A New Christmas Carol-An Age Old Dream

“Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men.”   The phrase captures not just  the message angels sang, but mankind’s eternal hope.   Every religious tradition makes peace a central theme.

The Sabaton “Carol”

There is Swedish heavy metal band SabatonFrom their website: “They are best known for their electrifying live concerts combining accomplished musical performances and a finely crafted stage show-including their full-sized tank drum-riser-with energy and laugher.  The band has headlined as far afield as North, America, Australia and Japan, and regularly fills arenas and takes top-billed also at festivals across Europe.”   

I had not heard of the group. 

One year ago they released a musical video, Christmas Truce, from their albumA War to End All WarsTheir music in  a 6-minute video is set in a very realistic reenactment  of the trench warfare that characterized the front in France.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPdHkHslFIU)

The song honors December 24, 1914, when an unofficial Christmas truce was created on the Western Front. An act of trust and harmony, British and German soldiers mingled and played games together in the midst of one of the most atrocious events of the 20th century – World War I.

The background why the musical video was made and historical context are in this 25 minute video of a unique Christmas-inspired moment of peace in 1914.

This event was also portrayed in a movie, Joyeux Noël (”Merry Christmas”).   The 2005 film showed the drama of this day, depicted through the eyes of French, British, and German soldiers.

Sabaton’s musical video was released just  months before Russia invaded Ukraine February 2022.  Was it meant to be a harbinger, a foreboding, or just coincidence?  Lest we forget?

The Words

“Christmas Truce”

 Silence
Oh, I remember the silence
On a cold winter day
After many months on the battlefield
And we were used to the violence
Then all the cannons went silent
And the snow fell
Voices sang to me from no man’s land

We are all, we are all, we are all, we are all friends

And today we’re all brothers, tonight we’re all friends
A moment of peace in a war that never ends
Today we’re all brothers, we drink and unite
Now Christmas has arrived and the snow turns the ground white
Hear carols from the trenches, we sing O Holy Night
Our guns laid to rest among snowflakes
A Christmas in the trenches, a Christmas on the front far from home

Madness (Madness)
Oh I remember the sadness (Sadness)
We were hiding our tears (Hiding our tears)
In a foreign land where we faced our fears (Faced our fears)
We were soldiers (Soldiers)
Carried the war on our shoulders (Shoulders)
For our nations (Nations)
Is that why we bury our friends? (Bury our friends)

We were all, we were all, we were all, we were all friends
(We’re friends)

And today we’re all brothers, tonight we’re all friends
A moment of peace in a war that never ends
Today we’re all brothers, we drink and unite
Now Christmas has arrived and the snow turns the ground white
Hear carols from the trenches, we sing O Holy Night
Our guns laid to rest among snowflakes
A Christmas in the trenches, a Christmas on the front far from home

We were all, we were all, we were all, we were all friends
(We’re friends)

And today we’re all brothers, tonight we’re all friends
A moment of peace in a war that never ends
Today we’re all brothers, we drink and unite
Now Christmas has arrived and the snow turns the ground white
A Christmas on the frontline, we walk among our friends
We don’t think about tomorrow, the battle will commence
When we celebrated Christmas we thought about our friends
Those who never made it home when the battle had commenced

A New Battlefield This Christmas

The center of Kiev in 1943

Today’s war in Kiev

Blankets and warm clothing given to Kiev residents

A soldier and a sleigh

The beauty of the season

Debt Forgiveness: A Christmas Jubilee Opportunity

There are two kinds of indebtedness that are at best semi-voluntary:  medical bills and educational loans.  To receive the service or benefit, often results in debt.

Debt forgiveness is vital anytime, but at Christmas, especially welcome.

As significant issuers of consumer loans, credit unions know the benefits and the burden of debt.

The example of Canvas Credit Union’s forgiving a member’s debt recorded the highest number of views of any post written this year.

Biden’s proposal to eliminate $10,000 or $20,000 student debt is a political and legal hot button.  It is an ongoing, front page debate between the parties.

