wild horses

“Blame it or praise it, there is no denying the wild horse in us.”
Virginia Woolf

(the foal Fawn / Corolla Beach/ Julie Cook / 2023)

There is a 200 mile stretch of land that is primarily comprised of a variety
of islands and spits sitting just off the coast of the southeastern US—
It’s known as the Outer Banks or… to those who know the place more intimately,
it is simply referred to OBX.

It is an Atlantic coastal barrier island-mass that stretches from the southern tip to the northern tip, that being the full length of the far eastern edge of North Carolina.

There is a tremendous amount of history associated with this particular slender landmass.
Everything from the very first and oddly lost colony of English settlers to the very first
moment man set flight becoming one with the sky.

While we mere mortals exist in a continuum of both space and time–our past often races forward,
quickly becoming our future. Sands shift, storms change shorelines as peoples come and go…
all the while history remains in the wake.

Lone fledgling colonies are lost…their memory left to morph into an endless stretch of summer beach homes, restaurants and tourist shops as men who once made historic flights are now relegated to both museum and memorial fodder.

And yet in this collision of all things past and present, there remains a single and most important bastion to a past that was and yet still remains to this day.

The wild horses of Corolla and Currituck.

(the wild horses of Corolla, NC/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

Along the most northern stretch of the Outer Banks, up toward the Virginia state line, there remains a relatively non commercialized bit of the world where the water simply meets the sand.
There are no paved roads, only sand dunes.
There are a few stalwart home owners that can only reach their “bits of paradise”
by four wheel drive.

And that’s where “they” live.
The wild horses.

(the wild horses of Corolla, NC/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

These horses are the original descendants of the mustangs that the Spanish brought to the new world in the 1500’s.

According the the visit.currituk.com website:

The wild horses were originally brought here in the 1500s on Spanish ships. The shallow nature of the coast off of Corolla and the unpredictable sandbars have caused the area to be known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, and caused many a shipwreck. It is believed that the horses survived such occasions to swim to shore, making a new home for themselves, and they’ve been here ever since.

Whether roaming the sand-streets or enjoying the fine sea mist on the shores of Corolla, these horses are free to wander as they please. They stroll through neighborhoods and yards, pausing to nibble a bite of grass, sea oats, live oak tree leaves or persimmons.

Their legs are short, their bodies stocky and their fur fluffier than domesticated horses. Locals and visitors alike steer clear, out of respect and concern for their protection. Their diets are narrow and their health precarious; the slightest contact with humans can be lethal for the horses. This is why it is so important to never get closer than 50 feet from one of these beautiful creatures.

Although mild in personality, these horses are entirely untamed, and can be quite territorial. Stallions regularly break into battle over mares, food and resources, and visitors are well-advised to keep a healthy distance for fear of spooking one. Although smaller than most horses, they are still extremely strong, and protective of their fellows.

Back in the Fall, I was fortunate to have a tour of the area…seeing just one of
the small herds of these horses rather up close and personal.
The total number os horses is just around 100, give or take.
During my visit, we were fortunate to have seen a recent Spring-born foal nicknamed
Fawn by the tour guides.

These horses are not looked after by keepers or vets.
They are not given supplemental feed or medicines.
They are not tended to during hurricanes or storms.
There are no barns or stalls in which they go to seek shelter.
They are entirely on their own…
Wild and unencumbered by man..

A small vacuum of time that exists where the sea meets the surf…

(the wild horses of Corolla, NC/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

(the wild horses of Corolla, NC/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

(the wild horses of Corolla, NC/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

(the wild horses of Corolla, NC/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

(the wild horses of Corolla, NC/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

https://www.visitcurrituck.com/places/corolla-wild-horses/

Christmas and freedom …

For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction,
to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean
themselves as good citizens…
May the children of the stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land,
continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants.”
(excerpt is taken from a letter written by George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation
in Newport, Rhode Island)

I’m currently reading a marvelous book, George Washington And Benedict Arnold
A Tale of Two Patriots
by Dave R. Palmer

Now you might be asking yourself what in the world does such a tale
have to do with Christmas…?
and indeed such a notion might be vexing to most.

The book follows the woven threads of two men, both of whom originally seem to
have been cut from the same ideological cloth…and yet eventually make choices contrary
to such in the chaotic midsts of the the perilous birth pangs of a fledgling nation.

And it was the book’s recounting of that arduous Christmas eve crossing upon
an ice ladened swirling black river by poorly clad men wearing mere rags for shoes
followed by a Christmas Day’s surprise attack on an unsuspecting Hessian militia,
which became the key turning point in the freedom that we each now take
seemingly for granted…

Thoughts of Christmas, births, wars, death, Christians, Jews, antisemitism,
world conflict, gifts, joy…all colliding into one…
and in the end, what are we to make of it all…

I wrote the following post in 2019.

A timely recollection might be a bit beneficial to us all…

There has been a growing debate for years concerning the religious beliefs of our Founding Fathers…
A debate now rapidly growing and gaining in interest as many folks now wish to expunge all
references to God from our founding documents, our pledge, our historical architecture,
our books, and even our currency.

It appears that many non-believers and progressive provocateurs look to Thomas Jefferson when they wish
to begin an argument about God’s presence, or lack thereof, in this Nation of ours…
as Jefferson’s personal beliefs have always been a bit grey and convoluted given his keen interest in science
as well as theism and deism.

Jefferson was a devout theist, believing in a benevolent creator God to whom humans owed praise.
In an early political text, he wrote that “The god who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time;…”
He often referred to his or “our” God but did so in the language of an eighteenth-century natural
philosophy: “our creator,” the “Infinite Power, which rules the destinies of the universe,”
“overruling providence,” “benevolent governor,” etc.
In 1823, he wrote to John Adams referring to
“the God whom you and I acknowledge and adore” while denouncing atheism.

Jefferson said that Christianity would be the best religion in a republic,
especially one like the United States with a broad diversity of ethnicities and religions.
“[T]he Christian religion when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have
inveloped it, and brought to the original purity &; simplicity of its benevolent institutor,
is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, & the freest expression of the human mind,”
he explained. It was a “benign religion…
inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude and love of man,
acknowledging and adoring an overruling providence.”
Based on these understandings, Jefferson demonstrated a deep, even devout, admiration of Jesus,
“the purity & sublimity of his moral precepts, the eloquence of his inculcations,
the beauty of the apologues in which he conveys them…

It was in this context that Jefferson said that
“I am a Christian,” a quote which is often repeated or referred to without context.
What he said was “I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he [Jesus] wished anyone to be;…”
Monticello Organization

And speaking of John Adams…probably my favorite president as well as favorite Founding Father,
it seems we glean much of our knowledge of both Adams and Jefferson, along with their feelings and thoughts
regarding the Christian faith, from their correspondence between one another.

