth is fitting, since he is born in Bethlehem (בית לחם; Beit Lechem) which, in Hebrew, means “House of Bread/Food.” Yet, the function of the manger also anticipates Jesus’ words at the Last Supper: “He took bread (ἄρτος; artos), and when he had given thanks, be broke it gave it to [the disciples], saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you” (Lk 22:19). The infant Jesus lays in a feeding trough, and this imagery comes full circle when he offers food that represents his own body. 

In this way, Luke bookends the Gospel with allusions to Jesus as “food” that symbolizes the good tidings of salvation for all who partake in him.

The imagery of Jesus being offered as food (unto eternal life) is powerful.

That's the way I see it anyway!

1st Century home in Israel.

When Luke 2:7 says “there was no room for them in the inn,” the Greek word is the word for this guest room, not for a hotel (there was a word for that, which is used in the Parable of the Good Samaritan). Because of the census, the upper room was already too full for them to give birth, so they stayed in the lower level where there was enough room for all that goes into birthing a child. This view also reflects the cultural priority of hospitality and the high unlikelihood that family would turn Mary and Joseph away while she was in her final day(s) of pregnancy, even despite the scandal of her being pregnant before their official marriage. This view is well-attested by reputable Bible Dictionaries.

IS CHRISTMAS A PAGAN HOLIDAY?

The Birth of Christ [The Nativity]. Artist: Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld. Engraver: Gaber, inscribed lower right. Source: Die Bibel in Bildern, Plate 166.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. [Luke 2: 10-12]

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: I will be accused of casting a wet a wet blanket in publishing this post, virtually on the eve of Christmas celebrations in a large portion of the world. In reality, however, it will have little ill-effect on eighty-five per cent of readers who simply consider December 25 as an annual occasion for family gatherings replete with turkey, the exchange of gifts, alcohol, hilarity, mythical Santa Claus "ho ho's" and over indulgence; with little (if any) acknowledge of the real reason for the traditional celebration of Christmas.

Wikipedia: Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it is preceded by the season of Advent or the Nativity Fast and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts 12 days and culminates on Twelfth Night. The traditional Christmas narrative, the Nativity of Jesus, delineated in the New Testament says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in accordance with messianic prophecies.

Up front, I am a traditionalist. Commercialism aside, I love everything about Christmas and relate it to my youth and the way my parents and family celebrated it. I, along with my wife, faithfully tried to pass that heritage on to our children. And it warms my heart to see the tradition passed on to our children's children.

All that aside, and just to be clear, it should be acknowledged that nowhere in the Holy Scriptures are we told about a celebration commemorating the birth of Christ Jesus. Nothing in the Scriptures gives us any sure evidence about the date of this magnificent event.

It is a man-created celebration, not one that was God directed.

The lack of Scriptural specificity about the facts surrounding the birth of the Judean King stands in sharp contrast to the details available about his death (each of the four Gospels provide the exact timing of Jesus’ death).

In the late second century, the Greek Church Father Origen mocked yearly celebrations of Roman birth anniversaries, discounting them as deeply *pagan practices. This suggests that Christian communities did not yet celebrate Christmas during Origen’s lifetime (c.165-264). 

The first church figure to discuss the date of Jesus’ birth was Clement (c. 200), an Egyptian preacher from Alexandria. However, December 25 was not even mentioned. By the middle of the fourth century, however, we find that Western churches were already celebrating the Birth of Christ on December 25, while the Eastern Churches did so on Jan. 7th.

How did the early Christians arrive at this dating?

Surprisingly, the early church followed a very Jewish idea – that the beginning and the end of important redemptive events often happen on the same date (Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashana 10b-11a). In the beginning of the third century, Tertullian reported that since he knew precisely when Jesus died (14th of Nissan or March 25), he also knew exactly when he was conceived! He was most-likely wrong in his conclusions, but at least we can now see how they arrived to date of Christmas.

The logic went as follows: If Jesus was conceived on March 25 then counting forward to the 9 months of Mary’s pregnancy would place His birth on December 25. This is especially intriguing because January 1st used to be celebrated as the Day of Christ’s circumcision (8 days from the evening of Dec. 24).

