The Christmas Experts

If you want to know nearly everything
there is to know about the history of Christmas,
these are the books for you.

Stephen Nissenbaum (b 1941)
American scholar & History Professor
Author of The Battle for Christmas

John "Jock" Elliott
Advertising executive & Christmas Collector
Author of Inventing Christmas
January 25, 1921 - October 29, 2005

George D. Meredith
Influential Ad Man & Christmas Collector
Author of When what to my wondering eyes . . .
August 7, 1940 - January 5, 2023

Further reading on the Quotidian Kit
1. Nissenbaum
2. Elliott & Meredith
3. Facebook

How to Find Orion

How to find Orion? Get a good star book!
I have had many in my life:
As a Gemini myself (born May 24, 1957), I love seeing The Twins -- Castor and Pollux -- featured on the cover of The Stars. However, it is thanks to Orion -- nearly everyone's favorite constellation! right? -- that I know how to locate The Twins. It seems that in learning the stars, we are taught first about the Big Dipper, then the Little Dipper, but Orion is the one who stays with us over the years.

Back when I was in grade school, these two H. A. Rey constellation books were library favorites of mine. In 1999, I gave new copies to Ben & Sam for Christmas!

H. A. Rey (1898 - 1977) is of course best known for his creation of dear little Curious George, and after that for his accessile explanations of astronomy. Maybe less so for his illustrated book of Christmas Carols, but that's why I'm including it here -- because Christmas is coming and because the title song is about a star!

My mom had an old trusted book of constellations, the one she used to teach us kids: The Stars by Clock and Fist (which I still have).

From my 4th grade reading list, I had What is a Solar System? (not pictured) -- and A Child's Guide to the Stars (shown above, outside & below, inside). These two are still with me, but I seem to remember a third one that I liked even better, perhaps also from the Neosho Pulbic Library: a maroon hardback cover with an etched design of two children looking upward out of a window; and inside, a page about The Magi and their mystical understanding of the night sky. Will I ever find it or see it again?

Thank to my friend Claude
for letting me know about the work of
Martha Evans Martin & Will Tirion

Another one from Ben & Sam's Childhood

"As your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the traveller in the dark,—
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star."

See Also
on QK: "The Faithful Beauty of the Stars"
on FN: "The Orion Connection"

Halloween Favorites

Pumpkin Moon by Tim Preston
with vivid, startling illustrations by Simon Bartram

Thanks to my friend Katie who knows
that kids' books are for grown-ups too!

Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night by Anne Rockwell
with nostalgic, cut - out illustrations by Megan Halsey

***************************

Not forgetting
The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt
and of course Harry Behn's Halloween

Naomi Shihab Nye

"I want to be someone
making music with my coming."

Back in the 1970s, I was a loyal subscriber to the quarterly magazine Power: "Personal Reflections by Youth for Youth." Of course I was thrilled when some of my poems were accepted for publication; but that happened only three times.

On a more regular basis, however, I was filled with inspiration, searching the pages of each new issue for the latest poems by Naomi Shihab, a regular contributor at the time. Hers were always my favorites, so much so that I copied them all out by hand and made my own "Collected Poetry of Naomi Shihab." Certainly she was famous to me!

Those omnipresent Blue Books of my under-grad years, ever a symbol of fraught and fretful soul searching, were never put to better use. I have them with me to this day, and the poems inside, imprinted on my memory:

I would be no one.
I would have no head, no hair, no comb.

I would be the thin mist in the air of a cold morning;
I would rise and disappear early, before the sun
and the noisy streets and everyone moving.

I would hum and greet you when you awaken,
with no words, no face, no promise but my love,
like a river.

I would be here, be here, be here invisible, forever --
when all the braver ones have gone to hide --
when all these tears have years and years been dried.

Nowadays, unlike that olden era of pen to paper,
you can easily order
Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems
by Naomi Shihab Nye (b 1952)

and read the many Shihab Nye poems
scattered throughtout my blogs: ~ QK ~ FN ~ KL
as they have been throughout my life . . .

Where are you on
your spiritual journey?"
you ask, your sharp eyes
thumbtacking the question
on my heart.

What can I say?
I am somewhere beyond "go"
I have not stopped.

Years have shown me
the idea of travelling
is a game we play with ourselves
to pretend we're not home.

~ Naomi Shihab Nye ~

See SPIRITUAL JOURNEY,
Quotidian Kit, right - hand column,

Land Value Tax

Portrait of
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778)
by Charles Gleyre (1806 – 1874)

“The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows, 'Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.'” ~Rousseau

from the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1775)

*****************
If you agree with Rousseau, then you'll appreciate the research of Lars A. Doucet, who believes that it is "only a slight exaggeration to say that humanity's history is defined by a struggle over land" and we need to tax "those who gatekeep the most valuable locations and natural resourcs, things which were not brought into existence by anyone's hard work or investment" (xi, 160).

