The Observation Deck

This is a time for celebration, of course. For Christians, and many other faiths, we give presents, have fine meals, share cards and have some Christmas cheer, of one type or another.

I wish you all, from my family to all of yours, a very Merry Christmas, and I ask God to bless each and every one of you with more of His blessings of every kind than you can contain, and then some.

I hope if your able, to go to a church, or whatever type your preferred place of worship or way of honoring God might be, and remember fellow Christians, it's a time to celebrate the joy of the birth of Jesus of Nazereth, and also a time for forgiveness.

So many of us harbor negative emotions toward other people and many times without realizing it.

As we celebrate these Holidays, let's leave that baggage of un-forgiveness out of our lives, while we forgive and forget. My watch doesn't run backward, and neither do any of yours,at least I hope they don't!

Let's put aside every difference, large or small and like my littlest daughter says " Joy to the world, Joy to the world, Joy to the world " while dancing, laughing and having no idea there is anything but happiness.

Let's not forget the elderly, helpless, the poverty stricken, the ones who see no hope, and in our own way try to help someone, anyone, today and tomorrow.

Let's adopt that child-like self, and celebrate like a kid.

Thank you so much, every one of you, and God bless you all abundantly and overflowing until you cannot contain any more, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazereth.

Oh, sorry for the politically incorrect message being Christian based, but I'm sure people of our city of other beliefs are able to post here also.

Mark Crnolatas Sr.

Oh, time to play "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" on the keyboards with my wife Karen, singing, and with my "other Dad" Bob Rice who I dearly love, and Gary Rice who I respect and love as a brother in the faith. In fact, let's do a few songs right now, anyway. (Fires up the Hammond B3, the Harley-Davidson of keyboards, old, slow and heavy, but can whisper like a paper airplane or roar like a B-52!) Counts off slow ballad, 1,2,3,4...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a blessed year

Mark, and all of Lakewood:

As this night of all nights envelops the city later on today, Dad and I reflect on all of our many sublime blessings. For one, we are doing pretty well after we experienced a pretty rough traffic accident last week during that virtually whited-out Saturday snowfall. Thank God, everybody involved walked away from it. Those situations can so easily go the other way. Adding to that situation, Dad's had a tough respiratory illness- that again, thank God, seems to be on the mend.

Christmas evokes many thoughts and memories for people. Many have blessed memories of all those wonderful times past with overflowing tables of food, overwhelming love of family, and gorgeous midnight sanctuaries decorated in garlands of pine, with those beautiful candle-lit creches.

Still, it is important to reflect that, for so many others, this is also a time for memories not as beautiful. Indeed for some, it is a time for sadness or even wholly justifiable anger at the dichotomy that spans "Christmas Ideal" and "Christmas Real". This can also be a difficult time for those who do not share the Christian faith, as Christians so often can treat those outside of their faith traditions with less-than-perfect respect. It can be a difficult time as well, for those who for one reason or another have been victimized by those who have used religion as a camouflage for nefarious purposes.

And yet on this night...this night of all nights...there remains the perpetual Babe in the manger. Oh sure, we know that theologically, it could be argued that no one "knows precisely" WHEN that birth occurred. December 25th happens to be the moment when the Church chose to celebrate that birth of course, but yes, it might have technically happened at some other time of year.

The thing is, it happened.

And as every mother knows, births of children can and do happen every day, but the birth of THEIR CHILD is indeed, very special.

To every mother, Jesus' words: "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you" attains sublime significance.

Christians teach that by one Adam, did humankind fall, and by one Christ, is humankind redeemed.

When you think about it...Nearly everyone, no matter what their faith or lack thereof, in one way or another walks in the pathways of Christ. We will all experience our birth, our family, the terrors of life, friends, and then... betrayal, and at the last...our own personal Golgotha.

But if we must experience all of that, so will we too experience forgiveness and redemption. That is the promise of Christ, and the promise of Christmas.

There was this fellow..Marcel Dadi, who could play the best guitar music I've ever heard. Wowie, what a player! Marcel could make that guitar elicit every emotion possible. He came to America to be honored by the Country Music Hall of Fame...but on his way back to Europe, he perished on TWA Flight 800 over the Atlantic Ocean near Long Island, New York.

I use one of the guitars that Marcel designed. With it, I love to play "Silent Night". Remember the story of the little mice getting into the bellows of a church organ, and that song being composed and then played on the guitar for Midnight Mass? I tell Marcel's story when I play the guitar, because he can no longer play it. Whether I like it or not, the torch passes on to my unworthy hands, so that those strings can live again...

That too, is a message of Christmas...the torch of peace on earth, redemption, forgiveness, and the message of Salvation passes on to our unworthy hands now. How will we respond to this call?

Mark, as you say, the clocks only move forward. I'll pick up that guitar now, and Dad will raise his muted trumpet for a chorus of "Silent Night" with you and Karen.

For once, I'll leave that banjo alone.

Merry Christmas to all from Bob and Gary Rice!


All together Lakewood, let's sing...

SILENT NIGHT

Words by Father Joseph Mohr 1816

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace

The German Version:

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute hochheilige Paar.
Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!