So what is the practical meaning of Christmas? Anyone can say it is a celebration of the birth of Christ, but who actually gives gifts to him and not to family members on that day?
When I was a child, Christmas meant getting up very early to open gifts from the folks and then be rushed off reluctantly to an early church serivce. There was always a big dinner with lots of aunts and uncles in attendance. Food consisted of turkey with all the trimmings, jello salads, and pies.
As we grew older, we wanted to share in giving gifts as well as receiving them. This probably didn't happen until we were into high school or even out of school, because until we had jobs there wasn't much money to spend on others.
When we became adults, we made concerted efforts to take some of the load off our parents, and to find suitable gifts for them. We seldom had success on either front. The aunties were never willing to concede their jello-making monopoly. And my parents were often notoriously difficult to shop for (or even create things for).
When I was in high school I met Jesus and honoring his birth made more sense to me. But the hectic ready-making for Christmas morning turned all other priorities upside down, and it was always with bleary eyes that we went to church to do that honor, irrespective of any desire to do so. And often with irritation grown of frustrations or disappointments with shopping or crafting.
For many years Christmas was a difficult time for all of us. They became most difficult of all in 1998 when my mother went into the hospital on Christmas day, and passed away the next day. As much as we tried to pull together as a family, Christmas was always a strain after that. Now we are lucky to get all of my brothers and sisters together in the same room on any occasion, even Christmas. Perhaps we discovered that the glue that held our family together was not Jesus, but my mother.
Fortunately I was introduced to Mary's family in 1997, and that gave me a glimpse of a different kind of Christmas. Mary's nephews and nieces ranged in age from 6 to 11 (at that time), and it was a joy to buy, or preferably make, gifts for them.
Every year since 1999, Mary and I have had a "tradition" of making special craft projects for everyone in close family, about 18 people in all. One year it was cardboard boxes in the shape of stockings, covered with cloth, with goodies inside. Another time it was small wooden boxes, painted with different designs, filled with little treasures. Mary has taken to making sets of rubber-stamped all-occasion greeting cards, which everyone loves. Last year I made binders with covers laden with family photographs, tailored to each family member. (I'm not yet divulging this year's project because not all have been distributed yet!)
But where is Christ in all of this? Jesus loved the little children, but eventually they all grow up and become difficult adults, much harder to love. Jesus loved to give to others, but would he stay up late nights doing art projects while neglecting his relationship with his Father, as we do in order to meet our self-imposed deadlines? And of course the artists always wants to draw attention to himself and his effort; this is part of the artist personality. Did Jesus have this neurosis? God forbid!
I like to think that in my mother I saw something of what Jesus was like. She baked the turkey, she baked the pies, but she desired to see us eat them; she did not desire to brag about them. She reluctantly let us wash the dishes, her fine china and silver that she never quite felt comfortable trusting us with.
So this year, Mary and I missed going to church with the rest of the family because we were still working on craft projects at the last minute. We did not get home until 4:00 am, which meant that we were not up early enough to go to any church today (and which also means that after sleeping in, now at 2:00 am I'm not too tired to be typing up all this). So Jesus escaped us completely. I don't even recall saying grace when we ate last night.
We can say with certainty that we did not become caught up in the consumerism of the season, although without a doubt we did spend money. But honoring Jesus must mean more than rejecting the consumer mentality. It must mean more than just spending time with family. Anyone of any religion, or even no religion, can do those things as well or better than we did.
Reading some of the articles I've posted recently, one might be tempted to think that honoring Jesus means saying "Merry CHRISTmas" to everyone in earshot, and suing those who don't respond in kind. Or perhaps it means refusing to put up a "pagan" decorated tree. Perhaps it means eating turkey instead of chinese food. Perhaps it means shopping at Wal-Mart instead of at Target. Would complaining about how the country is going to hell in a bucket suffice? No, everyone does that, whether they are attempting to honor Jesus or not.
My stepson (and Mary's son) is serving with the U.S. Marines in Iraq. We chat with him on the computer almost every day. He has been telling us about near-misses and fallen friends. We have been praying for him every day. Perhaps the way we can most honor Jesus is to acknowledge the role he plays in our lives. He sustains us while our son is in a dangerous situation. He sustains our son as well. We can do nothing but pray. God has put us in this situation against our will. We can do nothing but look to him for comfort, safety, and encouragement. So now God has us right where he wants us. We have no choice but to honor him with lips and lives. We can do nothing for our son. But we can expect our God to do miracles.
