We need a little Christmas, We need a little Christmas now!

December 14, 2012.  

The Pootatuck River in Sandy Hook

The first inkling I had that something was wrong was when I saw an entry on Facebook posted by my niece that read "Many prayers are needed in Newtown."  Then the sketchy reports of online news services, confirming the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, ushered in a week that I think is the saddest I have ever spent.  

I don't know if our family's connection to Sandy Hook in Newtown made the events of December 14th more horrible in my mind than it may have been in the minds of others.  Or, maybe the savagery of the attack at the school was so horrendous that, around the nation, we all felt equally sickened and unable to adequately process our feelings.  All I do know is that I spent the better part of a week drawn to the daily news of frustrating and unbearable heartbreak.  I spent the week trying to will strength and love and mental health to the families of those affected.  I spent the week thinking about my family, friends, all those close to me who mean so much to me.  

I spent time thinking about my own teachers over the years, and thinking about friends who have been teachers themselves and who have helped to raise thousands of schoolchildren in their careers.  Debby Palmer, Pat White, Joe Somok, we owe you big time for the dedication you gave day after day to the little ones entrusted to your care.  Thank the Lord that you and your children remained safe.
 
With the last funerals in Newtown taking place on Saturday, I was able to begin to change my obsession with the tragedy to something closer to a resolve.  A resolve that I will be be pro-active in the discussion of guns and mental health.  

I need a Christmas, a Christmas to get me out of the past week's funk of shock, horror, and sadness.  I need a little Christmas now!

From The Newtown Bee -- Editorial Ink Drops:

First Steps To The Future

It is difficult to think about the future when the crucible of the present moment is still too hot to touch.  But we do know that when Newtown emerges from this awful and intense chapter of its continuing  story, things will be different. The trauma of this time, the sorrow it has stitched into our hearts,  and this new enduring suspicion that security is a mirage, will frame the future we construct for ourselves. It is gratifying to know our first steps away from this painful present will be taken in honor of those we  have lost: a detailed and thorough police investigation of why so many good people had to die at  Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14; an outpouring of material support for those  most grievously hurt by the crime that took those lives; and tributes and memorials now under  consideration or soon-to-be-proposed so that we never forget this time. This is where we need  to start so that we do not keep circling back around to unresolved questions about what this tragedy  means to us as a town. All we know for sure is that this is the season when we defy the darkness with celebrations of coming  birth and renewal. And with those celebrations, light creeps back into the world.  While its return may  be slow at first, it is as certain and as unstoppable as the sun.  (Copyright © 1999-2012 Bee Publishing Company)

December 22, 2012 - a week later --
MY ESCAPE TO OREGON

The joy of living near a small commercial airport, Charles Schultz Airport in Santa Rosa (home of Peanuts, Linus, Schroeder, Margaret, etal), was experienced on Sunday, the 23rd of December, when I climbed aboard a flight to Portland where I would catch a flight to Bend, Oregon.  Counting the 10 minute drive to the airport, the entire journey took just over 3 hours.  Less time than a Harry Potter movie!

Arriving in Bend and seeing that it was covered in new-fallen snow, I realized it's been many years since this New Englander has had a White Christmas.  The family sent a driver with studded snow tires to get me at the airport.  Twenty minutes later I was surrounded by Brother Dick and his Wife Fran, Nephew Brandon and his Wife Jodi, and new Grand Niece, Stella Nicole, who is 10 weeks old.  We were gathered in a cozy and warm house on the side of a snow-covered mountain.  

Wonderland

Dick and Fran have come up from San Diego to spend time with their first granddaughter.  This opportunity to meet Stella was extended to me, her Grand Uncle, and to Fran's sister Nicole, her Grand Aunt.  Sadly however, Nicole and her family had to cancel the trip due to an emergency surgery.  Stella is a healthy, happy little girl.  Hardly any crying, and lots of inquisitiveness in the big blue eyes.

Stella and her Gram

Wonderful food and togetherness.  Food like families have.  Not food like a single getting-older man has.  Pork chops and a board game on the 23rd.  Cioppino and snowfall on Christmas Eve.  And prime rib and Yorkshire pudding on Christmas Day.  

While unwrapping our gifts, a small package from our Sister in Connecticut had a gift card that read, "this gift is for all of you!"  For as long as I can remember, our family at holiday dinners always had celery stuffed with something Kraft Foods called "Roka Blue Cheese" that came in a little glass jar   At our house it was as honored a tradition as was canned jellied cranberry sauce from Ocean Spray.  But, for several years now the product hasn't been on the shelves at the market.  Can't find it anywhere.  It's been gone so long that a new generation of store personnel doesn't know what I'm talking about.  And it's been missed so much by Brother Dick (and the rest of us) that enterprising Sister-in-law Fran made her own version last year by mixing cream cheese with a hunk of real blue cheese.  Not the same, however.  So, getting back to this Christmas morning.  Maureen had sent us a jar of original "Roka Blue Cheese!"  I understand she found a source online, bought herself several jars, and shared one with us.  Each jar cost 10 times what it normally would, but it's worth it to get stuffed celery back on the menu!  

Stayed another day and night and came back to Charles Schultz Airport on the 27th.  The airport recently moved it's luggage retrieval off the tarmac and has built a carousel inside.  They've also enlarged the waiting room, but it is still an easy friendly place.  It's about the size that SFO was back in the 1970's when I started those bi-coastal years.  Used to be able to leave The City and 20 minutes later park my car and run across the road to the terminal.  No longer.  But that's the way it is now at Charles Schultz.  Hope is stays that way for a long long time.  

Picked up the pooch from the "pet resort" (not that he was anxious to leave his friends there) and was home in no time.  Sandy Hook continues to cope with its tragedy.  The reality is that it will never be far from my/our consciousness.  But, thanks Brandon and Jodi for a nice warm, yet snowy, Christmas in Oregon.  And best wishes for lots of happy warm Christmases to come for you and my Grand Niece, Stella Nicole!