World Beginnings

Someone said “you are not dead until no one says your name”.   Families and businesses, here in my part of Mexico, keep their dearly departed ones alive through expressive altars on November 1, for children,  and November 2 for all others. Candles help them find their way to the beautiful memorials where they will find pictures, favorite foods, drink and music welcoming them home for a visit,  if only for a night. Family members come from far and wide to clean the graves and construct altars at the cemetery, home and public spaces. Stories flow, bringing the dearly departed back to life once more. Legend is that they are led back to their eternal rest by a Mexican Hairless dog. Now that came from Trivia last week! These pictures are from altars set up on the Ajijic Plaza this year, but they are everywhere! Through these special memorials the dead do live on!

A Dancing Catrina is the fun loving, flirtatious skeleton representing triumph over the sadness of death. Just as the legend goes, she waits for us around corners and we never know when she will whisk us away to forever. Many expats have elaborate Catrina figures in their homes and she is immortalized in painting; murals; dolls of every type;    dinnerware; candy skulls and even trivets.   The pagan roots of Catrina figures and Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead, go back to the ancient   Aztecs and the goddess Mictecacihuatl who was the guardian of the dead. This morphed, as many pagan rituals throughout  the ages, into the Catholic All Souls Day. The Catrina as we know her today, began life in Aquascalientes, MX and a political cartoonist,   Jose Guadalupe Posada. She was a satirical figure mocking Mexicans who were following foreign fashion styles. Her depiction soon evolved into representing people from all walks of life, symbo...

It was late in the Sri Lankan day, hot and muggy, as Jill and I drove up to to the ramshackle gate that was wrapped around with a big chain and bigger lock. We were on a mission, so without words, we left the car with our bags and scaled the fence. As soon as our feet hit the hard packed dirt, dogs came rushing at us from every corner of the property. As we opened the door to the house, the dogs followed at our heels and incredibly there were more dogs in the house. Some cowering behind doors, others stranded on tables covered with feces and urine because they were too afraid   to get down for fear of the bigger dogs. In the midst of this chaos, cats watched from   on high. We quickly unloaded the food we brought and bowls were filled. Then the clean up started. Jill and I met through her daughter, Geraldine, affectionately   known as Gel, who was my student. We quickly bonded through our love of animals and lost people. The poor soul who brought us to t...

Grocery shopping in China was always challenging   made more so  by the fact that so few of the Chinese spoke English. Body lotion and face creams were particularly hard to find because all had whiteners, as some unsuspecting women discovered after using them for a few weeks when splotches appeared on their face and bodies! One day I was at the big Suego across from school, as opposed to the little Suego closer to my house, I was in the women's personal care aisle desperately looking for a body wash I recognized, when I saw a large display of Cunt Soap. I did a double take and looked around for a hidden camera or laughing people but no one was looking. Quickly I bought ten, it was right before Christmas and they would make perfect stocking stuffers! The next day, I took my “find” to school to share at break and lunch with fellow staff members. The next time I was in Suego, the shelf was almost empty. Nanjing, China 2012

It seems like just yesterday, such a trite little phrase,   you came into my world wrapped in blanket blue cradled in my arms.   I wanted you to stay there forever. Loved and desired beyond any feeble words   on paper scratched.   I want it to stay this way forever. Many bright roads have wandered we, far beyond the the bounds defining mother and son. I want it to remain so forever. Little did we know these shining moments were to light despairing depths May these be gone forever. No longer am I called to ferry you to Boy Scouts, planes and piano lessons. Push you to clean your room or mow the lawn. But I want to do it all over again. Now, it is me who relies on you to keep track of room keys, trolley passes receipts money   and chatter aimlessly, reassuringly. No where under the firmament   is a mother so fort...

Americans spent over three trillion dollars on Christmas in 2013 (https://www.statista.com/topics/991/us-christmas-season/). Parents expected to spend an average of $271 per child, with one in ten planning to spend over $500 per child. Ironically, after all that spending, children often end up playing with the boxes instead of the gifts. These figures don’t even include the cost of elaborate trees and outdoor decorations. I live in a Mexican village where many residents make a living by servicing the expats who reside here, or by farming and fishing. Most families survive on less than $500 per month, with the average family size being four. However, the families I know personally often have six members. Extended family units are common, as pooling resources is often the only way to get by. Last year, I taught conversational English to a group of teens aged sixteen to twenty. As Christmas approached, we discussed their traditions, which revolved around family. Their faces lit up as...

Years ago, my first volunteer job was at a telephone crisis center in Jackson, Mississippi. During Christmas, the director hosted a party for the volunteers and quietly mingled, asking each of us if we believed in Santa Claus. Later that evening, he addressed the group and reflected on his question. He explained that those who believed in Santa were the ones who still had hope. I often think back on his words. Around the same time, I worked for the Mississippi branch of the American Medical Association (AMA). One year, a group of us decided to adopt a family from the Salvation Army Christmas Tree, and we brought gifts to a young single mother and her toddler. The next year, the office wanted to do something bigger. I volunteered to visit the family the Salvation Army matched us with. After meeting a couple of families who didn’t move us, we requested another. We never called ahead—most people didn’t have phones anyway—because we wanted to see the “real family.” What happened next ch...