“Much of what we know of Thomas Jefferson’s religion comes from letters he wrote from 1811 to 1826
to John Adams. Much more of what we know about John Adams’ views on religion comes from
his letters to Jefferson.
Religion was important to John Adams

“From early entries in his diary to letters written late in life,
Adams composed variations on a single theme:
God is so great, I am so small.
Adams never doubted who was in charge of the universe,
never viewed himself as master of his, or anyone’s destiny.”

There was a strong Puritan strain to Adams’ morality even when he strayed from Puritans’
religious precepts:
Adams wrote at 21 “that this World was not designed for a lasting and a happy State,
but rather for a State of moral Discipline, that we might have a fair Opportunity
and continual Excitement to labour after a cheerful Resignation to all the Events of Providence,
after Habits of Virtue, Self Government, and Piety.
And this Temper of mind is in our Power to acquire,
and this alone can secure us against all the Adversities of Fortune,
against all the Malice of men, against all the Operations of Nature.”

Like Jefferson, Adams was a child of the Enlightenment.
The future president brought to religion a lively interest in science that he developed at Harvard.
Steven Waldman wrote: “Like [John] Locke, Adams believed that since God created the laws of the universe,
the scientific study of nature would help us understand His mind and conform to His wishes.

Like Benjamin Franklin, John Adams believed in the utility of religion even when he had doubts
about religious beliefs themselves:
“Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite society, I mean hell.
Lehrmaninstitue.org

So as we turn our sights to Washington and his personal views…
We know that the General and future President remains a bit of an enigma when it comes
to our understanding anything truly personal within Washington’s true beliefs.

Washington remains a larger than life figure in our Nation’s history
and yet he was a very private man…
probably more so than his fellow fraternity of Founding Fathers.
The Lehrmaninstitue offers this: George Washington worked hard to keep separate his public and
private views on religion.

History tells us that Washington’s life-long love was his dear Mt Vernon, farming and family…
Following his departure from office, disappearing into obscurity at Mt Vernon was most welcomed.

In most later paintings of Washington, we see an often dour man…particularly emotionless.
Some historians credit chronic mouth pain due to, yes, wooden dentures, to Washington’s pained and
stoic portraits.
At the same time, we know that Washington had been raised an Anglican.
Anglicans by nature, both then and now, are characteristically reserved when it comes to their faith.
They are not as demonstrative nor vocal regarding their belief in God or that of their faith.
I know because I was raised under a similar umbrella.

The Mount Vernon Organization shares a private insight with us…
Looking at Washington’s theological beliefs,
it is clear that he believed in a Creator God of some manner,
and seemingly one that was also active in the universe.
This God had three main traits; he was wise, inscrutable, and irresistible.

Washington referred to this God by many names, but most often by the name of “Providence.”

Washington also referred to this being by other titles to infer that this God was
the Creator God.

This aspect of his belief system is central to the argument about whether or not
Washington was a Deist.
His belief in God’s action in the world seems to preclude traditional deism.
Washington believed that humans were not passive actors in this world.
However, for Washington, it was also improper to question Providence.
This caused Washington to accept whatever happened as being the will of Providence.

Notably, Washington did see God as guiding the creation of the United States.

It is also possible that Washington felt he needed to discern the will of Providence.
These facts point to belief in a God who is hidden from humanity,
yet continually influencing the events of the universe.

This does not illustrate conclusively that he was a devout Christian, however.
Washington never explicitly mentioned the name of Jesus Christ in
private correspondence.
The only mentions of Christ are in public papers, and those references are scarce.
However, Washington’s lack of usage may be due to the accepted practice of his day;
Jesus was not typically referenced by Anglicans or Episcopalians of Washington’s generation.
Mount Vernon Organization

And whereas each man had his own personal and private thoughts and feelings regarding a Divine
Omnipotent Creator…each man, however, was very much convinced that this Creator was pivotal
to laying the foundation of the new fledgling nation.
He was intertwined within her birth, invited to play a key role and intentionally injected into
each part of her birthing fibers.

History teaches us that each man agreed that God and the Christian faith were vital
to the birth of the young nation. A unifying base.
And each man demonstrated a unique humility with regard to that which was greater than themselves.

These Founding Fathers provided us with a foundation as well as a guidepost.
It is my hope that we will not depart from the very foundation that our earliest architects
found necessary to our survival as a viable and functioning nation.

May we continue to humble ourselves to the one true Creator who is far greater than ourselves
and may He continue to shed his Grace on us all.

https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/george-washington-and-religion/

https://www.foxnews.com/science/george-washington-letter-on-god-and-the-constitution-surfaces

a reminder of civility from an older post…

The current leading headlines:

Hamas, Hezbollah say Iran helped plan deadly attack on Israel

Israel retaliates after Hamas attacks, deaths pass 1,100

More than 250 people killed at festival after Hamas attacks Israel

US sends warships, ammunition to Israel after surprise attack; death toll
may include Americans

Hamas has launched an unprecedented attack against Israel.

Israel at war with Hamas after unprecedented attacks

Recent headlines have given me cause to look back while wondering what
might actually lie ahead…

A post written in 2015

(griffin / Dublin, Ireland / Julie Cook / 2015)

Standards of conduct
June 3o, 2016

“Since the dawn of the Christian era a certain way of life has slowly been shaping itself among the Western peoples, and certain standards of conduct and government have come to be esteemed”
Winston Churchill, radio brodcast to American and London, October 16, 1938

There is a fine line that separates man from beast.
That ever narrowing thread between the human being of intelligence and the animal of wildness.

Oh there are multiple layers of separation that one might argue.
Physical, emotional, psychological, physiological….
As those more lofty scientific minded and behavior specialists among us will no doubt argue and bicker back and forth disputing this fact and that…

But when all is said and done…when the dust has settled and a close inspection has been taken…
we see that thin and narrowing line of true separation is to be found narrowly in man’s ability to manage him or herself with a certain standard of conduct.

