Tomorrow is garbage day in my neighborhood which includes recycling. The six year old across the street is commissioned by his family to broker the recycling bin down the driveway and to the corner. Not an easy task for a youngster who is slightly smaller than the tall bin.
He succeeds his journey by only halfway when the bin falls and the two-week refuse is released with excess liquid. He ponders the situation for quite awhile for a young mind and even attempts a re-lift but it will not budge. He yells help to his year older brother while I wonder if I should help him but I remind myself that I’m typing so I’m unable to assist.
His brother joins him as they survey the situation as only young minds can do and begin to wish the whole thing away. After that doesn’t work, one sits on top of the fallen bin while the other wipes his feet of the strewn liquid and they both begin to laugh and to laugh and to laugh.
Father walks out and scornfully says to pick up each loose piece of garbage. He lifts up the bin himself and walks back to the house. “That’s why I told you to hold the top,” he says to his now silent sons. (That wasn’t the reason for the fall, but nice try dad.)
In complete silence the loose garbage is returned to the upright bin and placed on the curb for by these two young boys. A solemn silence considering the previous laughter.
An 89 year old told me today that she was standing on a chair in her apartment for some reason when she slipped and fell to the ground. She started to laugh and to laugh.
The garbage bin is ready for pick up and my friend found the strength to get herself off the floor. All three of them laughed at their precarious predicament. All three of them laughed their way to a solution.
I love to laugh. Some people say that I laugh at awkward times. It is not that I don’t take things seriously but a hearty laugh may calm the mind to find a reasonable solution.
She dances and laughs at the pool’s resort on my fourth birthday. I didn’t ask for this get-away, I was happy at her home but here I am with small balloons on my elbows so I don’t drown and possibly wreak their college scholarship fund begun before I began. I cry at my first few steps into the pool.
Pretend to be Scrooge for a few paragraphs. Put on his heavy, black coat, sleeping cap and one faintly lit candle and seat in a dank room with a smoldering fire facing you.
Every grocery and department store knows exactly how much they have on display, in the back or awaiting arrival. “A dollar is a dollar” and that hula hoop just doesn’t seem to be selling any longer.
The third starring character in our salvation story had the easiest job. There were no lines to memorize or standing on marks to get the lights just right before filming begins. Joseph just needed to be there. He says nothing in the Bible which is pretty significant since it’s full of words.
The calendar tells us that the four weeks before Christmas has begun but our heart may be out of sync and we want to say Scrooge’s made up word. You change the station when Andy sings what a “Wonderful Time of the Year” that this isn’t for you.
“Pray for me” people say to me. Some stop me deliberately, others will close their conversation with that petition. “Pray for me.” I know what it means but I’ve never understood what it entails?
The two most important Church seasons, both preparing us for two important events in Church history – the birth of Jesus and his resurrection.
Just try ordering a cup of coffee these days and hear what happens. It’s not easy.
What better way to begin this sacred season of Advent except with the beginning. A cow. It is the first of our Nativity characters to be seen because the cow’s has always been here. This is her home. This is the place where births take place and newborns are fed with life’s sustaining liquid: milk.
Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
