We give more money than any other country says Colin Powell. So there is a simple follow-up question for Mr. Powell. How does the giving compare with other industrialized countries as a percentage of our GNP? Oh so now Norway gives the most, and we are . . . 17th? Whew, I was getting worried that I couldn't find us on the list. (Where is the liberal media to ask that question? Oh I see, there is no liberal media, it's just a Republican slam to anyone who asks an embarassing question. I momentarily forgot that.) And then there is the point that we are spending more every day in Iraq than the amount pledged. But then we have killed as many people in Iraq as the tsunami did in Asia, so perhaps we have to take care of our own mess first. We are every bit as large a destructive force as mother nature ever thought of being.

How did Colin Powell get to be "step and fetch it" for the multi-national corporations, the oligarchy that now runs the United States of America?

Our second Christmas party is different. My family comes and stays. Games are always important. Ping pong in the basement for hours. Text twist on the internet. That makes me nervous. Lots of eating. Dad brought two cakes from a bakery near his place. Plus singing, piano playing, guitar strumming. Somehow almost all of us play guitar. The children have gone off for movies and bowling and the oldsters have remained home to chat. It is a warm happy feeling to have all these folks here for a couple of days.

"I have heard soldiers say a thousand times, 'If only we could have created all this energy for something good.' But we rise above our normal powers only in times of destruction."

a quote from Ernie Pyle in the fall of 1944, speaking of the European theater of operations.

And the angel said unto them, "Fear not! For behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ, the Lord." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth, goodwill towards men."

22 killed in suicide bombing in Iraq near Mosul.

Is the country taking this seriously enough? When will the decision makers be held accountable for their actions? Who will decide if it was the right thing to do? Who will decide if it was worth the cost? What will the historians write? Will anything survive into history except the spin of those in charge? In an instant 22 gave up their lives. Hopefully, for most, they never knew what hit them. The problem is for the 2200 intimate friends left behind in the United States. They are scarred. They are disbelieving. They will carry the loss to their graves. Wives without husbands, children without fathers, parents without sons and daughters, stunned, weeping. If it were my boy or girl who was killed, I think I'd be on a personal crusade, not to remove GWB from office, but to do something horrible and deadly to him. It would be easy to risk everything to punish him because I'd already be dead. See the next paragraph about that. Fortunately, my boy is safe, here with me. What a joy and peace that brings.

In the HBO series, Band of Brothers, (a chronicle of Easy company, 506th regiment, 101st airborne, in WWII) an officer speaks to a frightened private about his fear. He says something to this effect. "Sure we are all afraid, but your problem is that you are think you going to come out of this alive. The sooner you realize that you are already dead, the sooner you can get about the business of being a soldier. All war depends on that." The message emboldens the private, Albert Blithe, who becomes a courageous and valuable member of his platoon. Albert later died of wounds he received in battle.

Why do we only grieve for the men and women we know? The ones from our town, or from down the block, our brother or sister, the boy last week who was from East Coweta High School. Why don't we grieve for them all? (Well obviously it's because the country would come to a complete standstill). Why don't we grieve for the estimated 100,000 Iraqis that have died, uncounted by our orders? And the 300 billion dollars, isn't that just the lifeblood of people, spilling onto the the ground? Would that money, used for construtive purposes make an impact on the world? Why do we give 30 million for foreign aid and 300 billion to blow people up? Simple, because showing people who's boss is 10,000 times more important to our leaders than helping people.

There were hard words to hear on the day Rosalyn Carter spoke in our school gymnasium. She told us that although America prides itself on what it gives to those in need, that in actuality, if you look at what we give as a percentage of what we have (GNP), America gives the least of all the first world countries. We are the stingiest, meanest, most uncaring, rich people on the face of the earth. It was shocking to hear this grandmother in her soft voice rattle off the statistics. Believe me, she had her facts together. It made us ashamed to hear it.

