From Christmas Music on My Favourites List

Today being Tuesday, December 1st, listening to this Christmas favourite of mine also serves as my contribution to ‪#‎TriviaTuesday‬. :-) 

In 1978, Boney M. was one of less-than-a-handful of western musicians allowed to travel to, and perform in, the USSR. If you watch this music video, there is an occasional break from the white background to clips of the group from an exterior church balcony. It aroused my curiosity so I did a little research just now.

If the impressive structure looked familiar to you, it may have to do with it being around since the sixteenth century! As I understand it, it was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible and built between 1555 and 1561. It's St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square in Moscow and is now designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's very likely the most photographed of Russian churches.

Anyhow, this song was released on November 27, 1978 and I've enjoyed listening to it every Christmas since: Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord ~ Boney M.

Thoughts on Friendship

Lately I’ve been ruminating on the concept known by us humans as friendship. I suspect it something that evolved with us over time, its deepest roots no doubt a key to our ancestors' survival. But in our so-called modern age, is friendship still not a key to our survival and hence of vital importance to get straight in one’s head!

There are a confounding number of ways defining friends and friendships in daily life! You’ve likely heard of: “just friends”, “good friends”, “really good friends”, “best friends”, “best friends forever” or even “friends with benefits” to name but a few! Of course, these days we even have our “virtual friends” made through Social Media. But wait, when it comes right down to it, haven’t we all experienced virtual friendship; predating the advent of the internet.

There are many experiences of friendships coming and going throughout lives. Friendships more virtual or transient in nature; many of them could be categorized as above. Likely our first experiences with this were friendships developed as we moved through the system devised for us in our society. This as it took us from play school through elementary, then on to high school and beyond. Recall how many, thought of as friends, moved through your life along the way.

To them, add those casual friendships made in workplaces or while revolving in social circles. Did you ever find some to be contrived or manipulative, leaving one wondering whether you were actually a friend or victim? As such, should they ever have been defined as any more than acquaintances or associations, nay friends or friendships?

If the concept of a friend or friendship is so deeply rooted and intrinsic to our survival as I believe it to be, then perhaps what is most at fault in all this is how we have come to trivialize or demean it! In our pursuit of them and it, perhaps we’ve been too hasty to ascribe “friend and friendship” to these various relationships or associations along the way. It was Muhammad Ali who said, “If you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.”

In my struggle to learn of its meaning, I’ve come to believe that certain qualities of a real friend and aspects of a real friendship are both intangible and priceless. To my notion, friendships which eclipse all others are ones mutually supportive and unconditional in nature. Best friends know they don’t need each other’s approval of everything they do, but what they do need is their “unconditional support.” It’s what real friends mutually provide when no one else offers it and bedrock of the truest and best friendships of all.

That’s what makes true and best friends stand as one against all others and the test of time. It’s the pursuit of such friends and friendships which keeps us moving along the evolutionary scale. Perhaps those are the only ones worthy of being defined as our friends and friendships; anything less just does not make the cut. I wonder what Ali would think of my conclusion?

My 2015 Peace Country Resolutions

Be it resolved in 2015, I will always think of the water cistern as half-full rather than half-empty. With that, I am just getting started, which is unusual for me. I have never been one to attempt to make, never mind keep, New Year’s resolutions. Oh, except there was the year I resolved to drink more. I did accomplish that.

Next, in an effort to get greener, a New Year’s resolution to use the clothes line more in 2015 would be in order. And, no, it does not necessarily require that I straighten the twisted northernmost cross arm of said line; an anomaly that just adds character and charm! 

Be it further resolved that I run the home heating oil tank on full, not empty in 2015. Now this might just seem to be common sense, but believe me there are exceptions. One of those just might be when diesel fuel prices are on a downward spiral. Then don’t be caught zigging when you should be zagging and end up with a tank full of expensive fuel. Not that I am admitting to doing this; just saying!

When you commit to this resolution thing, I think you have to be all in or nothing! That brings me to another that I should have made years ago. Be it resolved that in 2015 I will rent the tree spade from our wonderful Clear Hills County administration that I might transplant many a mighty spruce from our fenceline to a new home within Grouses’ Grail.

With time marching on, I am increasingly of the mind that life should not be occupied by uncommon drudgery and I do resolve this New Year to be non-accepting of the mundane! To assist me in this, I will continue with a strategy that’s served me well. In part, that is to stay on the roads less traveled. But mostly it is my close association with many enriching characters in my life for whom I am eternally grateful.

There you go; I have my work cut out for me in the year ahead. Here is hoping for a happy, healthy 2015 for all of you!