The beasts of the land, the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air each seem to act and react with little to no thought toward any sort of standard of conduct…
For theirs is more or less action verses reaction motivated by the need, want and defense of hunger, provocation and mating.

It is true that they may be trained to demonstrate some level of restraint, some sort of rational sorting between this and that, but the bottom line is that training and reward does not equate to the innate ability for rational thinking.

Humans have a wealth of motives, actions and reactions all met and matched by pondering, thinking, discerning, sorting, rationalizing, defending, and determined restraint.

Yet with with an exponentially growing and frightening degree of alarm we should note that the line of man’s standard of conduct, over the past 80 years, dare we say since his very inception, has diminished at a rapid rate.

The actions and reactions of man…the corruption, the lying, the killing, the justification, the murderous terrorism is quickly overtaking the established determined level of civility of conduct found in what was once a deeply rooted foundation to the Judaeo Christian pillars of Western Civilization.

Kingdoms and other forms of human government exist because humanity has fallen away from God.
In human society, the default is always towards anarchy and chaos—as the history of the twentieth centruy in particular amply illustrates. Something must resist and restrain the downward spiral into disorder.
Therefore, God institutes and permits governments.
Excerpt: God and Churchill
Jonathan Sandys and Wallace Henley

Kings and their kingdoms, for the most part, have given way to parliaments, councils and republics.
Today’s Governments have each been birthed out of the early ancient ruling tribes as man has needed to be reigned in, from more or less…himself.

Rules, laws, standards of conduct have had to be implemented in order to afford man the ability to live in a state of order verses the chaos, anarchy, civil unrest and the destructive every man for himself.

Order had to be established.

Yet in that order we are finding a certain level of complacency.
A desire to not have a single boat rocked.
We like our certain standard of living, our freedom, our choices, our self absorption…
We therefore do not wish to acknowledge the decent of various peoples into the more savage behavior that the world is currently witnessing…
We want to ignore the rise of the wild beasts around us lest we perhaps follow suit…

Be it…
Daesh (ISIS)
Hezbollah
Al-Qaeda
The Taliban
Boko Haram
Hamas
Al-shabaab
The Muslim Brotherhood
or any local mafia, militant or terror group…rearing its ugly head.

From groups to actual nations and Governments who eerily morph or have reverted to a form and time when life and death were easily confused.

The following Washington Post excerpt is based on an interview with CIA Director John Brennan

“More recently, he had to confront his Russian counterparts over evidence that their intelligence operatives have been systematically harassing U.S. diplomats both in Moscow and Europe. According to a Washington Post report, Russian agents have paid journalists to write negative stories about Americans, have followed their kids home from school and, in one case, have even broken into a U.S. defense attache’s home and killed his dog. Brennan says he told his counterparts “in direct terms,” that the behavior was “unacceptable” and “destructive” to the relationship.”

There was a reason why, Winston Churchill, who was not an overtly religious man, was compelled to hold strongly and vowed to fight to the death for the Mosaic laws as issued from the Sovereign Creator…

He knew the importance of the standard of conduct issued by God himself….

If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:…
Deuteronomy 28:1…

the pendulum

“The pendulum had swung too far, as always, and now was swinging back,
and the horror of intolerance had been loosed upon the land.”
Clifford D. Simak, Time Is the Simplest Thing

(an old pendulum to one of my grandmother’s clocks/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

I can pretty much remember my high school Lit classes rather vividly…
along with my classes in Sociology, Anthropology and always my beloved history classes.

We were charged with having to read various tales such as A Brave New World, Animal Farm, The Gulag Archipelago, Cancer Ward, 1984—tales now classified as dystopian….
or what the Oxford dictionary tells us is something
“relating to or denoting an imagined state or society where there is great suffering or injustice.”

I thought authors such as Solzhenitsyn were merely recounting a past that was no longer
and that Huxley and Orwell were science fiction writers with vivid imaginations…
depressive imaginations but most vivid.

1984 seemed so far away.
Tales of gulags, soon to be big brotheresque societies, societal meltdowns all rang
of gloom and doom.

What my mind imagined to be most important was that I’d just gotten my driver’s license…
events such as graduation were still some time off—then college lay ahead…
heck, life itself lay ahead!!!

Vietnam was behind us.
Communism didn’t seem to be what it was.
The Fallout Shelter signs still hanging on the walls of the school were no longer noticed.
And the future, my future, was an oyster filled with pearls to be found…right?

The books I was having to read left me feeling uncomfortable and troubled.
I really didn’t want to imagine such a world.
I didn’t want to think about it, dwell upon it.
Not a world where my own government actually planned and plotted against me.
A government telling, nay demanding, that I do its bidding.

The government worked for me, for us, didn’t it??

Wasn’t I living in the United States for heaven’s sake??
We were in the throes of celebrating our Bicentennial.
Flag pins and all things Red, White and Blue were not only the rage but the norm.
There was a sense of pride and vast excitement.

1776 to 1976—-
the battle from tyranny and oppression to democratic freedom had
been valiantly fought and now maintained for a solid 200 years…..
It was a phenomenon that many considered to be a mere experiment–
a foolhardy foray into the realm of a working democracy.
A novelty that certainly wouldn’t, couldn’t, last and yet merrily it appeared to be
doing just that…working as well as flourishing.

Yet always in the back of my youthful mind rose questions…
Could the books I was reading actually happen?
Could such worlds, such times come to fruition during my lifetime?

Please tell me no.

Well…I think, rather sadly, that we all now know the answer to my youthful query.

I taught high school for 31 years.
I’ve been retired now for almost 12 years.

It was a period of time that witnessed mimeograph machines, carbon paper, typewriters,
grade ledgers, chalk boards, pay phones, film projectors, overhead projectors
all oddly yet interestingly disappear one by one…
all the while they morphed into other things.

Things such as xerox machines, fax machines, smart boards, mobile phones, computers,
power point presentations, smart tablets…
Technology had come into its own, especially in the world of education.

I was one of those teachers who actually replaced a hard copy grade book and calculator
with a computer and a variety of grading platforms and programs.
A teacher who went from papers and pens to a computer. A huge thing that took up an entire table.
Cables and wires all tethered to things such a modems and towers, and printers.

It was a huge learning curve for the current sitting educator.
We were straddling an expanse of time of what had been and what was to be…
and we had to hurry up to get on board as it was all advancing faster than we
could be taught to keep up.

This trip down memory lane came to the forefront of my brain this morning when I caught
an interesting article posted on the Federalist.