It is very important to note that it was not until the 4th-6th centuries of the Common Era that Christians began to “Christianize” the local pagan celebrations of the peoples they sought to evangelize. There is no doubt that it was at this time, but not before, that Christmas began to acquire some of its pagan traditions. Why? Because until c.300-320 CE, Christians were fighting a counter-cultural war with the pagans of the Roman and Persian world. Consequently, they were not in the mood for cultural adaptations just yet.

Since December 25 as the supposed date of Christ’s birth was circulated 100-150 years before the practice of “Christianizing” pagan celebrations commenced, it is unreasonable to conclude that this date was adopted to please the Roman pagans as popular conspiracy theory suggests.

It is true that in 274 CE a Roman Emperor declared December 25 to be, “The Day of the Unconquered Sun,” (Sol Invictus). However, that was some 70 years after Christians had settled on December 25 as their Christmas date. (Moreover, the decree itself may have been issued to help stamp out the newly established Christian celebration). 

Now, before answering the main question asked in the heading on this post, I think we should answer few related ones:

Is Christmas a Biblical Holiday?

No. It was not commanded by God in the Bible.

Does the celebration of Christmas contain elements that are pagan in origin?

Absolutely. There is no doubt about that whatsoever.

Is December 25 the correct date for celebration of the Birth?

Possible, but highly unlikely.

And finally, is Christmas a Pagan Holiday?

There is nothing pagan about speculating that December 25 is the birthday of Jesus...And celebrating the date as such. God just did not command it!

So as far as December 25, 2021 is concerned dear friends, celebrate it as you wish and as is your family custom, given of course limitations imposed as a result of COVID restrictions for the second year in a row. As for me, I will miss the traditional church Christmas Eve candlelight services that have been generally cancelled this year...And numerous other things as society grows increasingly secular.

And, oh yes, how would Jesus celebrate his own birthday if he were alive today? He would no doubt fast and glorify his Heavenly Father all the while giving what human sustenance he had to the poor and needy around him.

*Paganism (from classical Latin pāgānus "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism or ethnic religions other than Judaism. In the time of the Roman empire, individuals fell into the pagan class either because they were increasingly rural and provincial relative to the Christian population, or because they were not milites Christi (soldiers of Christ). Alternative terms in Christian texts were hellene, gentile, and heathen. Ritual sacrifice was an integral part of ancient Graeco-Roman religion and was regarded as an indication of whether a person was pagan or Christian. Paganism has broadly connoted the "religion of the peasantry". During and after the Middle Ages, the term paganism was applied to any non-Christian religion, and the term presumed a belief in false god(s).

COME ON FOLKS, LET'S BE FRIENDS...I'M HARMLESS!

As I sat down to create this item for Wrights Lane I was dealing with several thoughts and emotions. I even pondered the possibility of creating something that  everyone would like and thereby meet with 100 per cent approval. It did not take long for the impossibility of the task to set in...politics, religion, sports, philosophy, history, happy or sad renderings, personal life reflections, humor -- you name it. The reality is that there is not one single subject that everyone would agree on and as far as I am concerned that is too bad. Perhaps there would be a down side to total agreement and I may develop that thought in a future offering on this site. Meantime, as a vent of sorts, I leave readers with the following which, as it turns out, is by no means my best piece of work. Hell, even I'm not sure if I like it!

No one likes not being liked! Just ask me, I know whereof I speak.

I have, of course, never set out purposely to do anything that would cause someone to dislike me, but still it has happened more times than I can count, due to something I have written or conveyed in the course of everyday verbal communications. It is the price paid by those of us who express ourselves publicly, primarily by means of the written word.

It just all goes with the territory.

I diligently take into consideration all sides of any issue or story idea that I pursue, knowing full well what I am opening myself up to. I have been at this craft for a very long time and have pride in authorship but I've yet to come to grips with the acknowledgement that along the way I have made some bad friends, or there are those who simply feel that I am a bag of wind.

Regardless, writers learn very early in their careers that there will be those who do not see the world with their eyes. Worse yet, there will be those who will be offended by something you say or commit to written word...And more frequently these days, there are those who become indignant with the least provocation. Touchy, touchy.

