iMedia: Wexford Carol

“Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.” ~Calvin Coolidge

“Christmas is the Disneyfication of Christianity." ~Don Cupitt


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT0hpX0tuHY&feature=related

The Wexford Carol is a traditional Irish Christmas song (although some say it's not originally Irish). But, nonetheless, it is my favorite holiday hymn because it reminds me of what Christmas is really about. I'm absolutely infatuated by medieval and renaissance music; it's so wise and aged, yet I don't see it as antiquated. I think that any modern person can love it, the same way every person in the world who celebrates Christmas today should always keep the historical and spiritual meaning behind the day in mind.

Nowadays, everyone is too wrapped up in the material aspects of Christmas that they forget what it's really about. Even if you aren't intensely religious, Christmas is about faith; it's about reflection and celebration; Christmas is about giving, and Christmas is about love. With all of the glitz, glamour, and commercial aspects that department stores and companies bring to Christmas it is truly hard for anyone to sort through it all and find the actual core of the holiday.

Now, I'm not saying that Santa Claus is wrong, or to stop decorating your tree and go to church, because I love getting presents, singing "Grandma got run over by a reindeer...", and shopping, with all of the lights and decorations, a week before Christmas too. But, this season, even if it's just for a second, make sure that you reflect, make sure you give for the sake of giving, and, most importantly, make sure that you listen.

Connection: King Lear and Poverty

I have to admit, Shakespeare is hard to read sometimes; the complexity and hidden meaning around every corner, the puns you don't get the first time, the characters that don't make sense, the language that just can't be English. But the way that people keep recreating his works in new ways, they way his old tales are being turned into modern stories, is illuminating, and it shows the utter timelessness of his creations. It's not even just stories, I honestly believe that, if you look hard enough, you can see views on real world problems hidden beneath the sonnets and sexual innuendos. So far, in Lear, I see current issue after current issue after current issue manifesting itself in Lear and Cornwall, the Fool and Cordelia, Gonerial and Edgar. Could Shakespeare really see the future? Or did he just have a time machine...?

One such issue is poverty. When Lear split up his kingdom and said that he will spend time living with each of his daughters, anger raged inside of me. First of all, I will just say that, "...a nation divided cannot stand," and let Abe be the voice of reason here. But, more infuriatingly, he's just being lazy; he doesn't want to be responsible for his land anymore, so he wraps it up in bubble wrap, shoves it in a box, throws some packing peanuts in, gets some old wrapping paper out of the closet, makes a cute little present out of it all, with a bow and everything, and ships the pieces off to his daughters' castles, where they each eagerly open their neatly wrapped presents on the dinner table, ignorantly unaware of the ticking bomb they've received.

Today, people acknowledge that people are starving all around the world but they either, put on a sad face when they see a Christian Children's Fund commercial and then do absolutely nothing, or send the problem, and their conscious, off to someone else with a little bit of money. This issue too, comes down to laziness. We don't want to put the work into end poverty and hunger because it's just too hard; we say it can't be done. Here's an idea: stop shoving money in peoples' faces and start showing them how to use it. Yes, you, and yes, it won't be a walk in the park. Money obviously doesn't solve anything because there's still a little girl in Ghana who's going to sleep cold and hungry tonight; the only way to get anywhere in life is hard work. The only reason we say it's impossible is to make ourselves feel better because we, so far, have failed.

Just like Lear, who goes through hell because of his decision, the world, as a whole, will never become an Eden, and everyone will never be truly at peace, until we can fix this problem. Lear's laziness may have cost his personal comfort, but poverty and hunger go much farther, to people on every corner of the globe, people of every age, every race, every religion, sex, and background. Lear's story is a omen, a foreshadowing of what's to come. But more, it's a plea: please don't be as stupid as Lear, get off you butt and face you life, and all that comes with it, be it the good or the bad, head on.

Dialectics: School and Hockey

"Growing up, if I hadn't had sports, I don't know where I'd be. God only knows what street corners I'd have been standing on and God only knows what I'd have been doing, but instead I played hockey and went to school and stayed out of trouble." ~Bobby Orr



Right now, hockey and school are the two most important things to me. I live to play hockey; I have to go to school. I say, "I do well in school so I can play hockey," and it's true.

There's so many people that I know that just focus on one or the other and, with a few exceptions, I don't think any of them are truly happy. The level I play at is filled with D1 prospects and girls who are hoping to play in the Olympics someday. All they ever think about and do is play hockey, but their grades suck, and it's not because they're not smart, it's because they think that their only ticket into college is hockey. They've been ignoring their schoolwork while they go off to tournaments in Boston, Toronto, Detroit, and St. Paul for so long that they don't even know how to be a good student anymore; they're stuck with what they've got. A bad game in front of a scout for them is like getting a sub-par score on the ACT for anyone else; their future is depending on it and that's just not gonna cut it. Ultimately, they've made a choice between hockey and school, and it's too late by 11th grade for them to turn that around.

On the other hand, there's so many people that I know from school who's only focus is what grade they got on their reading quiz. School is their sport, and they have practice 24/7. Every little grade counts and there's always room for improvement. The downside of this attitude is, of course, that nothing is ever good enough. Their lives are consumed with grades, books, tests, and nothing else. I don't even know what they do on the weekends or for fun... extra credit maybe??

Personally, I consider myself lucky because, even though they encourage me to be the best athlete I can be, my parents have never settled for anything but excellent grades. The fact that I'm not going to be playing hockey if I get bad grades is overtly evident in my life. My mom always says that I'm going to get far with my "brains not my brawn," which I concede is probably true, but that doesn't change the fact that I love hockey a thousand times more than I like school.

I know that not everyone will believe me on this one but there was a time around seventh and eighth grade when I didn't want to work in school, and all I thought about was going to the rink; all I did was practice my slapshot; all I did was stickhandle. Luckily for me, it was middle school and I could have gotten As with a blindfold on, earphones in, and my arms tied behind my back. But my parents noticed my lack of effort, and they made me realize that hockey can't be the priority because I'm not going to get into college and get a job because of it; school has to be the focus.

I'm mature enough now to agree with them, and I think that I've found the perfect balance between the two. Yes, it does suck to have to write your English paper on a plane on the way to Connecticut. Yes, being tired on Mondays from a long weekend on the road, or during the week from late night practices, and having to concentrate in French class, when all you want to do is sleep, does suck. No, sleeping on hotel mattresses every other weekend isn't always fun. But I love hockey and I do it all so I can play. The best feeling in the world is walking onto that plane or driving away in that car with some hardware, eagerly awaiting next weekend's tournament because you know that you're going to get some more (although that usually lasts for a few minutes before you realize you have to study for your history exam... and do your chem report.) Honestly, I think that I have to work harder than most other Academy students, or honors students, or elite level hockey players because I excel in both academics and hockey; I'm motivated to work harder in school because I want so desperately to play. And, in the end, it's worth all of that time, all of those miles, all of those late nights and early mornings, essay revisions, flashcards, and bruises to hold that championship trophy in one hand and that report card gleaming with a 4.8 in the other.