It’s an article about cell phone and classrooms.

Answer The Call Already: Ban Smartphones In Schools
by By: Jermey S. Adams / October 04, 2023

It made me remember the days when kids began to bring iPods and cell phones into the school.
At first we teachers were tasked with confiscating these interloping devices.

However both parent and student became incensed that we were taking up personal property.
Expensive personal property…despite it being returned by the end of the day.
One too many offenses and the parents would have to come pick up the device.
That went over like a massive stone of inconvenience.

What if there was an emergency for heaven’s sake?!
Had we not suffered through Columbine?
Did parents not have the right to be able to immediately contact their children
if the need should arise?

This was also the time that social media was on the rise.

Oddities such as Chat rooms, Myspace, texting were on the move.
iPods were ever present as kids would walk down the halls with wires
leading to their ears.
Tuned in, yet tuned out.

It was clear that this burgeoning bit of technology within schools was becoming a monster
that needed to be tamed.
But the question was how.

Eventually the idiom of if we can’t beat them, join them came into play.
The eureka thought was that we must incorporate their devices into the curriculum.
We’ll strike a live and let live coexistence.

But what of the darker side?

The sexting.
The predation.
The cyber bullying?
The blatant cheating…all at the touch of a finger.

Mr. Adams notes in his article a familiar place I readily remember…
There was a moment in the past decade when most teachers,
myself included, thought that the ubiquitous presence of cell phones made a war
against them unwinnable.
Many of us thought it more judicious to find a way to integrate the technology
into our classroom routines.
Likewise, many of us were open to discipline reform and innovation
in the way we graded our students.
But the reality of what these fashionable ideas have done to American
education is too difficult to ignore.
The pendulum can, and must, start to swing the other way.

It certainly appears that Mr. Adams’ article is most timely.

He notes that an array of studies and data now tell us that the overt use of technology,
social media, et el, is a detriment to learning rather than a boon.

I think many of us figured this out years ago.
Yet our students are now suffering due to our own frantic efforts to appease them while
striking some sort of balance.

We knew what worked and what was best yet we wanted to keep the peace.
We capitulated.
We leaned toward a kumbaya sense of equity of leveling all playing fields.
We wanted to appear sympathetic and not hurt feelings or what we falsely assumed
to be fragile egos.
Pass all, fail no one.
Advance them on regardless of whether they made the grade or not.
Failure was too painful.
Hard work was simply that, too hard.

And so I was actually very happy to read that countries such a France, Italy, Finland
and even England were now banning cell phones from schools.

As a young new teacher I can remember an older more senior teacher once
remarking that education was a pendulum.
It will swing in one direction for a time, then eventually swing back.

Be that good or bad.

I just hope we are beginning to actually swing back to a more sensible direction…
all before it’s too late in what has become our foolhardy race to a static state of
inertia.

Here’s a link to the article:

https://thefederalist.com/2023/10/04/answer-the-call-already-ban-smartphones-in-schools/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=answer-the-call-already-ban-smartphones-in-schools&utm_term=2023-10-04

the humble onion (a reboot)

“Life is an onion–
you peel it year by year and sometimes cry.”
Carl Sandburg

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary.
To one without faith, no explanation is possible.
Thomas Aquinas

(Nothing Fancy episode from Foyle’s War)

I’ve taken back to rewatching a favorite series of mine, Folye’s War.

It’s a long story but when Spectrum and Disney hit a snag in their partnership of
entertaining the masses, channels such a ESPN, Disney, ABC…et el, were blocked from
Spectrum viewers.

Do you know what that meant???

It meant that there was no college football for Spectrum viewers!!!

Well not exactly a total blackout…
I could still pick up teams like the Huskies and the Bruins.

With no offense to Husky or Bruin fans, there’s just something extra special,
something akin to the mystical, about watching football in the deep South.
Teams such as the Huskies and Bruins just aren’t deep South favs.

It was actually more like, as if on some sick and maniacal cue,
right at the exact time of kickoff…the kickoff of a season that could
actually be witness to my beloved DAWGS making some sort of miraculous history
that only Wally Butts and Vince Dooley could be proud of…
there was no SEC football.

For a UGA football fanatic such as myself, well, it was as if Dante had sent me to
one of his inner rings of hell…

It was the ring where the game was stuck… standing still on a screen with no
realtime action taking place..all the while souls such as myself, who were
stuck in said ring, knew that live action was indeed taking place outside of
the ring…yet time for us was nonexistent.
A ring where college football fans, especially those lovers of ACC and SEC football,
were simply left to stare at blank screens.

The solution???? Stream the viewing.

That sounded like an easy solution, but mine was an older TV—
Couple said older TV with the lack of electronic and tech savviness, and well,
I felt sheer panic rising within.

I could have gotten one of those gadgets such as a fire stick or Roku device
but what do I know about those????

I decided my best bet was to bite the bullet and get a new TV…one with all those
app thingees already on it and then, with the help of the proverbial geek squad,
I could figure out which apps I’d want and which ones I didn’t….and actually find my
blasted football!!!!

Yet as fate would have it, right when the new tv was delivered,
Spectrum and Disney stuck a deal.

Spectrum kept reassuring us complaining customers that this was Deisney’s fault and we, the consumer would be the better for it in the end…well, I missed 3 weeks of UGA football games…how that was beneficial is beyond my soul but I digress!

In the end, I’ve gotten my beloved DAWGS back….now with much better clarity–
plus I’ve gotten Britbox and ACORN tv…meaning I can see my favorite old British TV
mysteries without having to use Dad’s old CD’s..

And thus I offer you a reboot from the past.
A post about a Foyle’s War episode…….

Having been a baby boomer, I never knew what it was like living during a time of deprivation like those who lived through the lean times of the Depression
or a world war.
I have not had to live with ration stamps, food shortages, or overt sacrifice for the greater good during a time of grave uncertainty and an all consuming war of life or death…not like my grandparents or parents who did just that.

So when I watched an episode of Foyle’s War which featured the raffling of a lone
onion, I was both startled and curious.
A raffle for a prized onion?
An onion?

Foyle’s War was a marvelous British TV Drama that came out in 2002.
The series was set in Hastings, East Sussex in England during WWII and
follows the life and trials of a local police inspector,
Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle
(Michael Kitchen) along with his small team of assistants.
Foyle works the home front, doing his best to maintain order during a time of
worldly chaos.