Social media platforms are particularly lethal in this regard and the quickest way to get yourself in trouble.

The reality is that we’ve become extremely hung up on issues of “right” vs. “wrong” in all aspects of life. I would go so far to say that most people today honestly believe that right and wrong are truly separate, definable and absolute categories. Because we often believe “what’s right is right, and what’s wrong is wrong,” we feel justified in disliking or even hating people whom we deem to be a little off our mark.

The problem with this kind of thinking is that it is totally black and white, and it ignores the shades of gray and the good within the bad.   Besides that, it is simply impossible to untangle the good from the bad, because all circumstances and events are infinitely complex.

To be certain, we are completely entitled to our personal preferences, and there’s nothing wrong with feeling strongly about a given subject. However, when we accept the fact that we are only dealing with a preference, rather than right and wrong, it becomes easier to forgive other people for their choices and actions. 

None of us is right, and none of us is wrong. We just are what we are, and we prefer what we prefer. 

And as far as we writers are concerned, we write about what we feel is in the public's best interest. Sometimes we even try to be a little  entertaining in the process.

Dismiss me if you like. Nothing new in that. But no need to become bad friends over it.

We can still have a coffee together at Tim Hortons and shake hands or bump elbows in church...And continue to enjoy conversational exchanges via Facebook text messaging.

ABOUT CONVICTION IN CARRYING OUT A LIFE ROLE

Josef Meier and fellow actress taking a break to read fan mail and sign autographs at the Black Hills Passion Play in Lake Wales. Josef Meier portrayed Jesus Christ in the Black Hillls Passion Play for several decades.

Author Marcus Bach, recognized as a leading authority on the world's religions and inter-cultural relations, once interviewed Josef Meier, the actor who for many years played the part of Jesus in a highly successful "Passion Play." Mr. Meier, who had enacted the role more than four thousand times, told Bach a secret. 

Meier said there was a period in the early history of the remarkable play when it seemed that the performances would never "catch on." There was something about the production and the organization that just "didn't click." Often, he would meet with the rest of the cast, and they would discuss the advisability of giving up and disbanding. 

What miracle then occurred to turn the project from failure to phenomenal success? Here is how Meier explained it:

"One evening when I was playing the part of the Christus, as I had done many times before, and a night when there were very few people in the audience, and hope was running low, I came to the lines in the play where Jesus says, 'Why take ye thought for the morrow, O ye of little faith?' I had said these words many, many times. On this particular night I heard myself saying this line as I had often done, but something happened.

For the first time, I asked myself, 'Josef Meier, why don't you have the will to believe these words with you heart? Don't just say them, believe them'."

Then he went on to say,

"Like a flash it dawned on me that I had been playing the part of the Christ without actually believing as He believed or living the faith as He had lived it. I don't know whether the spectators sensed that I paused momentarily at this point, but something was happening to me. Belief ... trust ... conviction came to me and from that moment on a change took place in everything connected with the Passion Play and its future."

Can we help but wonder how often we play a role in life for the sake of an audience, but down deep lack trust and conviction in carrying it out for real.

Why did this story suddenly come to me out of nowhere?

I don't know about your dear reader, but I have to look in the mirror on this one...And wonder!

THE MERIT OF A LETTER "FROM" SANTA CLAUS

In a pensive moment today I was thinking about the pros and cons of encouraging children to believe in Santa Claus at such a vulnerable and impressionable period of their lives.

With a degree of concern I also wondered about a child ultimately submitting to the devastating truth about the non-existence of Santa yet still being asked to believe in Jesus Christ as the true meaning for the celebration of the Christmas season. If the one is a myth, why not the other one too? Lie to me once, but two times in a row...?

It really is a lot of ask of a small mind! But those developing small minds are wonderful things.

It turns out that there are a number of factors that children use to decide whether or not to believe in fantastical stories. One of those things is what researchers call testimony, or what people tell you. Parents, friends, and relatives likely tell children over and over again that the things they see on TV aren’t real, and that Peter Rabbit, Elmo, and Harry Potter aren’t real animals, furry monsters, or people, despite how realistically they are depicted in the pages of their books or on the big screen.

This isn’t the case for Santa Claus. In contrast, for Santa, children are likely to hear repeatedly from others, especially from people they trust like their moms and dads, that Santa is real. In fact, children are most likely to believe in Santa if their parents endorse the Santa story, which isn’t surprising, since parents are generally a reliable source of information for young children.

When thinking about children’s abilities and how they come to build their beliefs, it actually isn’t so surprising that the Santa story sticks, at least for a little while. In fact, for children between the ages of about 5 and 8, magical thinking is a normal part of everyday life. Children of this age often have magical beliefs, not only believing in Santa Claus, but also believing in the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, flying carpets, magic beans, and that stepping on a crack might break your mother’s back. So it isn’t super surprising that Santa Claus, his elves, and his flying reindeer fit nicely into children’s regular world view, especially between the ages of 5 and 8, when there is testimony and evidence to support that he’s a living, breathing, jolly old elf.

Around the ripe old age of 7 or 8, children’s belief in Santa and the world of fantastical beasts seems to wane. It isn’t that parents confess that the Santa story was all just a fabrication, or that they try less hard to push the story once children reach grade school; instead, it seems to be that as children get older, they start to question the physical impossibilities of the Santa story—a story that they didn’t even think to question a few years earlier.

As children start to understand more about physical impossibilities, they seem to naturally learn for themselves that the Santa story just couldn’t be real. Indeed, research suggests that children tend to figure out the truth about Santa on their own around this time, and that their reactions are generally quite positive. 

In spite of my reservations, there is no scientific evidence that finding out the truth about Santa causes children any distress or makes them doubt whether their parents are trustworthy. Some kids don’t even tell their parents that they’ve figured it out—they understand that even parents get joy out of the Santa myth, and so children sometimes let their parents hold on to the holiday magic for a few more years.

But there is still the question of transitioning to the Christian belief system that ideally should stay with an adolescent for the rest of their life, a matter that is not always handled effectively by well-meaning parents.

As an aid in this delicate process, I like the following Letter "From" Santa Claus. It is not necessarily suggested that it be used in the format presented, but it may serve as a catalyst for parents as they attempt to explain the real meaning of the Christmas season. Up to this point parents have been exceptionally creative and there is no reason for that creativeness to stop when setting the stage for the balance of their children's lives after a subtle exit by the Jolly Old Gent..
The letter can be printed out and kept handy for when needed, or it can be read aloud using your own words in places deemed necessary.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Young Friend:

I know you're going through a time right now when you're not sure if I am real or not. I know most of your friends no longer believe in me. But I know you want to believe for yourself, and for that little sister and brother you've got. Well, I hope I can help work out some of the confusion you might have.

I am Santa. I may not exist like the story goes. I am not a single man who makes millions of toys each year, and gives them all out in one long night on a sled pulled by 8 (or 9) magical reindeer. I am not in thousands of malls and Wal-Marts all at once throughout the season. But, make no mistake, I am real.

I am as real as the love in your heart. It is love that has perpetuated my story all these many centuries. I am as true as the spirit in your soul. Santa's spirit is the giving spirit of all of those who care for others. My magic is the miracle of reaching out to someone else and bringing joy to their hearts.

I do not see every thing you do. But someone does. I do not know when you're not asleep at night. But my friend, I hate to break it to you, your mom and dad do. I do not know if you've been bad or good, but you know. So for goodness sake, be good to yourself and others. It shows. And how you treat yourself and others is so important. I will not reward you for good, but your mom and dad will. And you'll soon find that internal reward of your own conscience. You know, that feeling you get when you've made someone else feel better?

As you grow older, I hope you'll learn to more appreciate the real gift of Christmas - The gift of Jesus Christ. For without his love, spirit and miracles, I would not exist at all. It is time now for you to realize the magic of Christmas and Santa is nothing more than the miracle and gift from God. This is the message I want you to carry with you.

You can teach your sister and brother about God's love through me. Showing them kindness and love throughout the year, and helping them find the magic in Christmas is how you keep me real. Teaching them and others, by example, about God's love for each one of us, and demonstrating kindness and giving to all in need will be how you share the spirit of Santa.