Can someone tell me why homosexual marriage was the swing issue in our recent election? Can no one hear the explosions? Can no one hear people crying? Rumsfeld says he is insulted that anyone believes he doesn't feel compassion for every fallen soldier. He's just too busy sign the form letters his office sends out to the families about the loss of their soldier's life. Think how many letters that would be for Pete's sake.

During the Civil War, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, I heard the bells on Christmas day, containing these lines:

And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Sing angels! Sing! Peace on earth, good will towards men.

Oh the weather outside was frightful. . .

Second try on a party post.

I wrote a nice long blog on our Christmas party but when I went to publish it, it just vanished. That was pretty disappointing. Oh well.

We had a grand time on Sunday night with about 25 of 40 invitees arriving for hours of photos, gift swapping, laughing, eating, reminiscing, and marveling at changes. Some had never been to our house before, so it was especially nice to have Aunt Mary Ann back home from Switzerland, and Dean Foy (Dean of Students at Auburn University for 28 years), visiting. Dean Foy is 88, but full of vim and vigor and he entertained us with his stories and singing. Shelly and Abby, two of my new step-neices came with Carter and Cathy and contributed much with their smiles and personalities. Shelly played the piano to accompany me on O Holy Night, on the spur of the moment, and also played and sang herself. Sissy played carols and the whole gathering sang round the piano for a long while. There were Christmas lights and Christmas trees and poinsettias, a little village of people to marvel at, and wonderful foods, cakes, and pies. I gained two pounds instantly.

We had spitting snow and temperatures in the teens to remind us that it was very near winter. I noticed that it was colder in GA Sunday night than in Maine, a nasty turn of events. Rachel brought her John from north Georgia, Carter slipped in at the last moment (during the blessing) from his Christmas program on the north side of town. I'm glad he has gotten in a good choir program. Cousin George has started law school. Aunt Elmira , now 83, drove herself over from Montgomery. It was good to see Jenny's smiling face and Chelsea has grown into a teenager. Jack was the youngest and he was thoroughly amused by our musical instruments and singing. He is our Tiny Tim.

If you don't have parties like this or go to parties like this, you should. How do you get through life without the blessings of friends and family?

It's not that I have that much to say, but I do believe that people who can write a sentence should actually write a sentence now and then. Today brought a combination of humiliation and joy. First I was recognized as the "chief of the month" in a faculty meeting. There did not seem to be any purpose for the meeting other than my painful recognition. There was some consolation in that Chuck Buckle passed the chief to me and I do have great respect for Chuck. That humiliation means they are putting my name on a sign in front of the school next to the athlete of the week, and down the block from the McDonald's burger flipper of the month. Who is it that thinks such a thing is a morale boost? If I was 15 and made $5.75 an hour, I might think it was cool. But if a professional needs that to feel good about himself, he couldn't possibly teach school. What I do is more dignified than that and I don't like my name on a sign for people to leer or cheer. I take plenty of pleasure and my morale is boosted by more subtle, harder to discover details of the fruit of my work, like the fact that I have 5 former students on full scholarship for their singing at LSU. There will be more next year.

But in stark contrast to that misunderstanding, it has been pointed out to me that my blog has been linked to a Nasa scientist's blog. I would surely link back to her's if I knew how to do such a thing. (Look for me at www.saroy.net under Wednesday, Dec. 15). I believe such a distinction roughly offsets the ignominy of earlier in the day and so I feel the world is roughly back in balance.

Watching Letterman at 7 at night on Tivo is cool.

There are some benefits of getting older. You have enough money to live without borrowing. Not to say you couldn't live that way when you were younger, you just wouldn't have much of anything, not even name brand soup! Our Christmas present to each other is Tivo. Carter and Kent came by for a few hours yesterday for a birthday meal and Kent got busy and installed it for us and re-routed all our devices. Now miraculously DVD, VHS, Cable TV all play through surround sound speakers, and Tivo tells us what is playing on any channel on cable on any day. And if you have to take a phone call, you pause the TV. Furthermore, you fast forward through commercials if you want, or watch them twice if they were funny or interesting. I had no hope that I could get it hooked up by Christmas, so thanks a million Kent. My TV remote control has become obsolete and now the Tivo remote rules the electronic kingdom. I don't know how this is going to affect my TV viewing. I don't think I'll watch more TV. I do think I won't watch boring TV anymore. And I won't be staying up all hours to watch a ball game or the end of law and order!