Dad introduced me to the series years ago when he gave me a boxed set—
I was quickly hooked.
It is historically accurate, well done and rich in cinematography with great
story lines, accompanied by consummate actors.
I think it is the historical war aspect that had me hooked.

During this one particular episode concerning the onion, the episode Nothing Fancy,
the police office was raffling off a large onion.
DCS Foyle’s assistant Sam Wainwright, is seen to pine over the onion
hoping, or better yet almost salivating,
that she might actually be able to win such a treasure.

Now granted the onion was just a bit of side story to the main plot
of murder, mystery and mayhem but yet I kept thinking how odd it was that an
unassuming onion should be raffled off.
And odder still was the fact that everyone really wanted to win.

It was just an onion for heaven’s sake.
But what I hadn’t grasped was the fact that things such as fresh vegetables,
during a raging world war, while living on an isolated Island such as England,
were a rare treasure.

Not because an onion by itself is considered nutritious, exotic or of real value..
but when you have had to live a life of deprivation, existing on ration stamps,
struggling through food shortages…
adding to the fact that most fresh foods were sent directly to the front lines
to provide the best for those fighting the war….
the act of eating was no longer something for pleasure but was for pure survival…
having a small gift of flavor was almost too good to be true.

Variety, flavor and flare were the first casualties as such luxuries
are quickly sacrificed.

If you cook, or know anything about cooking, then you fully grasp the fact that
things such as onions are often taken for granted….
yet they are the subtle key players, hanging out in the background, who are greatly necessary in cooking as they add a depth and complexity to food.

Onions add a variety of flavors pure and simple.
They take bland to an entire new level of taste…
be it sweet and smokey, spicy and hot, caramely and soft,
or they simply add texture and crunch…
Onions are a key ingredient to any savory meal.

So naturally I considered what my life would be without something equally as
necessary yet something that seems to be usually in the background,
something seemingly humble and most often taken for granted….
as in the thought that it will always be there…
Something that, should it be lost or that I should be deprived
of such would be, in a word, catastrophic….

For me, that would be a death without hope…
which is what a life would be without the real presence of God the Father,
the hope of Salvation found in Jesus Christ the Son and the
everlasting guidance of the Holy Spirit.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh,
God made you alive with Christ.
He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness,
which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away,
nailing it to the cross.
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
2 Colossians 13-15

look for the smallest light… for there you will still find hope…

“Just as one small candle may light a thousand,
so the light here kindled hath shone unto many.”
William Bradford

(actresses Billie Boullet and Bel Powley as Miep Gies and Anne Frank)

I am almost ashamed to admit that despite all the posts I’ve ever written regarding WWII,
Winston Churchill, the Nazi Regime, Adolph Hitler, The various Resistance movements,
The Holocaust….
All of the posts I’ve shared here about the horrors, the miscues, the tragedies,
the small triumphs, along with the overwhelming incomprehensible loss of life
during those most excruciating of times, I did not know about the woman Miep Gies.

(credit The Guardian)

But maybe you knew.

Maybe you knew about Miep when you read The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank.
Maybe you’d read Miep’s account of those dark days in Amsterdam.
Maybe you’d just caught an article here or there or even glimpsed a story
about her passing in 2010.

The odd thing is that I had not known about Miep.

I’ll confess that I think my lack of knowledge is due in part to my reluctance
of wanting to delve into the tragic story of Anne and her family…
of the years they spent isolated and in hiding only for a subsequent betrayal
to take place just prior to the Nazi’s demise.
The betrayal which lead to separation, loss, death and the eventual loneliness and anguish
of a sole surviving husband and father.

For you see, I have a tendency to put my own personal emotions into the individuals
of such harrowing stories…I put myself there as a young teen girl who was
locked away from the world with only her daydreams and a diary…
all because I too kept a diary, just like Anne, when I was her age.
Yet the only looming difference was that my life’s circumstances were a far cry
from wars and occupations.

As a parent, I could not have been able to comprehend the helplessness of
watching one’s children and spouse being forcibly taken…being treated like animals,
harmed and hurt without my own intervention–all simply for having been born a Jew.

So over the years, I’ve stubbornly told myself that I knew all I needed to
know about the heart wrenching and sickeningly painful story of this young girl
without having to “study” it.
It was just more than I felt I could bare.

Enter NatGeo.

Back in May NatGeo ran a rather splendid miniseries, or perhaps more specifically a bit of a biopic, entitled A small Light.
At first I didn’t think I wanted to see it…but I discovered this was not to be a story
focused on Anne but rather on the woman who helped to hide the Frank family.

It was the story of Miep Gies.

It was the story through the eyes of one woman who tried to defy the times, defy the
rules, defy the odds, defy the enemy in order to save the lives of two families
and a doctor.

According to an article on ScreenRant, Owen Danoff offered a reflection on
the latest mini biopic delivered by NatGeo.
(Publish MAY 1, 2023)

“A Small Light composer Ariel Marx discusses working on Nat Geo’s powerful modernized telling of the story of Miep Gies and Anne Frank’s family.

A Small Light is a gripping and powerful series that brings to life the story of Miep Gies, the Dutch citizen who hid Anne Frank and her family, during the most consequential period of her life. Created by Joan Rater and Tony Phelan and directed by Susanna Fogel, the miniseries utilizes modern storytelling techniques and writing to make the dramatizations of its real-life subjects especially relatable and human

Miep took a chance… a great risk to herself and her family.

And in the end, she too would know deep deep sorrow.

Yet despite the obvious tale of tragedy, all in all, it was a brilliant series.
And as Hollywood is true to form, it afforded itself some “artistic liberties” with this tale.
But I think those “liberties” worked well in the weaving of the story.

It worked so well that I went in search of Miep’s own words…I sought out her
own book, her own recounting of those surreal days.

So my intent today is not to write a review regarding the miniseries or
a tale to the background of the true story…
but rather it is my desire to examine what seems to have opened a door to
reminders of other threads that lead from this time to that time.

In her book, Miep wrote that during the Occupation, there were two types of Dutch–
Orange Dutch…those who believed in freedom..
or…
the NSBers…those who believed in joining the Nazi regime as a means of protecting
themselves, their lives, their livelihood at the cost of a their
national identity and what all it meant to be a Dutchman or woman.

The Dutch, according to Meip, were a proud people who prided themselves for being
tolerant.
They welcomed “outsiders”.
They embraced the Jews in Holland.
They embraced those who moved to Holland as Hitler’s grip advanced throughout Europe.
All believed there would be safety in Holland.
The Dutch appreciated and honored their Jewish neighbors..their lives and culture.
Yet all of that changed with the Nazi Occupation.