"And we have such confidence through Christ toward God; not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as being out of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God." - 2 Corinthians 3:4-5
When we have failed in every other way, we can look to God, the source of our lives, our sustainer, and our only comfort. No matter what else we might do on this Christmas day, if we do that, we honor Jesus in the way that he wants to be honored.
Jesus, thank you for continuing to take care of us, our son, and our families. Thank you for remembering our friends who are ill, relatives who have been in the hospital recently, and nieces whose mothers have died and left no one to take care of them. Help us to be your hands, mouth and eyes to those who need you as acutely as we do. Amen.
Sunday, December 26, 2004
Physical Therapy
My surgeon approved six weeks of physical therapy at my request. Actually, I requested it because my chiropractor's office said they could provide it. The office has a PT and and MD on staff, in addition to the nutritionists and massage therapists.
The surgeon suggested both water therapy and the stationary bicycle. Water therapy consists of simply moving the injured leg around in a small pool of warm water, such as a hot tub. It need not be hot, just warm. Some rehabilitation clinics have pools designed just for this purpose. The intention is that being in the water reduces the weight one is placing on the injured leg, while at the same time the water provides some resistance to motion in the lateral dimensions where muscle strengthening is needed.
My chiropractor's office has an alternative to water therapy. It is simply a treadmill with an overhead harness. They strap me in the harness and they can lift anywhere up to my full body weight off the ground. Then intention here is to restore a normal gait while still reducing the weight I'm placing on the injured leg.
I was disappointed that they didn't start me on the treadmill right away. But the physical therapist really knows her stuff. They started me out with isometric exercises. These consisted of simple exercises like squeezing a pillow between my knees, lying down while pushing my foot into the floor, etc. These exercises started stretching and strengthening the muscles with very little initial impact. This first phase lasted about two weeks.
After two weeks, we started two kinds of stronger exercises. One used rubber cords as resistance, and I had to pull my leg in every direction against the cord. This provided an isolated exercise for
each muscle in the leg. They have these cords set up in the office.
The second kind of exercise was a set of leg lifts in every possible dimension with a one-pound weight around the ankle. This was initially painful in one or two dimensions, particlarly abduction
and adduction (lateral movement of the legs apart, together, and across each other). They instructed me what kind of weights to buy at a local sports store.
In this phase, it sped things up tremendously that Mary happened to have some of the rubber cords at home, so I was able to do these exercises at home as well as in the office. So after just a few days, I developed enough strength that I could walk a few steps without the walker or any other supports. When they saw this, they put me into the treadmill phase sooner than planned.
We started this whole series on November 29, right after Thanksgiving. They put me on the treadmill for the first time on December 16. With each new type of exercise I've been quite sore initially. But for the last three days or so I've been able to walk at will around the house without the walker. I'm using a cane for "moral support" but not often for physical support. (Using the cane causes more pain in my wrist than not using it causes in my hip.)
Maybe someday I'll find the time to scan the instructions for all these exercises and post them here.
We'll have new x-rays taken before the new year, and the first week of January we meet the surgeon again for another follow-up, hopefully the last.
Is it too optimistic to expect that I might be able to go to Mac World Expo in San Francisco in mid-January? Moscone Center is a huge building. At this point, I haven't even been to Costco or Wal-Mart yet. But you've gotta think big.
The surgeon suggested both water therapy and the stationary bicycle. Water therapy consists of simply moving the injured leg around in a small pool of warm water, such as a hot tub. It need not be hot, just warm. Some rehabilitation clinics have pools designed just for this purpose. The intention is that being in the water reduces the weight one is placing on the injured leg, while at the same time the water provides some resistance to motion in the lateral dimensions where muscle strengthening is needed.
My chiropractor's office has an alternative to water therapy. It is simply a treadmill with an overhead harness. They strap me in the harness and they can lift anywhere up to my full body weight off the ground. Then intention here is to restore a normal gait while still reducing the weight I'm placing on the injured leg.
I was disappointed that they didn't start me on the treadmill right away. But the physical therapist really knows her stuff. They started me out with isometric exercises. These consisted of simple exercises like squeezing a pillow between my knees, lying down while pushing my foot into the floor, etc. These exercises started stretching and strengthening the muscles with very little initial impact. This first phase lasted about two weeks.