In his book, Land is a Big Deal Doucet reviews the work of Henry George (1839 - 1897), including his book Progress and Poverty (1879), his article "The Science of Political Economy" (1897), and his influence on the original version of the boardgame Monopoly.

If, like me, you were always the worst in your family at Monopoly and Settlers of Catan, allow Doucet to help you understand the intricacies of land acquisition. For example, "When you sell a piece of land to someone, you're participating in a chain of peacful land sales that began at some point in the past with a violent seizure" (xi). Doucet has a lot of fun with the phrase "By George" as he explains Georgism and Land Value Tax to the beginner.

A few highlights:

p 4: "If I had to summarize George's book in a single sentence, I would put it this way: "Poverty and wealth disparity appear to be perversely linked with progress; The Rent is Too Damn High, and it is all because of land."

p 6: "He [George] then explains why the existing system causes poverty to advance alongside progress, and why we see industrial depressions. Then, he identifies the root cause of the problem (land ownership and speculative rent) and presents his solution (the Land Value Tax)."

pp 7 - 8, 62: "If we finally have the necessary material conditions and technology for utopia, why this suffering, waste, and inefficiency? . . . the man lays the blame at the feet of progress itself . . . the resiliance of poverty, oppression, and inequality in the face of advancing econimic development is . . . an inescapable consequence of our socioeconomic system. . . . where the value of land is highest, civilization exhibits the greatest luxury side by side with the most piteous destitution."

[Likewise Karl Marx: "From day to day it thus becomes clearer . . . that in the selfsame relations in which wealth is produced, poverty is produced also; that in the selfsame relations in which there is a developent of the productive forces, there is also a force producing repression . . ."]

p 13 - 14: “Yes, greed, evil, and human nature will always be with us, but isn’t it weird that we haven’t eliminated these economic problems the same way we’ve eliminated Smallpox, Scurvy, and having to write your scathing polemics about Thomas Jefferson by candlelight with a goose feather?”

p 15 - 16: "By George, what is wealth?

Wealth is produced when nature's bounty is touched by human labor resulting in a tangible product that is the object of human desire. . . .

[quoting Henry George 1897] 'It is never the amount of labor that has been exerted in bringing a thing into being that determines its value, but always the amount of labor that will be rendered in exchange for it.' In other words, 'a thing's value is whatever someone is willing to pay for it.' "

89: "Does this mean that there can never be profitable landlords ever again? Of course not -- they just have to earn their living honesty like everyone else." [See also, Evicted]

p 102, 167, 247: "The purpose of Land Value Tax is not just to raise revenue, but to end speculation, rent - seeking, unaffordable housing, and wasteful, environmentally damaging sprawl. LVT is worth doing for those good effects alone. . . . By George, a Land Value Tax would solve this! . . . [because] Land can't run or hide. Best of all, you can't evade Land Value Taxes by obscuring land ownership though shell corporations, because the tax doesn't care who owns it."

246: "The right question is not 'can the rich game this system?' but rather, 'can they game it less than the existing one?' This is why we should keep standardized tests, even though rich people can and do game them. (The evidence shows that, on balance, standardized tets are one of the few ways a minority student from a poor background even has a chance to move upwards) . . . "

247: "Finally, defeatism is corruption's best friend. If you believe everything I'm saying here, and your only obstacle is fear of corruption, and you accept that LVT's vulnerability to corruption is not any worse than the status quo's -- then why not just get out there and fight for the world you want to see? Nothing good ever came without a struggle."

See also: Liberty and Justice For All
& Is There A World You Long To See?

The Spirit of Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau
leads them to the Immortality Temple
Anonymous, French School, ca 1794

Adam Gopnik: "As Tocqueville saw half a century later, home-making, which ought to make people more selfish, makes them less so; it gives them a stake in other people’s houses. It is not so much the establishment of a garden but the ownership of a gate that moves people from liking a society based on favors to one based on rights. Enclosing his garden broadened Voltaire’s circle of compassion. When people were dragged from their gardens to be tortured and killed in the name of faith, he began to take it, as they say, personally.

from "Voltaire's Garden: The Philosopher as a Campaigner for Human Rights"

With Liberty and Justice for All

I have not identified as a Nazarene for many years;
however, it's almost as tough being a former Nazarene
as it was being a current one, way back in the day,
when you could barely be straight, let alone gay.

So, yes . . .

Previous Posts of Spiritual Introspection
&
Photography by Thomas Oord

40: "Nazarenes often cite a line attributed to Phineas F. Bresee: 'In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity.'"

~ worth repeating ~
60: "Far better to follow the advice of Phineas Bresee and many others: 'On essentials, we seek unity. On nonessentials we allow freedom. In all things we seek to love.'"

