Sunday, December 2, 2018

Just Because (just because)



Just because I love this eccentric crazy-quilt-of-a-movie.  Early this morning, something prompted me to look through my things for the only Christmas card I ever received from R.  He sent it to me from California in 1987.  It has an embossed scallop shell on the front of the card and:

"Softly...gently...joyfully...Christmas arrives in the heart."

On the same shelf, deep in my hall closet, was the DVD of "My Own Love Song." I just finished watching it again.  It speaks to me in a healing way as the first evening of Hanukkah approaches, with Bodhi Day coming up on December 8, followed by Winter Solstice on December 21, Christmas and New Year's Day.  For years, going through the days of December was like walking through a mine field.  Gradually, something has changed inside me.  Starting this blog on December 8, 2006, was the beginning of whatever it was that made it possible for me to experience December in a different way. 

R loved Bob Dylan's music.  I think he would have liked both of these videos created in connection with Bob Dylan's 2009 album titled "Christmas in the Heart," which was released a year and a half after R died.  R's spirit, like Bob Dylan's, was characterized by gravity and levity and paradox.





4 comments:

Sabine said...

This is what came to mind when I watched the trailer you posted.
Certainly another crazy movie and based on an amazing true story. A few years back, I went to hear the real guys behind the movie at a talk. Very uplifting.

https://youtu.be/34WIbmXkewU

am said...

Thank you for the link to the trailer, Sabine. I put one of our local library's copies of the "The Intouchables" on hold. Looking forward to watching it as a new part of my December experience of being grateful to be alive.

ellen abbott said...

I have never heard of this movie. I'll have to try and find it.

ellen abbott said...

and I meant to say that December has always been a difficult month for me not being a christian. it really rankles me (more so in the past) all the hoopla and that it is the most special time of year and all your dreams come true and that if tragedies happen it's worse for being at christmastime and the hypocrisy of seeing the homeless only at this time and etc. and the christmas music everywhere you go. I've let go of a lot of that now but for decades it has been my least favorite time of year.