What is much less visible is medical bill cancellation. Following are two examples of organizations which have facilitated medical debt relief.  They show how a small donation can be leveraged into a very high impact on consumers and communities.

Churches Initiate Relief

The first article is an edited version of church congregations leading this effort from a  December 15 story from Presbyterian Outlook.

“Nearly 15,000 people facing crippling medical debt will receive an early Christmas present this year thanks to congregations in the Synod of Mid-America and in neighboring states.

“Congregations in Kansas, Missouri and southwestern Illinois raised almost $58,000 as part of Project Jubilee during a coordinated effort to buy $13.3 million in medical debt held by low-income people in five states. Churches and mid councils partnered with RIP Medical Debt, a national nonprofit that to date has eliminated nearly $7.4 billion in medical debt held by low-income individuals.

“RIP Medical Debt used the money raised through Project Jubilee to purchase past due, unpayable medical debt on the open debt collection market at a substantial discount. The Project Jubilee campaign also opted to extend its reach to acquire medical debt portfolios in Kentucky and Tennessee, in addition to the participating congregations’ three home states.

“The 14,815 people benefitting from Project Jubilee are receiving letters this month informing them their medical debt has been forgiven in full. Medical debt abolishment is source-based and therefore cannot be requested. RIP purchases and abolishes medical debt for people who are four times or below the federal poverty level or have a medical debt that is 5% or more of their gross annual income.”

Local Governments Step Up

The non-profit journalism site Next City, describes examples of local governments meeting this need and the critical role of the 501C3 nonprofit RIP Medical.

“Toledo City Council just approved a plan to turn $1.6 million in public dollars into as much as $240 million in economic stimulus, targeted at some of the Ohio metro’s most vulnerable residents.

“It’s really going to help people put food on the table, help them pay their rent, help them pay their utilities,” says Toledo City Council Member Michele Grim, who led the way for the measure. “Hopefully we can prevent some evictions.”

“The strategy couldn’t be simpler: It works by canceling millions in medical debt.

“Working with the New York City-based nonprofit RIP Medical Debt, the City of Toledo and the surrounding Lucas County are chipping in $800,000 each out of their federal COVID-19 recovery funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. The combined $1.6 million in funding is enough for RIP Medical Debt to acquire and cancel up to $240 million in medical debt owed by Lucas County households that earn up to 400% of the federal poverty line.

“It could be more than a one-to-100 return on investment of government dollars,” Grim says. “I really can’t think of a more simple program for economic recovery or a better way of using American Rescue Plan dollars, because it’s supposed to rescue Americans.”

“Under the RIP Medical Debt model, there is no application process to cancel medical debt. The nonprofit negotiates directly with local hospitals or hospital systems one-by-one, purchasing portfolios of debt owed by eligible households and canceling the entire portfolio en masse.

“One day someone will get a letter saying your debt’s been canceled,” Grim says. It’s a simple strategy for economic welfare and recovery.

RIP Medical Debt was founded in 2014 by a pair of former debt collection agents. Since inception it has acquired and canceled more than $7.4 billion in medical debt owed by 4.2 million households — an average of $1,737 per household.

The Medical Debt Burden

“An estimated one in five households across the U.S. have some amount of medical debt, and they are disproportionately Black and Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The average amount owed is $2,000. And the problem isn’t limited to the uninsured. Many households with health insurance still end up with unpaid medical bills because the only health insurance plans affordable to them are high-deductible plans.

“Acquiring medical debt is relatively cheap: hospitals that sell medical debt portfolios do so for just pennies on the dollar, usually to investors on the secondary market. The purchase price is so low because hospitals and debt buyers alike know that medical debt is the hardest form to collect. Nearly 60% of all debt held by collection agencies is medical debt owed by some 43 million households, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“Two years ago, RIP Medical Debt started going directly to hospital systems and offering to buy the debt that they were holding on their balance sheets.

“I couldn’t tell you where it comes from, but generally the number that’s out there is that only somewhere between 20% and 30% of hospitals overall sell their debt,” RIP’s CEO says. “That’s a lot of hospitals that don’t sell their debt on the secondary market, but those same hospitals will sell their debt to us because we’re doing it for a different purpose. So we’ve been able to open up part of the market to buy debt from hospitals that don’t otherwise sell their debt.”