Today Holland seems to have lost some of that once proudly touted tolerance…
that ethos for living.

A recent story on AP’s website noted “that people with autism and intellectual disabilities
have been been legally euthanized in the Netherlands in recent years because they said they could not lead normal lives, researchers have found.

The cases included five people younger than 30 who cited autism as either the only reason or a major contributing factor for euthanasia, setting an uneasy precedent that some experts say stretches the limits of what the law originally intended.

In 2002, the Netherlands became the first country to allow doctors to kill patients at their request if they met strict requirements, including having an incurable illness causing “unbearable” physical or mental suffering.

Those deemed less than perfect human beings could be, should be, annihilated.

Eerie echos of days long past…

And then yesterday, I caught another news story about another Dutch resister…
Corrie ten Boom.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/nazis-took-everything-still-forgave-them

It seems there’s an upcoming new movie on-stage adaptation of ten Boom’s story,
The Hiding Place…

The article noted that “If you bring up Corrie ten Boom’s name in a conversation, you’re likely to be met with one of two reactions. Either a blank stare devoid of recognition, or an exclamation of how her book (published in 1971 by Chosen Books) or her movie (released in 1975) was a life-changing experience.”

The concern was that of the devoid blank stares.
The blank looks that scream volumes…volumes as to who in the world was Corrie ten Boom?
Or who was Miep Gies for that matter?

The lukewarm questions of ‘who were these people and why should we, me, you care today?’
What’s the relevance?
What’s the point.

The producer of the new production noted that he hoped that he could bring a renewed
relevance to this story. A tale of doing the right thing without any concern for
one’s self.
Taking risks for what was right by humankind.
Lessons we must not forget.

“She [Corrie] chose to forgive Nazis. She chose to love the people in front of her.
She chose to turn the ruin of war into a garden.
And she spent the last 30 years of her life testifying to the light that
the world cannot, not even in a Nazi death camp, extinguish.”

“Only by story does the world remember, and by silence it forgets.
So, this August we’re ending the silence and telling the story again,
in a new way, with new people and a new vision.

Corrie and Betsie and Casper and Willem Ten Boom gave us a great story at great cost.
We owe it to them to help the world remember it.”

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/nazis-took-everything-still-forgave-them

We need to always remember the stories of people like Miep Gies and Corrie ten Boom.
We need to remember the single candle each one lit—the candle which values human life…
all life.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/shows/a-small-light

the making of an epic road trip that revealed the importance of the birth of a nation

“Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand
that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are;
and, as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled
hath shone unto many…
Yea in some sort to our whole Nation let the Glorious Name of Jehovah
have all the praise ”
William Bradford, Governor of the of Plymouth Colony

(a family reunion of sorts/ the graves of Priscilla Mullins Alden and John Alden/
Duxbury, Massachusetts / 2023)

Sometimes we have to first go backwards before we can actually move forward.

Sometimes we forget where we’re going because we’ve lost sight of where we’ve been.

Sometimes we chose to ignore the wisdom of those who went before us…
thinking that surely we know better than those from days long gone…

A notion that has its roots buried in hubris, arrogance, ignorance or…
simply a mix of all three along with whatever else has come down the pike
over the passage of time.

I just recently returned from a bit of a road trip.
It seemed to make sense that when there’s lots of loss and change in one’s world,
nothing seems to bring about a most positive correction faster than
that of an epic road trip.

And that’s exactly what it was…epic.
Epically rejuvenating.
Epically fresh.
Epically picturesque…
and especially epically historic.

This particular road trip did not exactly start out as a pursuit of the historic
or of a pursuit of the past, or a pursuit of a beginning or even
a pursuit of the presidential…but that seems
to be what just happened.

Over the course of a month’s time, there was a visit to either the birthplace,
residence, place of death, or all three rolled into one, of 10 various presidents.

There were stops at two US military academies, several state houses, monuments,
Elizabethan and Colonial gardens…there were rocky shores, vistas, mountains,
national parks and a good many cemeteries…and there was a particular rock of great significance…albeit most likely more symbolic rather than literal.

(Myles Standish Burying Ground, Duxbury, Mass / Julie Cook / 2023)

(Myles Standish Burying Ground, Duxbury, Mass / Julie Cook / 2023)

(National Monument to the Forefathers / Plymouth, Mass / 2023)

(National Monument to the Forefathers / Plymouth, Mass / 2023)

(Plymouth rock / Julie Cook / 2023)

I’ve included these few pictures in part because the graves pictured above are of
a personal significance to my family.

I’ve written about these folks before and why they matter to me and my own family
as well as why they matter to us as a collective family of these United States
but I’ll let you read about such on your own via the provided link.

https://wordpress.com/view/cookiecrumbstoliveby.wordpress.com

It was, however, during the stop in and around Plymouth that I was reminded and even made
aware of the deep significance of the Pilgrim’s voyage—a perilous voyage
with no guarantee of a survived passage.
It was a dangerous journey into the complete unknown and a very grave risk.

Families and livihoods all left behind…great sacrifices made…
but ultimately it was deemed to be of the utmost importance…
Important due in part as to what was hoped to be gained…

That hope being what our founding fathers would later espouse as the essential
essence of God’s gift to man…that consisting of unalienable rights…
life, liberty and the simple pursuit of happiness.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
–That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such
principles and organizing its powers in such form,
as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not
be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience
hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable,
than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations,
pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty,
to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies;
and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their
former Systems of Government.
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries
and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute
Tyranny over these States.
To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

I will close today’s post by adding another link…
it’s a link to a post written several years ago that harkens to the
significance as why we, as a nation, must always remember
why we actually celebrate July 4th…
It’s about the ultimate cost offered by so many…both long and not so long ago,
sacrifices made just so you and I can have a day off, enjoy a picnic,
eat some BBQ and watermelon while watching a few fireworks….

