Comments

Merry Christmas! — 48 Comments

  1. Merry Christmas to everyone!

    We are isolating this year, but plan to have a family zoom tomorrow. They’re saying we’re going to have snow flurries tonight in the deep South, so that should be fun.

  2. Well, please have a good – and safe! – Christmas, everyone.

    Guessing i don’t need to say the following, but given continu3d resistance in my locale, I’ll throw it out there anyway:

    Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Observe physical distancing and please, please don’t go into areas where many are vulnerable without full PPE.

    My mom died of COVID two days after Thanksgiving. She was close to 97, had dementia, and the virus was, in her case, gentle. I actually was able to sit with her (in full PPE) on the day she passed, for which I’m very grateful. It was very, very hard, and yet, she wasn’t suffering.

    Don’t put other people at risk, though… My mom’s entire retirement community + assisted living facility + nursing home somehow kept COVID at bay until a little over a month ago. By now, the number of residents who have died has to be well over 100.

    I’m saying all this because so very many people in my immediate locale – and in this entire part of PA – have refused to follow the directives issued by the CDC, Dr. Fauci et. al. And now, those same people are seeing their families and communities get devastated by the virus. Even with all of that, many still refuse to accept that COVID-19 is real. (I had my mom’s cause of death noted in the obit in hopes that it might get through to *someone*; am not the only local who’s done so. My mom was very civic-minded and would, I’m sure, agree with my decision.)

    Judging by the traffic on a major highway that’s about a mile away, tons of people are traveling for the holiday. 🙁

    Stay safe – if you do, you’re actively helping to ensure the survival of others. Even if it doesn’t seem that way, you’re still doing the right thing.

  3. numo,

    What part of PA are you in?
    My contact in Adams County told me it’s not pandemic there, but endemic — everyone is expected to be infected at some point. So far, he’s not infected.
    My other contact right on the Northampton/Lehigh County Border hasn’t reported anything really drastic going on there.

  4. numo: My mom died of COVID two days after Thanksgiving. She was close to 97, had dementia, and the virus was, in her case, gentle. I actually was able to sit with her (in full PPE) on the day she passed, for which I’m very grateful. It was very, very hard, and yet, she wasn’t suffering.

    I am so very sorry for your loss….

    And Todd, thank you for selecting such a beautiful rendition of “O Holy Night”. 🙂

  5. HUG, those guys aren’t clued in, really. You can go to the PA COVID dashboard, run by the Department of Health, and see for yourself, including breakdowns of stats for each county (positive tests per day, deaths, etc.). The dashboard is updated daily at noon ET, Sundays excepted. Google will get you there.

    In short, it’s *bad.* And in rural areas like where i live, hospitals are scarce and, as of now, beds are even scarcer.

    We aren’t as badly off as your state, but…. until public schools went to online-only last month, there was a ton of transmission happening that way. While kids might have stayed asymptomatic, many would come in, play on various sports teams and the like even though they had tested positive.

    *

    researcher, thank you.

  6. Headless Unicorn Guy: endemic

    I wish the authorities would quit with the blame game. I assume we are all infected. We should get on with life – ultra considerately because these illnesses get re-potentised. This involves huge restrictions already. Sadly those PPEs are in so short supply here, one can’t do what you did.

  7. Nick Bulbeck: GMFS

    GMFH. It’s great to see you back! 2020 was bad enough as it was, and your absense from TWW for so long was like another 2020 thing.

    On a related note, I saw a meme yesterday of someone watching the countdown at the end of the year as the clock rolled from 11:59:59 PM to 11:60:00.

  8. numo,

    So sorry to hear about your Mom, Numo. Hope you have peaceful and safe Christmas in spite of your loss. Bless you!

  9. numo,

    Please accept my sympathy. You are gracious indeed to use your difficult news to help and enlighten others. Peace and blessing to you.

  10. Ken F (aka Tweed): GMFH. It’s great to see you back! 2020 was bad enough as it was, and your absense from TWW for so long was like another 2020 thing.

    On a related note, I saw a meme yesterday of someone watching the countdown at the end of the year as the clock rolled from 11:59:59 PM to 11:60:00.

