Old photos in old boxes

Christmas morning is different when you grow up. I spent the morning sifting through old photographs of my parents, my sisters and me, and various relatives – fresh young smiles, sun in squinty faces, soft hair and amazing fashion choices.

Family is the ultimate case study of the importance of a sense of place. What is just an old photograph to any other set of eyes is a small delight to mine: my grandma holding my 6-month-old dad, my mom on her honeymoon, my sister laughing.

So for you, a low-fi little rendition in honor of each of our histories. Happy holidays to you and yours.

MP3: Christina Blust - Auld Lang Syne

A manifesto

Well, here I am, stuck inside in an ice storm instead of heading home for Christmas. While this leaves me plenty of time to stay warm on my couch, a fact I am quite aware of is that I do not want to spend so much time warm on my couch. Thus, I have some theses, though not quite 95:

1. There is value in mindfulness of what is in one's proximity, whatever you want to call it - theology of place, local pride, active citizenship, etc.
   
2. I want to be more mindful in this regard.
3. I want to support the people around me who are choosing lives of active creation: musicians, artists, community members.
4. I want to catalog my efforts at this, both to remember them myself and to have some sort of accountability involved.
   

So I suppose this is my new years resolution, a week early.

In the spirit of locality,

MP3: The Samples - Indiana (Buy)