Ah, another Christmas holiday successfully navigated. At times, it can feel like a bit of an odd holiday. It's a joyous time. It must be. It seems like at least half the carols we sing mention joy or gladness. But our celebration is often mired in logistics. Schedules must be synched and dates negotiated before the party can commence. Or, more accurately, parties. Our family gathers and celebrates Christmas at least three or four times with different family and friends. I'm not just so glad each Christmas Eve, I'm also so glad each Christmas Eve Eve and so on. The Christmas story itself seems intentionally simple. No hospital, no mention of a midwife or description of labor. Just a stable and a baby in a manger. So simple, yet we've managed to make it complicated. We can't help ourselves.
This Christmas, our church offered three Christmas Eve services. The first was at 3:00, the second at 4:30 and the last at 10:30. We attended to 3:00 one because it fit well with our plans to gather with my wife's family for dinner afterwards. It was a festive affair, with both adult and children's choirs singing and other special music. The sanctuary was full and I could sense that other families had evening plans similar to our own. After the service, there was the usual hustle and bustle as people hurried off to their next engagement. We did the same. We follow this script every year and it has worked well for us. We gathered at my mother-in-law's house, had a meal and opened gifts. A pleasant evening.
This year, we had one wrinkle in our typical Christmas Eve routine. My oldest son, B, was slated to acolyte at the 10:30 service. I dropped my wife and youngest son off at home and B and I returned to church. He was less than happy about attending church twice in one night. I'd noticed earlier that the 3:00 and 4:30 services used the same bulletin but that the 10:30 service used something else. I assured him that the service would not simply be a repeat of what we had participated in earlier.
I could not have been more correct. The 10:30 service was nothing like the earlier ones. It was contemplative, quiet almost. It was beautiful in its simplicity. It was sparsely attended. I wish more people would have witnessed it, but the small numbers contributed to a feeling of intimacy that fit the moment. After days of shopping and wrapping and eating and unwrapping it was so refreshing to just stop for a moment and focus on the simple and profound story behind it all. I'm so grateful B's acolyte duties brought me there.
Merry Christmas.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Junk Drawer
In our kitchen, we have a little spot, a nook almost, where we keep our laptop, some school papers and a scattering of pens and pencils. The space is an extension of our kitchen counters but it has been design to act as a desk, with a space for a chair and room for your knees. To the left of the "knee hole" is a column of three drawers. The bottom drawer is large enough to accommodate files and has all the necessary hardware for that purpose. The other two drawers, however, are just drawers. Without a definite purpose, these drawers, especially the top one, have become junk drawers.
Last night, my wife was looking for a pencil sharpener for my oldest son to keep in his school backpack. I was at the kitchen desk when her quest brought her to the top drawer. Apparently, she had not inspected the drawer recently, for as she rummaged, she seemed surprised (or maybe disgusted) at the amount of seemingly useless junk occupying that space.
The search for the sharpener quickly became secondary as she began sorting through the piles of papers, cords, coins, restaurant cards, etc.. I pointed out a pencil sharpener in the mix. She set it aside and continued sifting through the mess. Like an anthropologist at a dig, she examined the artifacts and determined that most of it was from 2007. That is the same year we remodeled the kitchen and had the drawer built. The junk had apparently been there from the beginning.
As I looked in the drawer, I knew I was guilty of depositing much of the junk in the drawer. Over the next hour or so, I was quizzed about the relevance or usefulness of various items. The line between junk and trash can be very fine. Many items were thrown away, others were merely relocated. At one point, she handed me a pile of stuff that was clearly mine and told me to put it somewhere. That's what I had done before, I had put it in the junk drawer. I took the pile and wandered around the house until I found a new place to stash my stuff. I suppose at some point in the future, I'll need to move it again.
The drawer is now neat and orderly. I don't think she bothered to look at its neighbor just below it. That drawer isn't quite as messy but it's getting there. Having everything tidy is a nice concept, but I happen to think that junk drawers serve a purpose. There are things we accumulate that don't fit in any category but junk. Yet, they are not trash. They are the tiny plastic pencil sharpeners, the paperclips, the nine-volt battery and the random penny. They need to go somewhere. Putting them all in one drawer makes them easier to locate on those rare occasions when you need them.
Last night, my wife was looking for a pencil sharpener for my oldest son to keep in his school backpack. I was at the kitchen desk when her quest brought her to the top drawer. Apparently, she had not inspected the drawer recently, for as she rummaged, she seemed surprised (or maybe disgusted) at the amount of seemingly useless junk occupying that space.
The search for the sharpener quickly became secondary as she began sorting through the piles of papers, cords, coins, restaurant cards, etc.. I pointed out a pencil sharpener in the mix. She set it aside and continued sifting through the mess. Like an anthropologist at a dig, she examined the artifacts and determined that most of it was from 2007. That is the same year we remodeled the kitchen and had the drawer built. The junk had apparently been there from the beginning.
As I looked in the drawer, I knew I was guilty of depositing much of the junk in the drawer. Over the next hour or so, I was quizzed about the relevance or usefulness of various items. The line between junk and trash can be very fine. Many items were thrown away, others were merely relocated. At one point, she handed me a pile of stuff that was clearly mine and told me to put it somewhere. That's what I had done before, I had put it in the junk drawer. I took the pile and wandered around the house until I found a new place to stash my stuff. I suppose at some point in the future, I'll need to move it again.
The drawer is now neat and orderly. I don't think she bothered to look at its neighbor just below it. That drawer isn't quite as messy but it's getting there. Having everything tidy is a nice concept, but I happen to think that junk drawers serve a purpose. There are things we accumulate that don't fit in any category but junk. Yet, they are not trash. They are the tiny plastic pencil sharpeners, the paperclips, the nine-volt battery and the random penny. They need to go somewhere. Putting them all in one drawer makes them easier to locate on those rare occasions when you need them.
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