Yesterday I spoke with my mother-in-law in Dusseldorf, where she’s snowed in and may not reach her mother for Christmas eve. She saw on CNN that San Diego was suffering from torrential rains, as TV news searches for exaggerations to fill airtime.
Actually, San Diego got from several inches to over ten-inches of rain, varying by spot. That’s very unusual in our semi-arid location, where sunny days are usual and average temps range along the coast from winter 60s to upper-70s in summer (today’s newspaper editorial calls our usual weather “bland”). Still, as most of our soil is sand and roads get flooded, there are commute difficulties and some small landslides (the Coaster rail is blocked for several more days). We have tickets to the Poinsettia Bowl tonight. We’ll have to go hours earlier and stall in heavy traffic; bummer. At Qualcomm, next to the overflowed San Diego River (usually a trickle), pumps are removing over 2,200 gallons of water a minute from the flooded stadium (I guess that favors Navy, versus San Diego State University).
On the way back from the movies yesterday to see Narnia #3 (good, especially with 3D, but #2 was best), Jason and I stopped at Sports Authority for a quick purchase. Instead, we spent over an hour in the baseball glove aisle helping confused parents choose gloves for their sons (we sold over 20; should have been on commission). Almost all the buyers departed wishing us Happy Holidays; not one Merry Christmas. This is not a Jewish neighborhood (nor Muslim), so I thought that unusual, even bland.
For those to whom Christmas is something special, two items in today’s emails tell of their deep loss.
A fellow Vietnam veteran sent me this artist rendering of a photo taken at the Wall in D.C. These and other veterans never got to celebrate another Christmas.
Another friend sent me this AP clip that Iraqi Churches cancel Christmas festivities because of Al Qaeda threats, following increased but hardly new brutalities and murder against them by Islamists, a million Christians having left Iraq since 2003. Christians in most all Muslim countries suffer violence and death at the hands of Islamists.
Wherever you are, whatever your weather, whichever and however your faith, whenever you pause, give thanks for the freedom to celebrate Christmas in America, compared to the alternatives, and remember when it wasn’t Blandmas or an invitation to be slaughtered.