“Today nearly 50% of the debt the nonprofit has canceled was acquired directly from hospitals, and that segment of its portfolio is growing much faster than medical debt purchased from the secondary market.

The process is straightforward. After explaining RIP Medical Debt and its mission, they answer any questions including about reimbursement or regulatory issues, Sesso says. “And then we take it from there. We sign a non-disclosure agreement, we get a file from them, we analyze it, we come back to them and tell them what the analysis has shown, how much of it qualifies, what we would pay, and then we sign another agreement that transfers the debt to us, we send them a wire, and we start sending out letters.”

“Just like that, hundreds of lives are changed.

“Under IRS regulations, debts canceled under RIP Medical Debt’s model do not count as taxable income for households.”  End

Cancelling Debt: A Jubilee Initiative and Coop Benefit

As credit unions consider yearend bonus dividends, employee gain-share payouts and community donations, RIP is one of the most effective and consequential debt relief programs I have seen.

The nonprofit would be the perfect partner for all consumers carrying medical debt in a credit union’s market area.  It is the ideal compliment to the lending side of the business.

Or imitate Canvas Credit Union.   A cooperative could review its own portfolio of loans for medical expenses, look at each members’ circumstances and initiate its own debt forgiveness program.

Lo’ How a Rose

Joy and the rose–Advent themes.   With the rose the eternal symbol for love and  faith.  Here is a recording of Michael Praetorius’ anthem by the Harvard Glee Club.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sNuXNcNdnM)

Roses abundant on Sunday.

“The Only Gift We Have to Give”

Early Saturday morning December 8th, 1984  Bucky Sebastian and Mary Beth Doyle, two NCUA colleagues, came by to give me a ride to Dulles Airport.  We were going to Las Vegas for the largest credit union conference ever.

All state and federal examiners were together initially, then joined by over 2,000 credit union folk. It was a big deal, a capstone event, for celebrating a new era of credit union success.

Mary Ann had asked her mother, Barbara Ballmer, to come and help out with our two teenagers for the week I would be away.  She got up, made  breakfast and talked with Bucky and Mary Beth when they stopped in.

Late that night, December 9th, the phone woke me in my Las Vegas hotel room. Mary Ann had died at Sibley hospital.  Her 4 ½ year battle with breast cancer was over.

We never talked about death.  I felt that was like giving in to the struggle.  She knew how sick she was, but never complained.  Her dad was a doctor. He died before I knew Mary Ann.  He had sent her away when his cancer was near the end.

Twenty years earlier, in April 1964, she wrote him when learning of his situation:  “Pop, take care of yourself and keep your chin up.  Cancer seems like a dreadful thing, but I maintain if there is a will, there is a way. I know you won’t let this get you down if you can possible help it.

I admire you and love you not only because you are my father but because of everything you have done and that you stand for.   My ultimate goal in life is to be able to live up to all that you have taught me and do and contribute in my own way as you are doing in yours.”  And she did.

In her own quiet way Mary Ann had prepared us for this event.   All the Christmas shopping and wrapping was done.  The new bikes for the girls were hidden in the garage.   Presents had been sent to my parents, her sister and brother, and great grandma Filson.  She had baked a half dozen of her favorite dark molasses fruit cake, wrapped the loaves in cheese cloth with rum, to age until they could be given as gifts.

Lara had just made the varsity basketball team as a freshman in high school.  Alix was doing morning swim workouts and playing piano and singing in chorus.  Both had run in the YMCA’s Thanksgiving Turkey trot.  We watched.

The Christmas tree was up with stockings on the fireplace mantel.  The new wallpaper in the hallway was finished and the laundry room cleaned and painted. Her Japanese inspired garden in the back yard was planted to have some color all year round. This was the time for the very deep red finger leaf  maple and red berries on the nandina.

