The community trinity ends with Kindness. I saw two films this week, both filled with both kindnesses and suffering: James Cameron’s Avatar: Way of Water, and Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale. Like most tent pole movies these days Avatar gleefully depicted the violent deaths of hundreds of beings, most of them celebrated as glorious victories of … More Kindness
Day 2 of the community trinity. Getting old is sort of a race were every competitor you pass is dead. People we love and care about just endlessly trickle away with we winners feeling both more lucky, more lonely, and more doomed. I’m often surprised when the death of some celebrity far removed from me … More Compassion
Today is the first Holly Day of 2022: Unity. It has been a decade since I began this practice of posting daily essays on each Holly Day, 17 years now since we began to develop Holly Days as a family tradition. I start this annual ritual by going back and rereading my previous year’s posts … More Unity
The home stretch, New Years remixed into the Days of Awesomeness. Today I try to think about my failures, regrets, and how to mitigate their damage. “Ok, Boomer,” they spit out, suggesting a lack of insight, even a condemnation for all the woe in the world. Sirius XM shut down their holiday stations and so … More Atonement Forgiveness & Redemption
Day nine, and the end of the second trinity, we consider courage. I am of the male sex, but I have pretty strong gender dysphoria, generally being frightened and repulsed by the brash and ballsy archetype of a Real Man. Having had many real men hurl this epithet at me, I decided to own it, … More Courage
Today is the eighth day of Holly Days. This seems to be one of the handful years when I have separated out this trinity into separate posts. The ramping down of the spirit that always comes when xmas has passed tends to weaken the impetus for these posts. I am expecting a new grandbaby any … More Love
This is the first day of the 3rd trinity, and the principle that is most important to my world view. However I have a scientific orientation and view it more as a process of truth seeking rather than any sort of knowledge of ultimate truths. The way the word science has been personified and bandied … More Truth
Today is the last of the second Xmas trinity, also known as Boxing Day. Like Thanksgiving traditions of thankfulness, I try to review my life to identify those things that I am most grateful for. Certainly, my dear family in all its permutations is at the top of the list. These so close by, others, … More Gratitude
One of my beliefs, partly from my experience of having Santa as my dad, is that for kids, getting their heart’s desire for christmas is an affirming experience of being loved. This meme of a mom who spoils her kids with too many presents notwithstanding, I suspect the urge to satisfy our kids’ wishes is … More Generosity
In reading my older posts, I saw that my first weird Facebook post on a Holly Day principle was made 10 years ago, and that we began developing Holly Days 25 years ago. A lot has changed. I am a tired old man and my kids are nearing the age I was when we started … More Hope
HOLLY DAYS 