66: "What won't happen is that every single member of the Church of the Nazarene awakes one morning and simultaneously says, 'we should change the statement on human sexuality and marriage today.' Instead, change takes time."

74: "As we look at the scripture we find numerous examples of those who questioned the Status Quo, including Jesus. Both then and now we find that the 97% are not always on the right side of history or of the God who loves and justifies . . . and promote[s] relationships over rules."

88: "Both institutions [Wesley Biblical Seminary, Mississippi; and Kentucky Mountain Bible College] claim the original documents of the Bible are inerrant. That's not what we find in the Church of the Nazarene's Manual. The idea that the original biblical autographs are inerrant is not only unverifiable. It's the kind of claim you'll find in Calvinist-oriented institutions like Wheaton."

above quotations found in
My Defense: Responding to the Charges
that I Fully Affirm LGBTQ+ People

Yet another topic of inequity . . .

"Finally, defeatism is corruption's best friend.
If you believe everything I'm saying here,
and your only obstacle is fear of corruption . . .
then why not just get out there and fight
for the world you want to see?
Nothing good ever came without a struggle."
~ Lars A. Doucet ~

Is There A World You Long To See?

To be continued . . .

Professor Walton

Margaret's Book
by James H. "Jay" Walton
September 23, 1937 – April 8, 2012

Facebook Post ~ February 20 2024

As I have mentioned before, Jay Walton was one of my major professors at Notre Dame, as was Pete's dad, Joe Buttigieg. Out of curiosity, and respect for Walton's work, Margaret's Book had long been on my "to read" list. A few summers ago, it had worked its way to the top, so I went to amazon, found the paperback at Better World Books, and clicked on "buy now." Imagine my surprise when my "used like new" copy arrived a few days later and I opened the flyleaf to discover that it was the copy that Professor Walton had inscribed to Pete Buttigieg! Sadly, no date is given.

Perhaps this is not the most sensational of all the amazing flyleaf inscription stories floating around out there, but I think it is a pretty good one. And it will be even better if Pete becomes President one day! In one of his 2019 speeches, Pete said that an occupational hazard of being a young politician is that all the grown women want to pat him on the head. Awwwww! That's when it occurred to me that I probably did pat Pete on the head, when he was a toddler and came to the office with his dad every now and then. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of that! You will just have to believe me!

Even though the inscription is undated, it seems (knowing that Walton died in 2012, and I ordered the book in 2021) that this book found it's way to my library at least a decade after Walton presented it to Pete. I'm not sure if the condition of prior connection makes a coincidence greater or less, but I'm counting this one as a surprisingly appropriate literary coincidence. Better World Books is situated in Mishawaka, Indiana, right next door to South Bend, so it makes perfect sense that a book from Notre Dame would end up there. Still, I wonder if it was donated intentionally? Perhaps it was given away by accident when Prof. Buttigieg died (May 20, 1947 - January 27, 2019); maybe Pete doesn’t even know it’s gone; maybe he would like it back!

Now, about actually reading Margaret's Book, I'm sorry to confess that despite its brevity (150 pp), I struggled with it for a week or so. For one thing, aside from Margaret, the main female characters are named Estelle, Ellie, Elaine, Esther / Essie, Ella, Elizabeth. Can you believe?! I don't know if it's some kind of gimmick or subtle motif, but it meant that I was perpetually re-reading, trying to figure out which woman I was reading about because I could not keep them straight in my head!

"Same reason I don't keep up with the Kardashians,"
said my friend Neil. Haha!

A few excerpts, including
this excellent readerly advice:
always keep a book close at hand,
no matter what you're doing . . .
37: ". . . he would lie for hours before the television set, unreading (though always with a book beside him) . . ."

And some writerly advice:
don't expect your favorite authors
to be good people, just good writers . . .
72: "One doesn't write, he replied, to accomplish or accumulate or impress. That was for people who became the sum of their accomplishments or acquisitions, who had no authentic core of self. She must have forgotten their conversation about freedom. 'People like us,' he said (meaning intellectual or artistic people), 'think too much of what a whole life might add up to. We spend so much time among the great -- the great minds, great imaginations, great wills -- that we can't think of our life as worth anything unless we get some of that greatness for ourselves. But Charlotte Bronte and Thackeray; Dickens and even George Eliot; Henry James and Joyce; these were not good people, Margaret. If we knew them personally we wouldn't like them. Their personalities,' he said, reaching for something of Engelhardt's, about Conrad, 'Their personalities would leap at us like tigers!'"

And some nostalgia . . .
76: "The prematurely warm day in March seemed all that he needed to complete his recovery. Southend's main street was as quiet, bare, and bright as on the best - remembered summer afternoons of his childhood."

~ South Bend, Indiana ~