Signs and sounds of the season were all around.  I was upset the world went on as normal when I just felt a deep black hole.  Only later did I learn that Ed Callahan, NCUA Chairman, had opened the national conference with a moment of silence for Mary Ann.

One conversation  I remember that December night was talking on the phone with Lara who assured me that everything was OK. Mary Ann, she said, was with her Father.

The first of two Memorial services was December 17th at Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church.  The second was in Wilmette, from where we moved to Bethesda three years earlier.  The minister at both was Wally Moore who had known the Ballmer family when he was in Midland, MI and had gone to McCormick Seminary with my dad. He was the minister at First Presbyterian when we walked into the Wilmette church in the winter of 1974.  His life had been intwined with both of our families.

He described Mary Ann’s unique skill of creating order and beauty in all aspects of living, including house and garden.  He talked of her deep relationships forged out of concern meeting need.  A person described her as one of “God’s green thumbs” who even though when life was ebbing away, could reach out to others and affirm life in them.

In the mid summer of 1983 or ’84, a stranger came to our door. He was a young French student traveling around America as a tourist.  His local contact for the Washington area had been lost.  All his belongings were in his backpack.

Mary Ann invited him in.  We shared our meals, helped with errands as he rested up.  He continued on several days later.  That fall when he returned to France he wrote Mary Ann several letters about his journey, what he was doing now, and thanks.

Wally Moore closed his remarks saying, Mary Ann understood mercy, compassion and forgiveness. . .qualities which make it possible for us to believe.  In Advent, we ask what will our blessing be?  We will be blessed by that blessing which Mary Ann received and in which she believed—that the only gift we have to give in this world is ourselves.

Glimpses of Mary Ann before returning to America

Mary Ann and I lived in three countries prior to settling down in America.

She got a job at Dow Chemical, in London, so she could be near when I was at Oxford.  She is at the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square in this 1967 photo.

We moved to Japan when I was assigned to USS Windham County, LST-1170, home ported at Yokosuka Naval base.  She took the two children to play on the beach in Hayama where we lived the first 15 months with a Japanese family’s quarters while I was deployed. That’s Mt Fuji in the background hovering like a cloud.

That three years was followed by another sojourn in Sydney, Australia where I worked for the First National Bank of Chicago.  Here they feed a joey, young kangaroo.

She made a home in every country in which we lived filled with lasting friendships.

Two Suggestions for Giving Tuesday

I am sending donations to  the following 501C3’s organizations this Giving Tuesday.

While the demands for charitable giving may seem endless, identifying special circumstances or organizations in need today, is an expression of gratitude.  Gratitude makes us human.

Music Mission Kiev

Founded in the early 1990’s by a Presbyterian choir director, the intent was to introduce forbidden choral classics of the Western repertoire to the classically trained musicians upon Ukrainian independence from the former Soviet Union.

The group performed the first Messiah concert ever in Ukraine.

Their mission expanded to offer care for widows and orphans and bible studies.

Their efforts today are literally on the front lines.  One orphanage was occupied by Russian troops until liberation.

Their funding request today is: On Tuesday we will raise $21,600 for Ukrainian soldiers suffering from PTSD and brain injuries.

$21,600 will provide a year’s supply of medicine for at least 40 soldiers as follows:

$1,800 — Supplies 40 soldiers with treatment for 1 month.
$540 — Support 1 soldier’s treatment for 1 year.
$270 — Support 1 soldier’s treatment for 6 months.

Contact infor:  Music Mission Kiev PO Box 161849, Altamonte Springs, FL 32716.  Phone:   407-699-7172.     

Their most recent concert recorded in late October in Kiev during the missile attacks, can be viewed here. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8ALGRrXRJQ)

Next City

My second donation is to Next City a journalistic effort to recognize  initiatives to make urban environments more livable.

Their writers focus on case studies which address some of the most important challenges of urban life.  Their Partners for the Common Good series highlights CDFI funding initiatives such as this black owned wine and jazz club in Grand Rapids, MI.