You'll always find gifts under the tree from me as long as you believe in what I represent. You'll always see my magic and feel my spirit at Christmas time when you make that miracle of selflessness and giving. And may you know the blessings and Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ now, and forever.

Sincerely,

Santa Claus

Over to you Jesus!

There is a bumper-sticker you might have seen that reads, simply, "God is fun." Not many of us, perhaps, are accustomed to thinking of God in this way. Yet, God is a God of Love, and a God of peace, and a God of joy. And isn't that an accurate description of a God who is simply "fun?"

In times like ours, it is so easy to get bogged down in a mood of despair. Problems all around us are so great. Man's inhumanity to man is so shocking that it is easy to see only the bad side of things and be pulled down into a whirlpool of complaints, grief, hopelessness, and despair.

People are complaining that the world is not only losing its health and prosperity -- but is losing its mind! We struggle with the Pandemic and global weather disasters. We face massive social problems, including, violence, the fight for equal justice, and economic pressures. Political infighting has neighbor pitted against neighbor. "What's wrong with us?" people are asking. Almost every conversation, no matter where it starts, seems to end up in this kind of mood. That is why it is so essential for us these days to remind ourselves that the People of God are a People of Joy. We are a People of Joy because we know that God gives Himself to us even amid our darkest situations, and, as He gives Himself to us, He gives us joy.

Why not spread a little of that "joy to the world", especially at this time of year?

Kind of sounds like a Christmas carol doesn't it!

A LIKE IT OR LUMP IT PHYLOSOPHY

A NOTE FROM DICK: Just before you read any further into this blog.

There is an expression currently circulating on Facebook to the effect: "Not everyone is going to understand you. So don't let what they don't know change what you do..." That quote reminds me of several others:

"I stopped explaining myself when I realized people only understand from their own level of perception."

"Not everyone has to understand you...As long as you understand yourself."

We often try to change the people around us. We want them to understand our feelings and we want them to know what is on our mind. But when you recognize that not everyone can understand how you are feeling, the reality sets in.

Life is a journey we take on our own. Along this journey there will be people who feel similar to us or who can understand what we are all about, and those are the ones that we ideally keep around us. Those are the people that we marry even, God love them.

If you are on a spiritual journey, and you are trying to make others understand what you are experiencing, it will be difficult. In retrospect, if we remember the times before we were on this journey, we wouldn’t have understood any of it either. There are countless other examples to reinforce that reality.

Whatever journey we are on at this moment, it is ours to experience. I started Wrights Lane some 15 years ago not only to share my experiences with others but to pass on gleanings of a human interest and (hopefully) inspirational nature. The people who resonate with my work will keep reading while others who do not have an interest will take a pass because what I write simply does not fit their life plan.

It has taken a while, but I have learned to accept the things I cannot change and that in itself has taken a heavy burden off my shoulders.

As much as I would wish it otherwise, I accept the fact that "ya can't win em all."

Life is just that way!

CGIT, A RAPIDLY DWINDLING BUT WORTHY INITIATIVE

Canadian Girls in Training, Dresden, ON branch, 1935.

In my last Wrights Lane post I bemoaned the fact that we were losing many of the very worthy youth organizations that at one time contributed to the character and development of so many Canadians in the 20th Century. In this article I review the history of one of those organizations, prompted by the above photograph I recently uncovered showing an active Canadian Girls in Training group in my hometown of Dresden, ON. in 1935.

In the fall of 1915, as the First World War raged overseas, four young women decided to undertake a novel project: create an interdenominational organization that would serve the needs and aspirations of young Canadian girls in the 11 to 16 age range. They were Winnifred Thomas, a New Brunswick Methodist and graduate of Mount Allison University; Olive Ziegler, a Torontonian and recent graduate of the University of Toronto; Una Saunders, a Brit and Oxford University grad who had become the general secretary of YWCA Canada; and Constance Body, an Anglican who was on a career path to becoming general secretary of the YWCA.