When I look at what I have, moving into my mid-fifties, it is amazing. Fortunate to have good health, I work long hours and feel good. We bought an expensive mattress recently, a pillowtop contraption. It is wonderful. Should have had one of these long ago. But how would you know? I have fluffy towels hanging in the bathroom that no one uses and two rooms of beautiful furniture in bedrooms where no one ever goes. (Okay, someone goes in there 10 days a year.) There are things wrong with my house, and little by little, I can afford to fix them. My wife insisted that I buy a new car last year because the deals were so good. It's a Saturn VUE, you know, a small SUV. It is about the size of a Jeep Cherokee. It's the nicest car I've ever had. It may not go as far as my Volvo did, but hey, it's only half as expensive, so when it wears out I can get a new one and still be within my Volvo budget. Only thing is, I drive such short distances now that I might not be able to wear it out. We are thinking about moving into a more expensive home as an investment: larger deductions for interest, more appreciation on property values. Since we live in a Republican world now (which means that my investments are now less safe than gold coins in the back yard. Seriously folks, four years have passed and I have contributed to retirement funds the whole time and we have less money than we did four years ago, no appreciation, all monies contributed are lost. Don't you love that? Someone has my money and won't give it back.) we have got to find some way of protecting our "wealth" so we can retire and live out our days. How much longer can I do what I am doing? I'll tell you. Not that much longer.

I have a giant high definition TV and a surround sound system. Who needs the movie theaters!? I bought most of this year's Christmas gifts at after Christmas sales last year. This has resulted in nicer gifts at considerably less cost, but you have to be able to finance it don't you? We have purchased expensive things along the way and they have lasted so we have accumulated nice things, furniture, art, and instruments. I have an overwhelming sense that I have too much stuff and need to simplify. Stuff must diminish so I can find what stuff remains. I'm thinking of having a garage sale where everything is a quarter. I mean the object is to get rid of the stuff right? Who cares if you make $20 or $200 if you clean out the basement!? If stuff remains, the basement IS NOT CLEANED OUT.

Our holiday concert was so good that it has inspired new ideas for next year. We are not only a high school program. We are indeed, entertainment. Hmm. We are evolving into something different from high school programs and we have a unique character.

I'm putting a Tivo sticker on the window of my VUE.

Seems like one should have something important to say to post on a public forum, but it may also be important just to post, even if it is unimportant.

Our holiday concert has gotten to be a real fest. Though no one was counting, it seems that about 1000 people came to be a part of either the 7 o'clock or the 8 o'clock hour. It was a good show. The groups performed nearly up to their potential. I'd have to say the high spots were "God Bless the Master of This House" by Treble Choir, "Silent Night" with Johanna and Varsity Glee Club, "In dulci jubilo" (Praetorius, double choir piece) by Chamber Choir, also Byran's conducting debut with "Carol of the Bells" with Chamber, and everyone's favorite, the Stroope "There Is No Rose" by Singers. They say you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. I'm glad that I have learned to make a silk purse out of silk, over the years. Altogether things went 2 hours and 15 minutes and I was really tired afterward.

Today is Christmas tree day. We must start dressing the house for the upcoming parties and festivities. It is Sissy's birthday too and we've added another house to her Dickens Village, which is actually growing into a town I'd say. There are currently three neighborhoods. Another semester is ended. Another half year gone past. Second semester is pressing me with details. Selections for 7 groups. Details of the choral workshop. National ACDA convention looming ahead of us. Then on to Spring Concert and "the candle flickers . . ." It is difficult to think about who the seniors are next year. I'm not ready to let them go.

And when they are all gone, six or seven more years of them, all gone. What will I do then? Sit down? Lay down my baton? But it is a magic wand. Gandalf still held his staff as he went to the grey havens. RS clenched his baton to the grave.