Another example is the 15 minute neighborhood app that helps anyone see if the essential services are available within  a short walk.  The app’s concept  is simple:

The ability to find what you need to live daily within a 15-minute walk is one of the “secret sauces” that make cities great places to live. That’s why I found the news that a digital mapping and location software developer created an app that could tell users whether their neighborhood cleared the bar and what they had access to in minutes so fascinating.

Next City’s mailing address is:

Next City
P.O. Box 22449
Philadelphia, PA 19110

Their focus on reporting successful examples that improve the communities  mirrors the original credit union goal of enhancing common values and individual economic opportunity through cooperatives.

A “Magnificat” Performance

One of the most unusual recordings of Bach’s Christmas oratorio, Magnificat, is this by the Harvard University Memorial Church choir in 2001.

Recorded virtually, it is possible to watch simultaneously every soloist, the conductor and every member of the orchestra as individuals-and to hear their collective performance.

A joyous wonderful experience, visually and musically.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQqmtUgttm8)

Thanksgiving Thoughts

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

Written and offered by Dr. Colleen Hanycz on 1/25/21 at the “Introduction to the Xavier Community” event upon her selection as the 35th president of Xavier University

“Before I begin, I would like to offer a brief prayer of thanksgiving that I have relied upon heavily, especially throughout the past year as we have suffered as a community, and as a nation, and as a world, in so many ways:”

Let us remember that we are in the holy presence of God.

Loving Creator,
We asked for strength, and you gave us difficulties to make us strong.
We asked for wisdom, and you gave us problems to solve.
We asked for prosperity, and you gave us purpose and brains to use.
We asked for courage, and you gave us fears to overcome.
We asked for patience, and you gave us situations where we were forced to wait.
We asked for love, and you gave us troubled people to help.
We asked for justice, and you called us to be just and to lead with integrity.
Lord, we have received nothing that we asked for or wanted.
And yet, we received everything that we needed.
For this, we give thanks.

A Family Gathers Once Again

 

Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation

The national Thanksgiving holiday is a time of community and family gatherings.  Local 5K and 10K turkey trot fun-runs, watching Macy’s parade in NYC-or on TV, rivalry football games, black Friday retail sales, children traveling from school or work to go home, new editorial or historical opinions on the Pilgrims and native Americans, and of course the feasting.  Familiar recipes prepared once a year.  Everyone sitting around a common table  grateful for this pause in life’s hectic doings–just to be together.

Religious services are still offered which in the secular context of today’s Thanksgiving events recall the holiday’s roots.

It was Lincoln who issued an 1863 proclamation calling on Americans to “set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving,” partly to celebrate victories in the then-raging Civil War.

Lincoln’s action came  three months after Union Army victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, and at a time in which ultimate triumph appeared in sight.

Reading the words illustrates the power of belief in a time of civil conflict; and shared gratitude for the blessings of life.  A reminder of the “gracious gifts” that give the holiday its special meaning still today.

Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.

Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

The Changing Seasons

Temperature fell to 34 degrees last night.

A Gerber Daisy, the last flower of summer.

Camelia, the first flowers of fall.

Finished putting 5 allium, 15 tulips, 25 crocus and numerous hyacinth bulbs until the rain came.  Still over a 100 tulips and daffodils to plant before the first freeze.

 

How People in Power Make Mistakes

From Scott Galloway:

“The undoing of many powerful people is that they enter a hermetically sealed bubble of fake friends. Enablers, not people concerned with their well-being. When the Elon-Twitter debacle started this spring, I wrote a post about power.

“My thesis: Power, unchecked, is a psychological intoxicant. OK, this isn’t so much a thesis, as it’s scientifically proven. Research shows power causes us to downplay potential risk, magnify potential rewards, and act more precipitously on our instincts. In other words, you lose your ability to self-regulate; you need others to do it for you. . .”

The solution: Every day, every one of us needs to ask ourselves an important question: Who keeps it real for me? Who will push back, who will tell me I’m wrong … who will save me from myself and the psychosis that’s led to so many successful people’s fall from grace. ”

Example: Ed Callahan had Bucky Sebastian as his “wingman” in work and life.