Getting Silent Night Wrong

You know the song Silent Night?

I’ve sung it a lot. Pretty much since before I can remember, mostly at church, every December. You’d think I’d have it down. But not long ago I realized I had been reading the lyrics wrong. I mean completely wrong. For YEARS!

It’s mostly the first verse I got wrong. The first verse, you guys! The one everyone on the planet (well, not literally) knows by heart! And here I am, a bona fide word nerd, misunderstanding the whole thing.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve thought of the first verse as a series of vignettes—small snippets of imagery that set the nativity scene. I blame the odd line breaks, which really may be the result of the German-to-English translation. But still.

Here’s how I used to view the song – each line a whole by itself, each bit a small piece of the scene.

Silent night! Holy night! (so far so good. It’s silent, it’s holy.)
All is calm, all is bright (right, right. Calm and bright. Got it. Setting the scene.)
Round yon virgin mother and Child. (Yep, there she is. Round [pregnant] Mary, a mother and still a child. Check.)
Holy Infant, so tender and mild, (And here’s the baby. Holy Infant. Nice.)
Sleep in heavenly peace; (And he’s sleeping. Peaceful. Calm. Silent. Night.)
Sleep in heavenly peace. (Ditto.)

You see… For FOREVER I had thought that the “round yon virgin” line was a reference to a pregnant Mary. “Mother and child” was also her. Just her. At some point in my youth, that must be the sense I made of the song, and that sense stuck—until fairly recently. And it’s not without some chagrin that I admit just how long it took me to notice that there’s no punctuation at the end of that second line.  Round isn’t a description of Mary, it’s an adverb describing where the calm bright silent night was happening: aRound. Around Mary and the Child. Both of them. (Note the capital letter, too. A dead giveaway this is the Divine we’re talking about... and I missed it.)

As much as I’ve always loved the song, I’ll admit the verse is much more lovely now that I’m seeing how it how it really goes:

Silent night! Holy night! (Silent and Holy. Shhhh.)
All is calm, all is bright (this thought isn’t done yet…)
Round yon virgin mother and Child. (All is calm and bright around the mother and holy baby over there.)
Holy Infant, so tender and mild, (this thought isn’t done yet, either.)
Sleep in heavenly peace; (not quite done yet…)
Sleep in heavenly peace. (Aw, sweet tender baby, we want you to sleep peacefully on this silent heavenly night.)

Isn’t that nice? Yeah, I think so, too.

And don’t even get me started on the image I had in my head of the “Radiant beams from thy holy face” line in the third verse...!

Instead, enjoy the amazing Sissel or Josh Groban singing Silent Night. Just lovely, both of them.

Merry Christmas, Friends!

Toaster Oven Misogyny

I bought a toaster oven yesterday. And it's not ok.

Well, the toaster oven is fine. I think. I haven't used it yet. It's the packaging. When I got it home, I noticed this image on the side of the box. Once I started really looking at it, I said, out loud, to no one in particular, There is nothing about this image that is ok.

Happy Family Togetherness? Look Again.

At first glance, you might think, What's the issue? It's happy family having a happy breakfast. What's better than that? But look again.

The first thing I noticed is that the male family members are in the foreground, sitting at the table, enjoying breakfast, while the female family members are way in the back, in the kitchen area, and even blurred out beyond recognition. Heck, I didn't even see the little girl the first few times I looked at the image, she's that unimportant to the scene.

And even the little boy is a little blurred. So really, the man is the only person in focus in the image. Plus, his is the only visible smile. Any sense this has of a "happy family" image comes from the man. It's not really the "family togetherness" image it looks like on the surface. Deep down, it looks to me like a "women stay in the kitchen while the man happily partakes of their work and passes the arrangement on to their reluctant male offspring" image! I mean, the poor boy looks pretty bored. I bet he'd rather be playing with his sister!

Maybe the marketers are thinking this says: Your family will enjoy time together based around food you make in this toaster oven. And at a glance, that may be the takeaway. With an only slightly deeper look, though, it says this: Your man will be happy with the food you make for him with this toaster oven. He'll even pay attention to the (male) children, while you and your daughter(s) stay behind the scenes, obscured, looking on, integral to the family's survival but with no real part or identity within it. 

And that's a message I'm not ok with, Black & Decker. Not ok with at all.

A Tale of Two Weekends

I don't usually use this blog as a travelogue, but today is an exception. I took two trips south on back-to-back weekends this month. Call me crazy, I know. They were each different, and each a blast. Here are some highlights.

Miles Driven: 1504
Hotel Rooms: 3
Shows: 6
Overpriced Theater Water: 3
Manhandled Chickens: 1
Grapes: Too many to count
Time With Dear Friends: Hours and hours and hours!

Weekend one was a trip to Las Vegas for a baby blessing (now that her adoption is final) and to see long-time and dear friends. There were some pictures I took at the hotel pool, but I was persuaded to delete them...!

Baby Blessing, August 2, 2015

The plan was always to drive back to Utah on Monday after lunch. Someone (ahem, named David) decided we really should stop at Tuacahn and see Sister Act on the way home. At 8:45 p.m. Which meant we left St. George at midnight and arrived home around 4:30 a.m. And we all had to work Tuesday morning. But we did it, and we made it, and it was fun. The company was great, and the show was fantastic. I mean Fan.Tastic! #TotallyWorthIt

Fuzzy Tuacahn Selfie

After three hours of sleep on Monday night, I really wasn't fully awake until about Thursday afternoon—just in time to do it all again! Another friend and I headed to Cedar City for the Shakespearean Festival on Friday. We saw Charly's Aunt (full of over-the-top silliness), South Pacific (a classic musical love story), and The Taming of the Shrew (an excellent good comedy). We even opted for an 11:30 p.m. fundraiser where some of the cast members regaled us with song. Saturday night we went BACK to Tuacahn for Disney's When You Wish, which showcased Disney songs and had some amazing effects. This time we stayed in St. George and drove home the next morning!

I finally got to have a nice chat with Will.

And through it all, coming and going, and coming, and going, was the beautiful landscape of central Utah. Honestly, I'm struck by it nearly every time I pass though.

The clouds make it even better!

Yep. A pretty great couple of weekends, which I just had to share. :)

Matlock? Yes, Matlock.

If for a while the harder you try, the harder it gets, take heart.
So it has been with the best people who ever lived.
—Jeffery R. Holland

Recently I was thinking about all the difficult things people I know and love are facing. Employment woes, medical issues, big life decisions, small life decisions, financial concerns, teenagers and two-year-olds, and a whole lot more. It frankly got to be a little overwhelming in the moment—and I hadn’t even started thinking about my own concerns yet!

In the midst of this litany of problems, an image crossed my mind: a sliver-haired, grey-suited, kind-but-no-nonsense southern lawyer named Ben Matlock. And with that image, a phrase: Ain’t nothin’ easy. Remember him saying that? In that slow, matter-of-fact way? Funny thing is, for some reason—maybe because Matlock has always reminded me a lot of my dad in all the best ways—that image and phrase in my head helped me feel better about it all.

Well said, Ben. Well said.

He’s right, you know. Ain’t nothin’ easy. That’s often just the way it is. No use fretting about it. What matters, then, is working to move forward, even when it’s hard. Plus, it is comforting to realize it’s really much the same for everyone—even brilliant-but-quirky southern lawyers.