    Nick, so glad to see you also!

    And I take it that the meme meant that this has been the longest year? 🙂

  11. Tina: And I take it that the meme meant that this has been the longest year?

    I understood it to mean that he was expectantly watching the clock roll over, finally, to 2021, only to see 2020 continue.

  12. Chris Parsons: Aotearoa New Zealand

    “Aotearoa is the Māori name for New Zealand… the most popular translation usually given is “long white cloud”,… This refers to the cloud formations which helped early Polynesian navigators find the country.

    “The combined ‘Aotearoa New Zealand’ has been popularized since the 1980s as a symbolic name to emphasize the bicultural elements of New Zealand society.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aotearoa

  13. numo: Judging by the traffic on a major highway that’s about a mile away, tons of people are traveling for the holiday.

    “NO IT WON’T! AND YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!! FREEDOM!!!”
    Which is why we’re going to get a Christmas Surge right at the peak of the Thanksgiving Surge. Those 40,000 body bags and 60+ refrigerated trailers my state acquired still won’t be enough.

    Oh, and you Biblical Manhood types?
    Your Sacred Testosterone(TM) only makes the virus hit you harder.

  14. Chris Parsons,

    God bless you and your countrymen/women for your amazing success and role modeling in controlling and containing our global pandemic. We all have a lot to learn from your gem of a country. Happy New Year and may we all find your success in 2021.

  15. Ava Aaronson:
    Headless Unicorn Guy,

    Another POV (but not endorsing this ministry or leader – just another way to do church because different ideas matter):

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rick-warren-coronavirus-saddleback-church_n_5fe39f45c5b6acb534568400

    I remember this.
    Guy seems to be the only Megapastor who actually gets it.
    Here’s Professor Fea’s coverage of it:
    https://thewayofimprovement.com/2020/12/24/rick-warren-were-not-being-discriminated-against-this-is-a-safety-issue/

    I work in that area, South Orange County, CA. In fact, Saddleback sits along one of my pre-COVID routes home from work — specifically, the El Toro Road/Santiago Canyon Road route through the hills inland of Saddleback Mountain. (The biggest unbuilt stretch behind the Orange Curtain, the area is currently infamous for wildfires.) I remember it sitting on a leveled-off hill just off El Toro around the edge of the built-up area just north of Portola and south of the 241 toll road overpass, connected to El Toro by a four-lane bridge over a shallow ravine. Typical large-industrial-building mega.

  16. Headless Unicorn Guy: Typical large-industrial-building mega.

    Again, not endorsing at all, except that Common Sense in any size org is, IMHO, good.

    Regarding Common Sense & walking by the Holy Spirit:

    The POV of
    – endorsing/supporting a leader supposedly “anointed” by God no matter what they do & allowing them to keep leading after gross criminality or immorality
    – life practices against the evidences of plain old-fashioned science
    – etc.

    … bring to mind all of the times Jesus called out the evil generation that was demanding a “sign”, a miracle.

    The delusions of an anointed-but-evil leader & living against science – are delusions of assumed miracles – that God will overrule the science & whitewash an evil monster as we “believe” in our sign. Name it, claim it.

    Watchman Nee called it “Spiritual Reality or Obsession” in a book of that title. In his day, Nee saw miracles, but he also preached against the obsession of calling out a “miracle” that didn’t exist as if the power of a person’s word will create reality. Only God can do that, no matter how much we (or how many of us) name it/claim it.

    “Name it/claim” = false teaching to the core. “Looking for a sign” is evil, Jesus said. Matt. 12.39 & elsewhere. Living against the evidence of science can also be labelled as tempting God, another evil, Matt. 4.7.

  17. My sincerest thanks to all of you who have offered condolences on my mom’s death. It’s a strange time, and a lonely one for sure.

    Am also a bit baffled by some of you, in that it’s just odd that you might say hi or engage me in talking about COVID without ever saying something along the lines of “I’m sorry for your loss.” I mean, ??? I’m not offended, but i can assure you that simply saying that and no more to folks who’ve lost someone is really important. It’s certainly meaningful to the bereaved when it’s meant sincerely.

