How I See It: Reflections on spirituality, technology, and the art of everyday life

Christmas Letter 1996 Copyright © 1996 by Odell Sneeden Hathaway III My Dear Friends, At this time of the year—apart from the usual thoughts about how much Christmas is costing and how much weight we’re gaining—our thoughts turn to old friends and getting back in touch with them. This year my life has been so full of joys and sorrows that, instead of sending you a card, I thought I would reconnect by letting you know about all the changes that have happened over the last twelve months. This has been a very busy 1996, and it looks like it will lead to an even busier 1997! The year started out with my buying my first home. It’s a lovely three-bedroom house in Vancouver, Washington, with a large yard and a stream running through the back. On summer nights you can hear the frogs singing in the water. Along with a new house came a new companion—a dog named Perezvon, from The Brothers Karamazov . Unfortunately, he turned out to be more of a dog than I could ha...

He was beautiful He was beautiful—that above all else is what is important! He was not just cute, he was beautiful! He was not just a hunk, he was beautiful! He was not just sexy, he was beautiful! A blind man could have seen it—and yes, many did. When they asked to see more, he would show them, and they would run in terror. The only thing wrong with him was his beauty. His mother had hoped that he would outgrow it. When he was young, she hid him from the world—not as one hides a great treasure, but as one would hide the fact that a family member had AIDS. What he had was far worse: he was beautiful. She would have made him wear a mask if that could have concealed his beauty, but nothing could. As he got older, he had to show the world how beautiful he was—not out of pride (that would not have been beautiful at all), but because he had to show the world the way the rain has to show us that it is wet, and makes us wet in the process. Yes, he was ...