At a time already replete with new youth-oriented organizations such as Girl Guides, Junior Red Cross and various agricultural societies, that quartet of Canadian women decided the country — specifically, its Protestant faith groups — needed one that would be distinctly Canadian. Its purpose: to give girls the same opportunities as boys to serve their country, to train girls for humanitarian service, and to provide a discrete space for girls to discuss gender-related issues, as well as personal and faith formation.

Within two decades, Canadian Girls in Training (CGIT) had become an unqualified success. CGIT groups operated in more than 750 Canadian communities, often as adjuncts to Sunday school classes in United, Anglican and Presbyterian congregations. The movement’s growth was so rapid, in fact, that it was hampered only by its ability to find enough qualified leaders.

And that leader, Thomas argued, was key. A CGIT leader had to be able to function as a teacher and friend, but also needed to possess subtle leadership skills to help girls develop their own character through a “four-fold life” comprised of physical, intellectual, religious and service components.

Self-discovery was an important theme, as was freedom to question and discuss issues of personal importance. (By the early 1930s, CGIT had adopted a sex education unit, based on The Mastery of Sex, by British psychologist Leslie Weatherhead.)

As early as the 1920s, CGIT groups were in the business of teaching girls about the importance of female influence in home, work and community settings. It promoted higher education and leadership skills for women and acted as a seedbed for what would later be identified as the women’s movement. Ontario lieutenant-governor (1974-80) Pauline McGibbon, the late Conservative cabinet minister Flora MacDonald and labour leader Grace Fulcher Hartman were products of the CGIT program.

The late Canadian historian Margaret Prang, a native of Stratford, wrote in 1985 that the CGIT movement helped “shape a vision of their country and the world, and of themselves as citizens, for many Canadian girls. . . . Life in CGIT provided an introduction to what a later generation would identify as a ‘women’s culture.’ ”

That indebtedness to a church-based organization is not one that modern feminist groups acknowledge very often.

The first CGIT branch in Dresden was formed in 1935 and attracted interdenominational participation from within the town, 24 young woman at its peak. Meeting in the Sunday School Hall at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, the Dresden branch was organized by the minister's wife, Mrs. F.R. Anderson assisted by Mrs. Earnest Dunlop, and remained active for about seven years, to the best of my knowledge. At least one other CGIT branch followed in Dresden, circa 1958, in addition to several others in the area around that same time.

As CGIT limped toward its 100th anniversary, it was but a shadow of its former self. The organization consists of only about 2,000 girls scattered among about 150 groups across Canada. The decline in enrollment, of course, is linked to the decline in church membership over the past couple of decades. And the falloff in Ontario has been severe.

In Ontario, there are only three groups left, “all with excellent and dedicated leaders,” says Gail Dolson, executive secretary of the Ontario CGIT Association. “That is certainly a far cry from the days in the ’50s and ’60s, when there was a group in every United Church in the province, most Presbyterian churches and Baptist churches as well.”

And while the curriculum has changed somewhat to meet modern challenges (it now covers drugs and alcohol abuse, for example), “it is difficult to get girls interested in a group that asks them to lift their heads up from their cellphones,” Dolson says.

Despite CGIT’s state of decline, its contributions in helping shape Canadian society over the past century have been greatly understated — or simply lost. In their haste to head for the exits of Protestant churches over the past four decades, Canadians have also unwittingly deflated some para-church organizations.

In spite of the decline, CGIT made an enormous contribution to women’s issues, gender equality and the development of a nation, and its four young founders would be proud.

You simply cannot tell me that there is not a need for a similar organization for girls in Canada today. All that is lacking, it would seem, are willing qualified leaders, encouraging parents and girls in their early teens who can pull themselves away from the insular distractions that have become so alluring in this ambivalent day and age.

Perhaps that would be asking too much of today's society.

 Hi! to new friends from the 

Dresden Virtual History Group.

HERE'S WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO HAVE FRIENDS IN MY DAY, BUT WHAT DO KIDS SUBSTITUTE FOR FRIENDS TODAY?

ME AND MY CHUMS JUST PLAY'N HAVIN' FUN

I often wonder what kids do for friends these days. I hear my granddaughter talking about "hanging out" but I don't know what that means.

