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2024 Holiday Letter from Michael and Lenora

  Holiday Greetings from Michael and Lenora to start your 2025! Happy New Year!   Dear Beloveds,   Nobody likes holiday letters that are thinly veiled excuses for parents to brag on their kids. And, unless the trip turned out worse than Planes, Trains and Automobiles , narratives about trips are boring. So, you are really not going to like this holiday letter as it has both! Some years, though, just leave no other alternative. You will see why in a moment. You figured it couldn’t be that bad and kept reading? Good, as 2024 was, in many ways, ‘same old’ for us this year. The things that brought us satisfaction in 2023 continued to do so in 2024 and no offense will arise from touching on a few. Music brings joy to our lives, and we experienced music in various ways throughout the year. We both sing with the SATB choir at our Unitarian Universalist congregation. And we both are in auditioned choruses in the larger community. Michael sings with the Oak City Sound ...
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A Christmas Eve Screed

In a Christmas movie I watched tonight, a wife accuses her husband of ‘overcompensating’ as he insists that their kids’ Christmas experience be fantastic. Immediately afterward, the plot makes him face his Scrooge of a father, Robin Williams playing against character. The wife could have been speaking to me as I, too, work hard to assure that Christmas will be fantastic. I do it for our kids, but also for the kid in me. In addition, each year, I work hard to ascertain the true meaning of Christmas; more specifically, why do I, as an atheist, celebrate Christmas as a spiritually transformative experience. Some parts of the answer are clear - light in all its myriad forms at the holidays, childhood joy, hope, family, tradition - these are all factors in both Christmas and Chanukah. Some parts of the answer lie beyond my grasp, but that in itself is a reason I keep celebrating- to keep reaching for the answer. This year I will add ‘magic’ to the list of answers. Not sleight of hand ...
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Chautauqua – My Happy Place, Part 2

  Chautauqua – My Happy Place, Part 2   In Part 1 of “Chautauqua – My Happy Place”, I talked about all the reasons to spend a week or more at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York. Here, in Part 2, I will discuss some of the logistics associated with planning and executing a trip to Chautauqua. Lenora and I have been five times, each time different as there is no ‘right’ way to proceed. I will describe some of the factors to enable you to make choices that suit you. Big picture, Chautauqua is summer camp for adults seeking a combination of mental stimulation and release from the everyday hustle and bustle. The physical setting is a Victorian village on the shores of a picturesque lake in a tranquil corner of rural America. In practical terms, it is not near anything but that is a large part of its charm. It is not a day trip; it is an ‘unpack and stay in the same place for a few days’ trip. The first step in planning a Chautauqua visit is picking a week(s). Th...
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