    The 1sst time someone said it to me, after my dad died, was so needed. Just “I’m so sorry for your loss” with no platitudes attached.

    I can’t imagine that anyone left standing after the pandemic subsides will be untouched by it. Many will have lost more than bears thinking about.

    Just my .02-worth.

  18. I mean, i *know* a bunch of you.

    And some folks who don’t know me were there, saying “I’m sorry for your loss.”

    Bereavement and grief are hard. If anyone feels like they don’t know how to respond or what to say, “I’m sorry…” covers all the bases.

  19. numo: Just my .02-worth.

    Words to live by; thanks so much for your wisdom shared, honesty & patience. And yes, condolences & sympathy to you and your family for your loss. God bless.

    “May the road rise up to meet you.
    May the wind always be at your back.
    May the sun shine warm upon your face,
    and rains fall soft upon your fields.
    And until [you meet your loved one] again,
    May God hold you in the palm of His hand.”
    – Irish blessing, revised.

  20. numo: weren’t intended

    Your reaction was perfectly understandable. I’m guessing, though, that some folks were quickly glancing at comments, maybe skipping around, and might not have taken in your difficult news.

    So many people have been struggling. I can’t remember a more disconcerting “season of joy.”

  21. numo: My apologies if my posts above sound whingey or judgemental. They weren’t intended that way.

    I do not think your above posts sound whingey or judgmental. To me, your posts sound more like they are written by someone experiencing confusion, loneliness, and grief.

    And each time I re-read your above posts, my heart breaks for you a little bit more….

  22. Friend and researcher – thank you. Agreed on folks just skipping through posts, which i do all the time.

    For whatever reasons, today has been hard, but it’s not the 1st time of grieving that I’ve been through, and mostly, I’m OK. Some days are just far more difficult than others, as well as there having been a disconnect due to full quarantine where my mom lived since mid-March. Every time they thought it might be safe to start scheduling visits with residents, someone on staff or living there would test positive for COVID. So there was a long gap in there with zero visits for them all, and for everyone’s families. That’s really hard.

  23. numo: don’t know how to respond or what to say, “I’m sorry…” covers all the bases

    heartfelt thanks for your reminder.

    Ava Aaronson,

    Thank you. The Bereans had to check EVERYONE out, not just the latest shibboleth. They knew their value as human beings was that THEY should have THEIR beliefs and not someone else’s.

  24. Friend: So many people have been struggling. I can’t remember a more disconcerting “season of joy.”

    And Stimpy Happy Helmet Syndrome – where everyone around you is constantly singing “HAPPY! HAPPY! JOY! JOY! HAPPY! HAPPY! JOY! JOY!” just makes it worse. (And Stimpy Happy Helmet Syndrome is endemic among a lot of Christians.)

    “Hell has no torment worse than Constant Forced Cheerfulness.”
    — G.K.Chesterton, “Three Tools of Death” (Father Brown Mystery)

  25. Headless Unicorn Guy: And Stimpy Happy Helmet Syndrome – where everyone around you is constantly singing “HAPPY! HAPPY! JOY! JOY! HAPPY! HAPPY! JOY! JOY!” just makes it worse. (And Stimpy Happy Helmet Syndrome is endemic among a lot of Christians.)

    “Hell has no torment worse than Constant Forced Cheerfulness.”
    — G.K.Chesterton, “Three Tools of Death” (Father Brown Mystery)

    That.

  26. Headless Unicorn Guy: Which is why we’re going to get a Christmas Surge right at the peak of the Thanksgiving Surge. Those 40,000 body bags and 60+ refrigerated trailers my state acquired still won’t be enough.

    Add a New Years’ Surge on top of the Christmas Surge. Vegas was packed and this guy from Redding and Kirk Cameron are holding Christian Superspreader Events all over SoCal. Some businesses are pre-emptively shutting down for the next 2-3 weeks to protect themselves and their employees.

    Oh, and the Vaccine Rollout in the US is as screwed-up as the COVID response was six months ago. At present rollout rate SEVEN TO TEN YEARS before we get enough people vaccinated. In the meantime, EVERYONE STAY LOCKED DOWN AT HOME! FOREVER!