I just don't see kids playing together that much any more. Making their own fun and being creative doing it!

When I was "a kid" we played "ball" and didn't have to go to a sports field to do it. Anywhere would do and with any old bat and ball we could find. And we played cowboys and Indians and hide-and-go-seek. During WW2 we even played "war". Come to think of it, I was also known to play "house" with girls in my neighborhood. We played marbles and hop scotch and I tried my hand at skipping. We went fishing together, swam in the local watering hole, skated on the ice in winter and hung out on the street corner at night talking foolishness.

As we grew older we went to movies together and congregated at the local soda bar. It was all about having fun together -- and laughing a lot.

We just naturally learned social skills through the fun things we did together. We learned to settle differences with our peers though youthful engagement.

As I say, I don't see any of that happening today. Consider also that young people do not go to church and Sunday School these days and youth organizations like Boy Scouts and Girl Guides are virtual things of the past.

What I do see are solitary kids with cell phones glued to their ears or pre-fixed with heads down concentrating on hand-held electronic devices, fingers clicking madly, faces expressionless. I look into post-puberty eyes and come away uncomfortable with what I see.

I can't help but notice kids hustling home from school and disappearing into their houses, rarely emerging until next morning when on their way to school again. Mind you, it might be different where I live. I don't know!

I see beautiful youthful bodies that so often are handicapped by affluence. They are caught in an increasingly complex world, more often than not burdened by unrealistic expectations, lacking in toughness and resilience. It makes my heart hurt for them. They are protected to the point where I fear they will not develop situational awareness.

I struggle too with the prospect that my great grandchild will live to experience the chaos the world will be in by the end of this century, due to global warming, polar ice cap melting and sea rise - coastal flooding and loss of ocean ports which will bring mass starvation and migrations affecting everyone no matter where they live. I see festering political unrest and man's inhumanity to man that does not auger well for the future.

Sorry young fellow and girl. I can't do much for you now. I am at a loss...You are on your own and I wish I could leave you in a better world. I just had no idea...

I wish that you could have experienced playing ball, hide-and-seek, going fishing, going to the local soda fountain and hanging out under a street light with friends. Simple as they were, those were the innocent fun things that prepared me for the rest of my life. You deserve as much.

Would that I could imagine the same for you!

As I say, I have no idea. It is all beyond me!

Maybe in having so much fun, my generation has let yours down in some way(s). But that's another story.

PASSING THOUGHT: WE'RE MADE TO NURTURE AND GROW

It was pointed out to me recently by someone of a theologically superior mind that it is no coincidence that God chose to call the first man He created, "Adam." The name was given as a reference to the very material from which the man was made, earth -- or the ground we walk on and grow our food in. "The LORD God formed man from the dust of the earth" (Genesis 2:7).  

So, if All of God’s creatures were created from the ground, why was Adam the only one named after it (adamah/אדמה)? 

Our sages explain: While the animals were made in their completed form, both man and the earth were created in a basic, pure state. They both need to be further developed, and both required additional hard work to reach their full potential and bear fruit.

The secret you can only find when you understand Hebrew is also hidden in Adam’s name. It is the word dam (דם), meaning blood. This clearly shows that God’s most wonderful creation. Adam (which means “man”) was made to be flesh and blood from the very beginning. The Old Testament holds highly the significance of blood of living creatures, and it all seems to start here, in the name given especially to mankind, “Adam.”

We find that in Biblical Hebrew, nothing is coincidental. God gave a meaningful name to his blessed creature, man, and within it, imbedded an important message for humanity. Flesh-and-blood humans are purely of God, just as the earth, and like the ground, need further cultivation and development to reach their maximum potential.

Have you or I, dear friend, even begun to nurture or ideally reach, our full potential?

It is sad to think that most of us will go to our graves never having truly fulfilled our purpose in life because we did not give birth to our capabilities.

We sell ourselves short in accepting the status quo. Thereby not allowing ourselves to grow like the seeds we ideally plant.

I'M REMINDED OF A HOMETOWN COBBLER

Mr. Cobbler, Mr. Cobbler please mend my shoes

Fix them so the nails won't hurt me
O yes, please do
For I'm running, skipping, jumping
All the day through.

