22 December

Merry Christmas. From us, the animals. From the Barn Fairy

by Jon Katz
Merry Christmas

 

So, from all of us at Bedlam Farm to all of you out there, Merry Christmas. The blog will cool off for a few days, before plunging back into another year. Lots of absorb, lots to look ahead to. Maria and I will be in Brooklyn visiting my daughter Emma and her significant other Jay. A change of scenery, to be sure. Maria and I plan to walk right through the soles of our shoes and have staked out Latin and Asian food, diners, pizza, museums, movies and all kinds of good stuff. Good people occupying the farm.

Can’t wait to see Em. I wish you all a wonderful holiday and once again try and express my gratitude for your support of my work, my stories and my life. I appreciate it.

Ken Norman, the farrier came by yesterday and he brought Nikolene, the wondrous Bedlam Farm Barn Fairy and she chased off a scary ghost and blessed all of us with her charm and magic. Can’t imagine a better Christmas video than that. Come and see:

 

22 December

Christmas Plot. My Gift To Maria

by Jon Katz
Christmas Plot

 

Maria has gone offline for the weekend and she is disciplined about that, so I can share my gift for her. I got her an Ipad2, and beyond the fun of fooling her (she just doesn’t really want to know in advance, she is like that) I wanted to write about it because it was a difficult and interesting choice for me. Her business is expanding, her communications, ordering and online work is extensive. I thought of three gifts – the Kindle Fire, the Nook Tablet and the Ipad 2.

Quite understandably, many people focused on price as their most important consideration. The Fire is $199, the Nook Tablet $149, the Ipad ranges from $400 to $800 (approximately), more of a capital investment. Money was an issue for me, too, but I see buying technology as akin to sometimes buying a dog – it is worth some money to invest in an animal that will be living with you and your children for years. I need for my technology to work.

Amazon began the Kindle as a rather pure reading device, but the “Fire” seemed to me to be much more focused on working as a cultural device, transmitting movies, music and books and consumer products from Amazon to the consumer. It doesn’t have that pure book feeling the early Kindle had. It’s big selling features are Wi-Fi transmission of video and songs. The Nook Tablet seemed to me to be similiar, though clearly superior in construction, technology and memory. It also is less proprietary, in that you can buy books anywhere with it, including independent bookstores (a feature rarely mentioned in any reviews) and have wide access to libraries, not just Amazon. The Kindle “Fire” keeps the user in the Amazon system, much as Apple devices keep their users in the Apple System.

The Ipad is, to me, a very different kind of device. I am an Apple user, and a fan of Apple products. They are more expensive, but they do more things and you can get help when you need it. The Apple Apps – more than 800,000 of them – just offer people like me and Maria a wide range of communications, design, research and record-keeping options. Apple sells a plastic device that fits into the Ipad and allows the user to swipe credit cards. It has apps for design, and receipts and it’s browser is lightning fast. The Ipad2 has changed my relationship to the desktop. I hardly ever use it anymore, except to write. I am never without the Ipad, on which are appointments, contacts, mail.

So my thinking is that Maria will use this as a business tool. She doesn’t play games, and isn’t much of an online yakker. Her interest in social media is minimal, and restricted to business. Interesting choices though. Almost everyone I meet is considering one tablet or another. My conclusion: the “Fire” is a wondrous gift for kids and teenagers: the new Nook Tablet is a superior book reading device, and the Ipad offers a much wider range of options and uses – cultural, business and entertainment. It is more expensive, but it is a radically superior piece of technology.

22 December

Spirit of Christmas: Simon

by Jon Katz
Spirit of Christmas

 

There are a number of well known animals here, but two reached far beyond the boundaries of the farm to touch the hearts and brush the souls of many people, all over the world. Rose was one, and Simon is the other. I believe that animals enter our lives when they are needed, and leave when they are done.

Rose’s impact on my life is well documented, Simon’s is, in many ways, just beginning. He is the spirit of Christmas for me, here at the farm. Many people worship Jesus Christ at Christmas, many celebrate his good heart and spirit. I have never been opened up as deeply and powerfully by an animal as I was by Simon. He is the spirit of Christmas to me for many reasons. He was lost and was recovered. He has a good and strong heart, and struggled to live. He speaks to me of the poorest among us, and of our sacred call to think of them and reach out to them in a spirit of compassion and acceptance.

Animals are often symbols, and are often used that way, one of their most powerful attributes. Simon loves his life. He loves Maria and me, he loves food of all kinds, he loves Lulu and Fanny, he loves the chickens and the barn cats, he is coming to love the dogs. After I finish the Frieda book, I will undertake a book on Simon, and on the many elements relating to compassion and mercy that swirl around his life.

He is the spirit of Christmas for me. He calls me to continue to be open to life and experience, to be merciful, to be generous, to give thanks for my life, every day of it.

22 December

Ashes. Welcome Home, Rose

by Jon Katz
Last Day

It seemed to me that Rosie ought to make an appearance on the first day of the new bedlamfarm.com. I am not into looking back, not in a morbid mood. Rose had a great life, and I intend to have one as well.  Lots of people have asked for more photos of her, and I hesitate a bit, as I am cranking up for Christmas. Like everyone else, I’m always a bit surprised when another year goes by, and I am very conscious of not wasting a day of the next one. But I like this photo, one of the last I took of her, and just put up an album on my Facebook page, accessible above.

Rose was always a difficult photographic subject, never easy posing or looking at the camera. As she declined, she resisted less and I got some of the photos of her I had always wanted. Ironic, that.

Maria and I picked up Rose’s ashes at the Cambridge Valley Veterinary Clinic today. Made me a bit uncomfortable. Came with tags, candles, photos of bridges. Rose would have thrown up, I told Maria. But I was glad to have the ashes.  But I didn’t want to deal with them now.  In a week or so,  after Christmas, we will hold a memorial service up in the pasture by the pole barn. I’ll scatter some up there, and I will keep some in a can near my desk to inspire me to be productive, to be resolute, to get it done.

How do I feel about Rose, someone asked me today? I feel fine. Death is as much a part of life as breathing, our universal experience. I am very much at peace with it. Two days before Christmas, I am happy to welcome home the ashes of one of the great gifts I have ever received.

 

22 December

Beginnings. Ends

by Jon Katz
Beginnings. Ends

 

I think everything is a beginning or an end and I think an essential part of the spiritual life is understanding that every ending is a beginning also. Rose surely taught me that. She dies, and yet so many things began right after her death – books dedicated to her, a new blog, a new kind of community, new work. Blogs are very poorly named, especially for such potentially powerful things. A blog is a voice, a story, and this one has finally caught up with me and my life, after many different versions, different states of mind.

This blog fits me like a glove. It is not easy to get a blog like that, and I value and appreciate it. It is not easy to get a community like the one that surrounds this blog, and I learned that in recent days when I got more than 4,000 e-mails and more than 500 people so far have bought books in Rosie’s memory. Still getting my head around all of that. I’ll post again later, but I am so happy to see this blog up before Christmas, an affirmation and nourishment for the soul.

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