Here's How We Measure the Heart of America...

Politicians take polls and of course there are approval ratings. We can count how many people come to our fish fry. Some people said a lot came to mine. Alternative facts say it was catfish that was cooked. As we wrapped up the Christmas season with a big family weekend I used my sure fire way to figure out where this country stands. All you have to do is crunch the data that is your Christmas cards. 

I do this every year. This year I broke it out into three categories to contemplate.

There were 15 religious cards. Clear cut examples of faith  I excluded trees and wreaths. It could be argued there is some symbolism but that's too far a stretch for such science as this. I did count the cards from the Bishop and the Monastery here but it's probably in their job description that they have to send a religious card. I counted Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's card as religious. It was obvious what was on their minds.   

There were 14 clearly secular cards all sleighs and snowmen with an occasional snow woman.    

There were 12 picture cards of families. B.O. sent one with a picture of his dog. Don't get mad at him though. I bet some of you treat your dog better than you do other humans but we are all on some path of spiritual journey and you must start somewhere. Family and dogs are an ok place to start. 

So what does this mean? Well it looks like religious cards nudged secular out for the first time since I been logging this info. On the other hand if I add family to the secular which is ok if you just used a day off to watch the big game secular wins 26-15. That's a pretty good whooping. 

Now if you just scrolled down past all this reasoning just to get to the photo your eye might have caught the fact that I did not get all that many cards. Some say they got more but I haven't read their blog post about it. I do know that of the religious cards seems like the Three Kings were popular this year. That's good because they are my favorites. 

I have never seen this in the USA but while on a European visit this summer I noted these marks in chalk over the doorways to homes. 

Sometimes seen like this 20 + C + M + B + 17 it's a blessing for the home and all who enter. The numbers are the year and the letters stand for the Three Kings, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazer. The plus sign represents the cross and in Latin it can stand for "Christ Bless This House." There is a series of prayers to bless the chalk and bless the house.  

The idea is that the chalk will fade but the symbolism will sink into the heart of all in the home and be maifest in their words and actions. 

I tossed all those cards except the family photos which I will hold on to just a bit longer.