...Or words to that affect. This was only one of a number of 18th century nursery rhyme songs taught to me by my mother when I was knee-high to a grass hopper, still in diapers I think.

A newer version of the song goes something like this: "Mr. Cobbler, Mr. Cobbler, please mend my shoes. Have them done bye by half past two. Stitch them up and stitch them down, and I will give you half a crown!"

As Europe neared the end of the 18th century, an explosion of new art, literature, and music renewed interest in ‘folk art’ and ancient themes, including supernatural beings like elves. Scholars, dramatists, and artists joined a rekindled interest in folklore, seeking to uncover ancient stories. In this period, what we think of as elves, fairies, and a host of other traditional European folk characters began to take their familiar shape. Andrew Lang gave fairies their butterfly wings in ‘Princess Nobody’, and the Brothers Grimm gave elves their cobbling hammers in ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’. These characters remain fixed in our imaginations to this day, essentially unchanged.

This all came to mind for me following a virtual history group conversation I had with a young lady from my hometown of Dresden. Her grandfather just happened to be a cobbler/shoe repair man of my acquaintance during formative years in the 1940s.

Clickers and accessories

Clarence Breaton Sr. was a throwback cobbler, complete with black rubber apron and leather-stained hands, in his small, antiquated repair shop on main street. Those were the days when all shoes were made of leather and designed to last. Clarence served up the works, completely rebuilding footwear -- heels, soles and all. You had a choice of half-soles and leather or rubber heels. I visited him frequently to have "clickers" replaced on the heels of my shoes because they wore down quickly.

Metal clickers were supposed to make heels last longer but we kids liked the sound of them as we click, clicked down the street military style. There was no sneaking up on anybody in those days! Clickers were a macho status symbol.

Clarence Breaton's handiwork. Glove
padded with felt and neatly stitched.

Clarence was no one-trick pony either. He padded and re-stitched baseball gloves for both me and my dad because my fastball was gaining in velocity as we regularly played catch in our backyard during summer months. The extra felt padding also helped firm up my dad's glove because he lost a finger on his left hand as the result of a shot gun accident in his youth.

Clarence's shop also doubled as a museum of sorts with World War One memorabilia on the walls, even a mysterious suit of armor that somehow managed to fly under the radar of local historians. Would be interesting to know if anyone in the Breaton family know anything about it or of the whereabouts today.

A member of the Canadian Navy Over-Seas Expeditionary Force in WW1, serving in France and England, Clarence suffered a serious leg wound and walked with a noticeable limp for the balance of his life.

Shoemakers existed in all civilizations and were among the first European settlers in North America. They were divided between two professions. Cobblers repaired existing shoes; cordwainers made shoes from scratch. The first European cordwainer came to the New World in 1629, two decades after the first cobbler.

The expense and difficulty in importing goods from Europe meant that cobblers played a vital part in the early American economy. Shoemakers’ value went beyond the economic, however. The cobblers were also an informal news network. These craftsmen traveled from town to town, and as they repaired shoes they shared news among isolated settlements. The advent of machinery and other advances in shoe-making in the 19th century would change this, however.

Although cobblers and cordwainers have both been prized throughout history for their skills, shoes have changed dramatically over the course of time and so has their price tags.

Combined with American Lyman Blake’s invention in 1864 of a sewing machine designed to sew shoes (it could handle thick leather better than the machines designed to sew cloth for tops and bottoms), this technology allowed for shoemaking to shift out of the homes and shops of cobblers and into full factory settings.

As styles quadrupled in the past century and synthetic materials coupled with mass production made for cheaper brands of shoes, repair shops that were a staple of Western culture, became few and far between.

Still we from a couple of generations back still remember shoe repair as an essential service. The well-worn proverb “The shoemaker’s children always go barefoot” and the story of the elves who helped a shoemaker in Grimm’s Fairy Tales, later adapted by the Muppets, have helped keep the memory alive.

Some of the more nostalgic among us also remember with fondness good old Clarence Breaton and his uniquely interesting shop in downtown Dresden. But our numbers are dwindling, right?

If the shoe fits, we have to wear it!