Happy 4th of July

Rebels and rebellions…tennis shoes, flags and slavery…. a brief history lesson

From President Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next
to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being,
who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is,
or that will be–
That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks–
for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming
a Nation–for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions
of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war–
for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty,
which we have since enjoyed–for the peaceable and rational manner,
in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government
for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted–
for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed;
and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;
and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath
been pleased to confer upon us

And so this is Christmas…

And so happy Christmas
We hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very Merry Christmas
And a happy new year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear
War is over, if you want it
War is over now
And so this is Christmas
John Lennon

(as noted yesterday, I wanted to share the two posts I’d written over the years regarding
the Christmas Day ceasefire truce between British and German troops during WWI.
No matter what circumstances we may be facing…be it war or simply life–there
remains nonetheless the Holy Miracle of a December’s night eve.)

The WWI Christmas Truce
December 17, 2019 by Jenny Ashcraft
On December 24-25, 1914, an impromptu cease-fire occurred along the Western Front during WWI.
Amid the battle, soldiers from both sides set aside their weapons and came together peacefully
in an event that has come to be known as the WWI Christmas Truce.
Here are a few first-hand accounts of that historic event.

British and German Officers Meet in
No-Man’s Land During WWI Christmas Truce Courtesy of Imperial War Museums

The Canadian Expeditionary Forces 24th Battalion recorded their experience.
“Early in the afternoon shelling and rifle fire ceased completely and soon
German soldiers were seen lifting heads and shoulders cautiously over the parapet
of their front line trench.
Encouraged by the fact that no fire was opened by the men
of the 24th, a number of Germans climbed over the top, advanced in
No Man’s Land, and, making signs of friendship,
invited the Canadians to join them
and celebrate the occasion.
Regulations frowned on such action, but curiosity proved strong,
and a group of Canadians, including a number from the 24th Battalion,
moved out to see what the enemy looked like at close range.

Conversation proved difficult at first,
but a number of the Germans spoke English fluently and others,
having rehearsed for the occasion, one must judge,
endeavored to establish their benevolence by
constant repetition of the phrase, “Kaiser no damn good.”

For nearly an hour the unofficial peace was prolonged,
the Canadians presenting the Germans with cigarettes and foodstuffs
and receiving in return buttons, badges, and several bottles of
most excellent beer.

By this time, news of the event had reached authority,
and peremptory orders were issued
to the Canadians in No Man’s Land to return to their own line forthwith.

When all had reported back, a salvo of artillery fire,
aimed carefully to burst at a spot where no harm to friend or foe would result,
warned the Germans that the truce was over and that hostilities had been
resumed…

For some days after Christmas comparative quiet prevailed in the front line,
but soon activity increased and the Battalion’s losses indicated that
normal trench warfare conditions again existed.”

Captain Hugh Taylor from the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards led his company in an attack
near Rouges Bancs on December 18-19, 1914.
His troops succeeded in pushing back German soldiers and occupying their trenches.
While returning alone to the British trenches to report,
Taylor was caught in machine-gun fire and killed instantly.

For nearly a week, his body lay near the German line.
During the informal Christmas Truce, soldiers from both sides collected the dead and brought their bodies to the center
space between their respective lines. They dug two trenches and buried
British soldiers in one and German soldiers in the other.
An English Chaplain conducted a service.
Afterward, the soldiers spent several hours
fraternizing with one another. Captain Taylor’s body was carried
to a small military graveyard at La Cardoniere Farm and buried.

(British and German troops bury soldiers during the WWI Christmas Truce – 1914
Courtesy of Imperial War Museum)

Three Americans serving in the Foreign Legion took part in the Christmas Truce.
Victor Chapman, Eugene Jacobs, and Phil Rader were in the trenches that day.
Rader, a former United Press correspondent, wrote a stirring account of his experience.
“For twenty days we had faced that strip of land, forty-five feet wide,
between our trench and that of the Germans, that terrible No-Man’s Land,
dotted with dead bodies, criss-crossed by tangled masses of barbed wire.”
Rader recounted cautiously raising his head.
“Other men did the same.
We saw hundreds of German heads appearing.
Shouts filled the air.
What miracle had happened?
Men laughed and cheered.
There was Christmas light in our eyes and I know there were Christmas tears in mine.
There were smiles, smiles, smiles, where in days before there had been only rifle barrels.
The terror of No-Man’s Land fell away.
The sounds of happy voices filled the air.”
The Christmas Truce of 1914 eventually ended, and the goodwill shared between enemies
for a brief moment during WWI
evaporated as fighting resumed.

(To learn more about WWI and the soldiers who fought in it, search Fold3 today!)

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very Merry Christmas
And a happy new year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red one
Let’s stop all the fight
A very Merry Christmas
And a happy new year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
A new one just begun
And so happy Christmas
We hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very Merry Christmas
And a happy new year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear
War is over, if you want it
War is over now
la, la, ah, ah
Happy Christmas
Happy Christmas (happy Christmas)
Happy Christmas (happy Christmas)
(John Lennon)

Christmas 1914 (re-post from 2014)

“There is no limit to the measure of ruin and of slaughter;
day by day the earth is drenched with newly-shed blood,
and is covered with the bodies of the wounded and of the slain.
Who would imagine, as we see them thus filled with hatred of one another,
that they are all of one common stock, all of the same nature,
all members of the same human society?
Who would recognize brothers,
whose Father is in Heaven?”
Pope Benedict XV

(an artist’s impression taken form The Illustrated London News,
January 1915 of British and German soldiers during the Christmas truce of 1914)

(today and tomorrow I will offer two re-posts—posts I’d previously written
regarding the miraculous Christmas Truce of 1914 during WWI—
thus a small reminder that the true meaning of Christmas is far greater and more powerful
than ourselves and that of our own inward and outward struggles and turmoil)

War is a funny thing.
As in it is an age old oddity.
An ugly, devastating oddity.

Since his fall from grace,
man has been engaged in a constant state of struggle.
Battling and fighting a war within himself as he wages war against all others.
Living in a constant state of destruction…
Conquering, defending, killing, invading, taking…

And yet within man’s duality of his nature…that connection between light and dark…
of both right and wrong,
of both love and hate,
of give and take,
of fair and unfair
of peace and war…
all of which seems to leave him no choice but to create a balance within the chaos
of some sense of fairness or rightness…
as if war should be, could be, conducted fairly or even oddly, justly,
Man continues to yearn for the light, the upright, the hopeful…

As man feels his way through the never ending darkness, he has learned to set parameters.
He creates rules.
Rules of engagement.
Rules of war.
Rules set by the Geneva Convention.
Rules stating that nations are to fight fairly,
as if to say…fight by the rules.

Yet all of this seems to be grossly oxymoronic…
as if war, fighting, maiming and killing could ever be fair,
or just, or right, or proper….

