"The Twelve Days of Christmas"

People often think of The Twelve Days of Christmas as the days preceding the festival. Actually, Christmas is a season of the Christian Year that last for days beginning December 25 and lasting until January 6 - the Day of Epiphany when the church celebrates the revelation of Christ as the light of the world and recalls the journey of the Magi.

From 1558 until 1829 people in England were not allowed to practice their faith openly. During this era someone wrote 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' as a kind of secret catechism that could be sung in public without risk of persecution. The song has two levels of interpretation: "the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of the church." Each element in the carol is a code word for a religious reality.

1. The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus Christ.
2. The two turtledoves are the Old and New Testaments.
3. Three French hens stand for faith, hope and love.
4. The four calling birds are the four Gospels.
5. The five gold rings recall the torah (Law) the first five books of the Old Testament.
6. The six geese a-laying stand for the six days of creation.
7. Seven swans a-swimming represent the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit.
8. The eight maids a-milking are the eight beatitudes.
9. Nine ladies dancing are the nine fruits of the spirit.
10. The ten lords a-leaping are the Ten Commandments.
11. Eleven pipers piping stand for the eleven faithful disciples.
12. Twelve drummers drumming symbolize the 12 points of belief in the Apostles Creed.

There you have it, the HIDDEN meaning of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and the secret behind the song.

Yes, Virginia

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Wrong Number. From Carol Burnett.

It doesn't get any better than this!

Let me get this straight.
We're going to pass a health care plan
*written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it,
*passed by a Congress that hasn't read it, but exempts themselves from it,
*signed by a president that also hasn't read it, and who smokes,
*with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes,
*overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese, and
*financed by a country that's already broke. 
What could possibly go wrong?

Radiation

Several people have inquired about the radiation that I receive for cancer lesions.

I have just started my second round of radiation. The first time was for a spot on my back. This time it is for lesions on a left rib. I receive radiation from the front for one lesion and from the back for the other. The type of radiation I receive isn't/hasn't been painful at all. As a matter of fact, after a few treatments the paid from the lesions begins to ease. Each "shot" takes about 30-40 seconds. It takes me much longer to get my shirt off and get on the table than it does for both "shots" combined.

I am fortunate that the @Kansas City Cancer Center has the type of equipment that I can lie on my back, have x-rays and have both "shots" (front and back) without moving. The machine does all the moving around me to get to the lesions.

During all the treatments that I have had since diagnosis the only thing that has been painful was during the actual stem cell transplants (my own stem cells). Prior to the transplant I received "high dose chemo." It kills all the fast growing cells like hair follicles and the cells in the mouth and esophagus. As a result you lose your hair and develop sores in your mouth and esophagus. The sores are awful! They hurt! They hurt when you breath or swallow. Pain pills only knock you out and you are still aware your mouth and esophagus is hurting. The only thing that helps is gargling salt water about 3 dozen time each day until they go away which takes 3 days to a week (or longer if you don't gargle).

Just thought I would share some of the information with you. Thank each of you for all the prayers you send my way.

Memory of Jean Spencer

When I was a very young child, possibly pre-school, we had a very special neighbor down on north 17th Street in Woodward, Oklahoma. Her name was Jean Spencer and she had four (4) very ornery boys that I kind of tagged behind and observed their activities.

Anyway, this isn't about the four boys it's about their mother. She called me to her porch one day and gave me a small Christmas gift that I think of every year at Christmas time. It was a mouse trap that was decorated in silver. It was trimmed in lace and the entire thing was painted silver. She gave me a little talk of which all I remember is that every Christmas tree must have a mouse trap.

That mouse trap has long since disappeared but the sentiment has remained with me all these years.

This is one of my earliest memories.

2010