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A Traditional Approach?
For those of us who have lost loved ones, a sure-fire way to trigger yourself into a pit of despair is to blindly face old traditions without a plan. Tradition, to many struggling with grief and loss, is a word coated with emotion of various kinds. Wrapped with hooks, barbs, harpoons, and Velcro, there’s rarely any escape when facing holiday traditions. The soul already hurting has little chance against what “always was.” There’s bound to be some sort of damage—it’s Christmas week. It’s a war zone out there.
Trust me. I know.
Irony? At Christmas?
Frederick Douglass once said: “At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.” I suppose he may be right. For in my mission to feed the hungry soul today, I can only think of the irony at hand.
It’s Christmas time. And many are struggling.
Have a Favorite Gift?
What was your favorite Christmas gift growing up as a child?
It is the season of gift giving, and I’ve been trying to think of perfect gifts for those I love. It’s a hard task, a daunting one, one that makes me think. Deeply. Sometimes it bends the mind. But on my quest to find that perfect something for each person on my list, I’m prompted of my own childhood.
And I go back in time:
Meet Your Hero?
They say to never meet your hero. It’s an idea that won’t pan out. “Don’t do it,” Reason says, trying to protect the child within you. “He or she will never match your expectations.”
Doubt does the same, saying: “They won’t be the same in your eyes ever again.”
Caution also shuns the idea with its careful eye. “They’re too high on the pedestal,” he says. “They’ll fall off hard when you see them. Then you’ll wish you’d have listened.”
And unfortunately, somehow, we know inside that these things might be true. Heroes are human, aren’t they? Something they do, something they say, some way they behave in real life might just rub us the wrong way when meeting our hero in person. After all, isn’t it impossible for he or she to live up to the fantasy held inside our Instagram-synthesized mindset?
So, given the opportunity, what would you do?
Would you meet your hero?