After two weeks, we started two kinds of stronger exercises. One used rubber cords as resistance, and I had to pull my leg in every direction against the cord. This provided an isolated exercise for
each muscle in the leg. They have these cords set up in the office.
The second kind of exercise was a set of leg lifts in every possible dimension with a one-pound weight around the ankle. This was initially painful in one or two dimensions, particlarly abduction
and adduction (lateral movement of the legs apart, together, and across each other). They instructed me what kind of weights to buy at a local sports store.
In this phase, it sped things up tremendously that Mary happened to have some of the rubber cords at home, so I was able to do these exercises at home as well as in the office. So after just a few days, I developed enough strength that I could walk a few steps without the walker or any other supports. When they saw this, they put me into the treadmill phase sooner than planned.
We started this whole series on November 29, right after Thanksgiving. They put me on the treadmill for the first time on December 16. With each new type of exercise I've been quite sore initially. But for the last three days or so I've been able to walk at will around the house without the walker. I'm using a cane for "moral support" but not often for physical support. (Using the cane causes more pain in my wrist than not using it causes in my hip.)
Maybe someday I'll find the time to scan the instructions for all these exercises and post them here.
We'll have new x-rays taken before the new year, and the first week of January we meet the surgeon again for another follow-up, hopefully the last.
Is it too optimistic to expect that I might be able to go to Mac World Expo in San Francisco in mid-January? Moscone Center is a huge building. At this point, I haven't even been to Costco or Wal-Mart yet. But you've gotta think big.
Monday, December 13, 2004
High Tech Lets Old Recordings Speak Again
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery Channel
July 23, 2004 - A high-tech system originally developed to track down elusive subatomic particles is
now being used to digitize old records and cylinders previously thought to be unplayable, according
to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The new system, created by Berkeley Lab scientists Vitaliy Fadeyev and Carl Haber, originally was
used to determine particle path collisions in research on the Higgs boson, a theoretical particle
believed to give objects mass. Now the technology plays and preserves records and tin and wax
cylinders without even touching their grooves.
Fadeyev and Haber first tested it out on two LPs: "Goodnight Irene" by The Weavers and "Nobody
Knows the Trouble I've Seen" by Marian Anderson. The albums, full of pops, skips, and scratches,
played like new.
A powerful microscope called a SmartScope with a digital camera collects images of the groove
patterns on records or cylinders, which rest on a table moved with precision motors. A computer
program allows the microscope/camera combo to travel forward along the grooves until it reaches the
end of the recording.
The captured image pattern transfers to a computer that translates the tiny, millimeter-sized lines into
sound.
"For discs, the sound is stored in the side-to-side movement of the groove and the SmartScope had a
good ability to image in the two-dimensional plane," Fadeyev said. "For cylinders, the sound is stored
in the up-and-down undulations of the surface. So once we saw that the SmartScope worked
reasonably well on disc, we looked for another instrument, which could measure surface heights."
The instrument they chose was a scanning probe that allows for capture of the three-dimensional
patterns found on cylinders.
http://irene.lbl.gov
now being used to digitize old records and cylinders previously thought to be unplayable, according
to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The new system, created by Berkeley Lab scientists Vitaliy Fadeyev and Carl Haber, originally was
used to determine particle path collisions in research on the Higgs boson, a theoretical particle
believed to give objects mass. Now the technology plays and preserves records and tin and wax
cylinders without even touching their grooves.
Fadeyev and Haber first tested it out on two LPs: "Goodnight Irene" by The Weavers and "Nobody
Knows the Trouble I've Seen" by Marian Anderson. The albums, full of pops, skips, and scratches,
played like new.
A powerful microscope called a SmartScope with a digital camera collects images of the groove
patterns on records or cylinders, which rest on a table moved with precision motors. A computer
program allows the microscope/camera combo to travel forward along the grooves until it reaches the
end of the recording.
The captured image pattern transfers to a computer that translates the tiny, millimeter-sized lines into
sound.
"For discs, the sound is stored in the side-to-side movement of the groove and the SmartScope had a
good ability to image in the two-dimensional plane," Fadeyev said. "For cylinders, the sound is stored
in the up-and-down undulations of the surface. So once we saw that the SmartScope worked
reasonably well on disc, we looked for another instrument, which could measure surface heights."
The instrument they chose was a scanning probe that allows for capture of the three-dimensional
patterns found on cylinders.
http://irene.lbl.gov
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