Yet on Christmas Day 1914 man’s conflict and inner struggle with this duality
of his imperfect balance, oddly righted itself…

That in the midst of death and insanity, the arrival of Christmas,
the coming and eventual arrival of the child whose birth brings both the gift of
hope and peace to not merely a few but rather to all mankind,
brought balance, albeit briefly, to man’s seemingly unending inner conflict…

On December 7, 1914, Pope Benedict XV suggested a temporary hiatus of the war for
the celebration of Christmas.
The warring countries refused to create any official cease-fire,
but on Christmas the soldiers in the trenches declared their own unofficial truce.

Starting on Christmas Eve, many German and British troops sang Christmas carols
to each other across the lines, and at certain points the Allied soldiers
even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing.

At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day,
some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the
Allied lines across no-man’s-land, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues.
At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick,
but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands
with the enemy soldiers.
The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs.
There was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a
good-natured game of soccer.

Some soldiers used this short-lived ceasefire for a more somber task:
the retrieval of the bodies of fellow combatants who had fallen within the no-man’s
land between the lines.

The so-called Christmas Truce of 1914 came only five months after the outbreak of war
in Europe and was one of the last examples of the outdated notion of
chivalry between enemies in warfare.
It was never repeated—future attempts at holiday ceasefires were quashed by
officers’ threats of disciplinary action—but it served as heartening proof,
however brief, that beneath the brutal clash of weapons,
the soldiers’ essential humanity endured.

During World War I, the soldiers on the Western Front did not expect to celebrate on the battlefield,
but even a world war could not destory the Christmas spirit.
History.com

“Hark the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the new-born king.”
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!
Charles Wesley

Scurvy, Limeys, Victorian Stockings and St. Nicholas (a re-boot)

“A man ought to carry himself in the world as an orange tree would
if it could walk up and down in the garden,
swinging perfume from every little censer it holds up to the air.”
Henry Ward Beecher

“The giver of every good and perfect gift has called upon us to mimic
His giving, by grace, through faith, and this is not of ourselves.”
St. Nicholas of Myra

(bowls of both whole and sliced Calomondians and Kumquats being readied
for a cranberry relish / Julie Cook / 2014)

(a little timely history lesson for this season of giving/ originally posted
in 2014)

“Shiver me timbers boys.
Looks like the scurvy’s hit the ship”
Scurvy you ask?
A devastating Vitamin C deficiency which was a very common occurrence for sailors, as well as pirates, of the 1600 and 1700’s. Cases have actually been documented as far back as ancient Egypt.

Months aboard a ship, with very little fresh water and food, let alone the luxuries of fresh fruits such as oranges, lemons or limes, rendered sailors deathly sick. It was an abnormality of sailing that left captains and doctors scratching their heads.
Sailor’s gums would swell and hurt. Their teeth would begin to fall out, their legs would swell, turning purple– a condition, which left untreated, would eventually lead to death.

It wasn’t until the 1747 when British doctor James Lind, intrigued by the mysterious ailment afflicting British Sailors, as well as renegade sailors such as pirates, conducted several experiments determining that the sailor’s bodies were depleted of Vitamin C.
Therefore all British sailors were originally issued lemons and lemon juice as part of their sea rations. However, lemons not always being as plentiful as limes, a substitution was hence made. It seems that the acid content of limes is less than lemons, almost by 50%, so the sailors would have to consume larger quantities of limes, earning them the moniker of Limeys.

The gift giving of citrus, particularly oranges, didn’t occur until the Victorian Era when children began receiving an orange in their stockings on Christmas Eve. In fact, the celebration of Christmas itself, much as we know it to this day—that of jolly ol St Nicholas, gift giving, card sending, a decorated tree and stockings being hung on the mantle, is greatly attributed to Victorian England and the arrival of the Industrial Revolution. The custom of placing an orange in a stocking first became popular in England and much later in the United States with the birth of the tansconinental railway system.

Oranges were considered to be an exotic novelty as they had to be shipped to England from more southern Mediterranean climates. And what more special gift could one give to weary winter senses than a tropical fruit such as an orange?! The fact that oranges and other citrus fruit helped to ward off deadly disease by offering much needed and depleted vitamins made even more sense when it came to offering them to children, especially those in disadvantaged families where fresh fruits and vegetables were considered luxuries.

Scurvy was not a disease confined only to those stuck on ships for months at a time, but it was a prevalent disease throughout Ireland during the deadly potato famine. Many soldiers as well as civilians also fell victim to the disease throughout much of Russia during the deadly Crimean war.

The custom of oranges as gifts however dates back even earlier than Victorian England–actually as far back back to 325 BC, to our original St Nicholas who was the Bishop of Myra, located in present day Turkey.

Known for his generosity to the poor and disadvantaged, legend has it that St Nicholas learned of three sisters who’s father was so terribly poor that he could not provide a dowery for his daughters–therefore the girls were to be sold into slavery. Nicholas who had come from a wealthy family took it upon himself to secretly deliver a bag of gold for each girl. It is said he tossed the gold through an open window, which in turn landed in a shoe–hence why many European children began leaving shoes out on the eve of St Nicholas day (December 19th) in order to receive a gift.
The gold, over the years, evolved into being associated with that of a gold ball and eventually an orange.
And as time would have it, St Nicholas who was the patron saint of children, also evolved– eventually becoming associated with the birth of the Christ child and one who would deliver presents to children on a certain night in December (as according to the Julian Calendar)

In the United States, oranges where given as gifts following the completion of the transcontinental railway system, when items such as citrus fruit grown primarily in California and Florida, could be transported all over the country. Oranges were especially popular during WWII as a special stocking stuffer since the rationing of so many food items had become prevalent during the war days. To receive any and all types of fresh fruits were considered a very special treat.

Which brings us back around to today and the growing prevalence of oranges, and their citrus cousins such as grapefruits, which are currently whisking their way to grocery stores shelves across the country as our “winter” fruits now make their debut. With the growing seasons of the citrus crops in both California and Florida coming to fruition, now during the Christmas season, there’s no better refreshingly bright addition to a home than either a scent infused, clove studded, pomander or the heavenly scent of citrus infused baked goods and cookies. Be it an orange, tangerine, pomelo, meyer lemon, key lime, kumquat, or grapefruit to name but a few, be sure to add a little Vitamin C to your diet and enjoy some citrus during the holidays. . .