Final Words of 2006

For our family 2006 was a year of enormous change. Courtney and me moving to Oregon, Maya and Eder having a baby, Aaron living apart from his mom. If the picture below is any indication, we're in for more change in 2007. Yes, Benny is on a roll and we are going to get our exercise in the coming year just trying to keep up with him.



Each time that Aaron returns to us, we see changes in him. We can either keep up or be left behind. This time he's listening to the Beatles (don't you love it!), wanting to help with the cooking and baking, reading voraciously, and of course way ahead of us in the world of modern technology. He and I are hooked on the Gilmore Girls, thanks to Maya, and we've watched the 4th season on DVD's on my laptop over the holidays. I feel quite blessed that both my kids have a very compatible sense of humor to mine.




But not all our holiday time was spent at the laptop. There was plenty of time spent at Maya and Eder's house, opening gifts around their huge, beautiful Christmas tree and sharing family meals. Eder's mom, dad, sister and her baby came from Monterey for Christmas. Eder's nephew is only two months older than Ben and of course all the attention was on the two little new people.



One of Aaron's favorite Christmas gifts was the poker set from his Granny. That got put to use right away. I'm sure it falls under the catagory of good influences. Anyway, it kept the family busy and off the streets.




When Eder wasn't winning at the poker table, he was out gleaning wood with Courtney for our wood stoves. They took Eder's truck, Courtney's chainsaw and an assortment of hand tools and off they went in their lumberjack costumes to provide for the family. With all the downed trees from the last big storm, there was lots to pick from. Each season seems to have its gifts.

I have so much in my heart to say about 2006. For me it was a milestone year--the year of my liberation from many things that were hard on me. Being in the Pacific Northwest feels right to me; living in this house, with Courtney, is an enormous blessing. I cannot say enough about how fortunate I feel. And yet there is this ever-looming hideous backdrop of suffering and cruelty and injustice. In the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu: "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." Which reminds me of another timely quote, this one by Albert Camus: "In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners."




Tonight we head downtown to the Courthouse for a rally and then march marking the 3000th U.S. soldier killed in the war and occupation in Iraq. (To check the latest count of U.S. soldiers killed or maimed you can go to www.icasualties.org) As one Iraqi journalist noted, these days 3000 is about how many Iraqis die monthly. According to the British medical journal Lancet, more than 655,000 Iraqis have died since the invasion in March 2003. The introduction of the book I'm reading now, In the Belly of the Green Bird, by Nir Rosen, includes this passage:

"According to almost every Iraqi, the Americans came as liberators and now they are occupiers. In Arabic, liberation and occupation have great moral and emotional significance. Occupation means the Crusaders who slaughtered Muslims, Jews and Orthodox Christians, it means the Mongols who sacked Baghdad in the 13th century, it means the British imperialists who divided the spoils of the Ottoman Empire with the French, and it means the Israelis in southern Lebanon and Palestine. It is hard for Americans to understand just how deeply they are hated by ordinary Iraqis."

I'll end with one more quote, and with wishes for all beings to be happy and well, harmonious and peaceful.

"Do not wage war. Love everything that has life." --from the school bag of a Palestinian father killed at a checkpoint by Israeli soldiers.