Oy to the World

This week I've been decorating our house for the holidays, an activity that I've always enjoyed because, well, I just like colored lights, anyway. In fact, I leave two strings of blue lights up in the sunroom all year round. Hand-crocheted snowflakes float around door frames; origami cranes, deer, and other shapes frame an entrance-way door; Christmas gnomes of my own design smile or glower (depending on how the yarn mouths are shaped) on the fireplace mantle--enough gnomes to be just this side of slightly scary.

Earlier this week, while browsing in a rather traditional and boring gift shop, I saw a metal wreath with the word "Joy" suspended in the middle, spelled out in three small wooden plaques. Feeling a little guilty because I hadn't participated in the neighborhood's annual luminaria lighting, I thought I needed some holiday greeting for our doorway, a nod to the neighbors that the owner of the strange art car parked in the driveway wishes them well for the holiday. (Every year, the neighborhood association sells white bags with sand and candles to raise money; we're asked to line our streets with these bags and to light the candles on a designated day at a designated time. I was taking Tom to the airport that Sunday afternoon and didn't stop to buy the luminaria. Someone stuck two bags in front of our dark strip of street, trying to compensate for my lack of interest, I guess.)

However, by the time I got home with my metal wreath, I was feeling less happy with my purchase. Joy? I wondered. People are losing their jobs by the thousands; other businesses are cutting back on expenses, and employees still with jobs are hoping that they'll get just a cut in pay instead of the boot. The world is in a financial mess that's likely to get even worse. Our personal IRA's have lost up to 50% their value. Our home--well, who knows what the value of our home is now, certainly not that for which we mortgaged it.

Joy? Wall Street money manager Bernard L. Madoff stole billions of dollars from investors (note that surname!) and is accused of "running one of the largest Ponzi schemes ever." Among those investors were charitable foundations and banks and businesses around the world.

Joy? The vice-president of our country openly admitted "that he was directly involved in approving severe interrogation methods [um...that's torture, in politico-speak, in case you've been asleep at the wheel for the past eight years] used by the CIA, and that the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should remain open indefinitely." Oh, and he BELIEVES in waterboarding. (Maybe that "I Believe" license plate has a darker meaning than the ACLU imagines.) Peace on Earth and Goodwill to Men, Y'all.

Joy? Two official documents remind us of the lies and deceptions of the Iraq war: the bipartisan report on the treatment of detainees in American custody and a report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction [h/t to George Packer for the links].

Joy? "So What?" is George Bush's response to the fact that al-Qaeda was not in Iraq until after the U.S. invasion. Oy!

Joy? Darfur.....Nigeria.....Congo....Somalia...the terrorist attacks in Mumbai (Bombay), India....Global Warming/Climate Change (worse than expected).....

"We ought to remove the J from Joy and leave Oy instead," I told my daughter, showing her the metal wreath. When she asked what 'oy' meant, I told her that it is a Yiddish exclamation that, roughly translated, means "what a mess," or something like that. [For a better explanation than mine to Mary-Margaret, go here.]

Mary-Margaret was so taken with the idea that she removed the letter "J" herself. I hung the "J" inside the doorway with the origami decorations.

So, neighbors, the wreath is not a mistake. It's a message for the season. Happy Holiday!