Happy Holidays

i went to see an impossible fantasy last night, a movie that left a friend longing to live on the depicted planet. "Avatar" is a movie that created a wonderful escape into a way of life many of us could wish for here. "Avatar" lived up to its billing and i would recommend it to any one that loves a good science fiction movie.

The writers create a chimera(which has been used to describe real-life entities that arise or are created as amalgams of previously separate entities) that moves between the human culture and the indigenous on planet Pandora. The irony of naming a planet after a woman who released all the evils on the world becomes abundantly clear as the movie takes shape. i would tell you to go just for the special effects. The mixing of water world entities with earth-bound physicalities in ways not allowed in our world was a fantastic use of the artist's imagination. But the unification of Pandora's inhabitants with the world they lived on is something many of us here might love to experience. Ahhhh the joys of the fantastic.

But playing the role of the gatekeeper i will restrain further flows of information about the movie so as not to spoil it for you.

Just go.

Friday is Christmas. The end of the build up that has been going on everywhere for almost two months now. Since most Americans appear to overemphasize spending and superficiality at the expense of spirituality Friday will be the culmination of an intense shopping binge.

All of us, be we religious or secular, enjoy the coming together, the festive food and the break from the work routine. It is a time of year when we can let our hair down and just fall in love with everything, if we allow ourselves that option.

This universe we live in is wondrous even without faith in a divine plan. Having a holiday to celebrate together is so much fun. This is the best time of the year in the islands. We all shut down to party and commune with each other.

This Holiday Season i'm thinking about what a magical and amazing place Earth can be when we all celebrate how improbable things can happen, Santa coming down the chimney for instance.

There is a great children's book about Santa Claus(The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Julie Lane)that brings tears to my eyes every time i read it to a child. It is one of the most heartwarming stories i think i have ever read. It describes an orphan who is passed around from family to family in a Northern European village, because no one family has the resources to keep him full time. As he grows, he adds more people he loves to his extended family. He slowly starts making tiny gifts and leaves them in stockings on the doors during the dead of night. He evolves into the Santa we all thought we knew and loved as children only to find out later he never existed. But this Santa is real, his love is real, and the love for him from adults and children is real.

The nature of the human mind is to question and as children we are taught to question Santa's reality. i think we should be reminded of humanity's great questions at least once a year. At some point in our lives we question the meaning of our world and our existence. In doing so, we examine religious beliefs and philosophies of different cultures; we look at literature's and the artistic expressions of the people of the world; we study languages, create works of art and perform music and plays.

What, if anything, can be known with certainty?

Questioning can be as simple as having a successful confrontation with human suffering, or questioning to find the answer to life's roadblocks.

Remember that cruelty hardens and degrades while kindness reforms and ennobles. This holiday season let Peace prevail, become a foe of violence, don't let it invade your space.
And remember, don't ever stop questioning our humanity, question who we really are, question everything.

Celebrate our questions.

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes