Christmas Kills

There are things that I love and hate about the Christmas season, and not just because I’m Jewish.

Christmas songs grate on my nerves. Not strictly because they are Christmas songs, but because they are bad. It is almost impossible to escape them this time of year. They seem to follow me wherever I go: grocery store, doctor offices, workplace, radio and television.

Worst of all is the ever worsening commercialism with its constant bombardment of advertisements. The mad dash to Black Friday sales, people skipping Thanksgiving to save a few bucks on their excessive purchases, and the complete abandonment of human values which allows people to trample other human beings on their way to those savings, boggles my mind. When I think about these things, and that this is what Christmas is, I feel that humanity is sliding down a slippery slope into an abyss; we should abandon the whole damn thing.

I’m not totally a hater, so don’t get your panties in a bunch. Like I said, there are some things that I love about the Christmas season.

I’m a big fan of the twinkly lights. Though I do have a certain preference for the houses with clean, straight lines of lights, lending a gingerbread house flair or alpine village postcard look, over the kitchig plastic Santas and snowmen. They lend much needed brightness and cheer to one of the darkest times of year.

I also appreciate that the season seems to give people a n extra reason to be a little bit cheerier and friendlier with each other. People seem to spend more time with family and friends. It is “The Giving Season,” people give more to charities and do good works in the spirit.

For those reasons, the ones that bring us closer to our humanity rather than depart from it, we should not abandon the whole damn thing. We should take a stand against the greed, commercialism and capitalism that is trying to steal the thunder of the simpler and more beautiful parts of the season.

With that in mind, and in the spirit of compromise, below is a list of sources where you can do your holiday shopping and simultaneously do some good. The list has been borrowed from Repair the World.

• ebay’s World of Good lets you shop from the global marketplace and helps your purchases make a positive impact.
• GoodShop lets you search and shop for just about anything, while donating to your favorite cause or charity.
• Gap’s Red campaign donates 50% of sales of specially-designated Red products to The Global Fund to finance health and HIV community support programs in Africa.
• Helpingly donates 2% of your online shopping to the charity of your choice, at no additional cost to you.
• iGive is a tiny addition to your browser that automatically tells over 900 participating stores that you want your shopping to support your favorite cause or charity.
• OneCause is an online retail outlet that puts a portion of your purchasing dollars towards the charity or school of your choice.
• Ten Thousand Villages makes and sells beautiful, fair-trade crafted products and gifts that directly support the artisan or artists’ collective that made them.
• TOMS famously donates a pair of shoes (and now eyeglasses) to people in need for every pair you buy. Meanwhile, the shoe company BucketFeet donates a portion of your shoe purchase to kids charities.
• NeedsforSale was started as a way to inspire others to help charities with the incentive of art. Each painting represents a need that we would like to fill. 100% of each sale will be donated to charity.
• We-Care.com helps you “shop with a purpose” by giving back part of the money you spend shopping or booking travel to a cause, school or association of your choice.

 

The Silent Epidemic

The Seattle Times reports on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly referred to by its acronym MRSA. A frightening antibiotic resistant infection that is common to epidemic proportions. I personally know three people who have been treated, two of them hospitalized, with MRSA.

I highly recomend that you read the article, or the entire MRSA Special Report. Be informed.

Six word story:

Hidden epidemic kills more than AIDS.

Tea Travels

A tall and slender 51-year-old woman knows what she is looking for. Her daughter is turning 21; she wants to get her something lasting and meaningful for her birthday.

On a Saturday morning in mid-October 2004, with her husband in tow, she stands in the tea shop Teavana in Bellevue, Washington. Two blue handle-less mugs, vividly etched with brightly colored dragons in hand. “These caught my eye, but I feel like they are missing something,” she comments to her husband, and asks an employee for help.

Then she sees it; striking blue and black in color, elegant oval in shape. Made of cast iron, it feels weighty and significant in her hands. Enamel coating inside to prevent oxidation. Raised etchings of cherry blossoms adorn the outside and give it texture.

Representing strength and femininity is China, and the cycle of life with its beautiful and transient nature in Japan, the cherry blossom turns out to be a significant symbol in her daughter’s life; a fitting emblem to adorn a gift for such an auspicious birthday.

October 27, 2004, wrapped in tissue and nestled carefully into a box, the teapot finally lands in the hands of its new and most adoring owner. The teapot, having already traveled from Japan to the United States after its forging, thought that would be its grandest adventure. While being unwrapped that October day in suburban and unassuming Kent, Washington, it never could have anticipated what lay in store.

It seemed only appropriate that such a beautiful, admired and useful gift receive a worthy place of residence. Surrounded by other tea and coffee paraphernalia, the kitchen counter became its home. From here it could observe the comings and goings of its new mistress and act as a reminder of such simple things as tea, and more complex ones, like love.

 Two years later, again carefully wrapped and nestled, the teapot reaped the rewards of enduring the dark and loneliness of a suitcase and was unwrapped; this time in a small town on the outskirts of Vienna, Austria.

Elated by the idea of new surroundings, new people, and interactions to observe; it experiences very few of those things. Relegated to a cupboard when not currently steeping tea in its smoothly enameled interior, or drying on the dish rack, its existence does not seem to hold the significance that it used to. This new lackluster life starts to show in stains around its spout and a dusting of green from the genmaicha tea it so often holds. Despite its Japanese origins, it finds little pleasure in many green tea varieties, which its mistress doesn’t even make for herself.

 May 2010, after three and a half years of watching through the frosted glass of its cupboard as its mistress struggled through crises of her own, the teapot is again wrapped and nestled into a suitcase.

This time when unpacked and placed not in the kitchen, or in a cupboard, but on a bedroom bookshelf, it is with a sense of relief. Rewarded with a respite from green tea, it could renewed observe its mistress in her comings and goings, languishing in being once again seen as an object of beauty and not just use; its color admired and the meaning of its blossoms pondered.   

October 27, 2011, seven years later, the teapot and its mistress seem to have come full circle. It finds itself once again in its beloved place of honor in the kitchen of its Seattle apartment.  Its pleasure in serving as an ever present reminder of simple things, and more complex ones, shows in its slightly worn but glossy finish. No longer dusted with gemaicha remnants, it is surrounded by more beloved teas waiting to be steeped and sipped: Hot Cinnamon Spice, Lavender Early Grey, Peppermint, Cucumber White, Rooibos and more.

Not one of them green.

 

Egyptian Elections

As news from the Egyptian parliamentary elections come in, many wonder what the Islamic Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party hopes to accomplish, and what that means. Egalitarian democracy or hardline Sharia law?

Six word story:

Caution to some, Brotherhood gains foothold.

Advice for Tourists

A bit of advice that I would like to impart to anyone willing to listen is this: don’t be afraid to be a tourist.

This doesn’t require traveling the globe; or even across the country. Be a tourist in your own city.

You can go the obvious route and take a tour. You can visit all the places that visitors to your city should go: outdoor markets, museums, parks, and historical sites.

If that seems a bit too blatant to you, there are more subtle ways to be a tourist in your own corner of the world. One of my favorite ways to explore is to take a walk. Pack a bag with some water, a snack and maybe even a camara. Step outside your front door and go. Head off in any direction. Preferably one you haven’t been yet. I guarantee that you will see something that you haven’t seen, and learn something that you didn’t know.

Why bother? Because everywhere is beautiful and unique, and an adventure is waiting around the corner. Literally.

Thanksgiving

“Do you celebrate Thanksgiving?” Asks my coworker of one of the patients at the office where I work. He happens to be Vietnamese. She asks me the same thing; I happen to be Jewish.

This is where I get to explain what some people fail to notice about the Thanksgiving holiday and happens to be one of the most beautiful things about it. It is an American holiday with largely no religious affiliation (though some may make arguments about ancient harvest festivals and pagan roots). This means that anyone can celebrate it. This holiday has a distinctly American stamp on it. It may be the one time a year where many Expats (including myself a few years back) pull out all the stops and do something distinctly American.

This is no small feat in many parts of the world, let me tell you. In my experience living on the outskirts of Vienna, Austria, it was hard enough (though likely easier than in other places).

It all starts with the turkey. I was fortunate to have invited guests to my Thanksgiving feast about a month in advance, because that is how long it took to get a turkey. To my dismay I couldn’t get a turkey in the local grocery store. I had to order one from my local butcher. At that point, I not only had to calculate how many kilos of turkey we expected to eat, but I had to explain to the butcher in a comical and embarrassing combination of German, English, and hand gestures what was required for this seemingly random Thursday.

Many other of the holiday staples are easy to find once Id figure out what they are called in German: potatoes for mashing (Kartoffel), bread crumbs for dressing (Semmelbrösel), flour to make your pie crust (Mehl), pumpkin to put in it (Kürbis) and various vegetables. Others are not so easy to find: celery stalks (Stangensellerie) and cranberries. Cranberries are a North American crop and are therefore an import item. Good luck finding them; let alone at a price that does not make you doubt your decision to buy them in the first place. I eventually found them at Nashmarkt in Vienna and years later at the grocery chain Billa.

Those of us who hunt down seemingly random foodstuffs year after year know that we don’t just do it for a reason to stuff ourselves with some of our comfort food favorites. Or that our friends overseas get just as excited about it as we do. We do it, or at least I did it, for a chance once a year to bring my old culture into my new one. For a moment in time to revel in being an American, and (this is the beautiful part) to sit around a table, wherever in the world I happen to be, with my loved ones and let them know that my world is better for having them in it.

Is this how we treat our elders?

NPR-FM did an investigative report on questionable deaths in Florida assisted care facilities. I was greatly disturbed by this story and others that I have heard about regarding the abuse and neglect of the elderly in assisted care facilities. The failing of the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) in taking action to punish and prevent the unnecessary events is appalling.

Six Word Story:

Aging neglected. Elderly left to die.