Joshua Minden (00:13):

Merry Christmas and welcome to Stories and Other Things Holy, a podcast where we're invited to risk believing that an encounter with a good story can not only change us, but even those whom we love. This week, Dr. Terry Nelson Johnson, our principal storyteller, shares a story from his childhood and how the gift of a decision can have a profound effect on a child, a family, and maybe even the world. So join us as we delight in the wonder of more Stories and Other Things Holy.

Terry Nelson-Johnson (00:55):

Stories and Other Things Holy. I've had a chance to watch a bunch of our episodes because why wouldn't you? And a couple things occur to me. One is I crack up at the beginning of them pretty regularly. I chuckle with that kind of chuckle, which I like, and then I say something like, this is a great story, which also makes me laugh, I guess. I think they're all great stories, which is okay. Yeah, so this is a really great story just to affirm my introduction thus far, and it has to do with Christmas. So at the time of the story, I don't know, seven, and I'm the youngest, six or seven. I'm the youngest of seven. And so when the youngest of seven, you're living in a different world than the first ones that came around and you get a lot of more information and you have some insights into things because there's a lot of older people hanging around.

(02:01):

In this case, that manifested itself in my becoming, I don't know, a little suspicious of, I don't want to shock anybody but Santa and how that whole thing works. So I was with my mom. We had a really tight relationship and I started to inquire as to the logistics of Santa and Slays and chimneys and apartment buildings and Africa. And she was uncomfortable but was not wanting to come across with the goods, and I just kept going, and she was not a good liar at all. So at some point she sort of broke down and she shifted from that. Let's try to evade this to, well, Christmas is really about generosity and God's generosity. So everything that we say about Santa is actually true. It's just not without the slay and stuff. I'm like, okay. And then I thought, well, since I'm on a roll, I'm going to press my case. And I went for the Easter bunny, the tooth fairy. They went down like dominoes,

(03:18):

And I won't lie, it was like a solar plexus shot to my little innocence, and it was tough. And my mom, she did the best she could. But then I realized I had the tough task of alerting my elder brother to the circumstances which I had just been made aware of, and he's five years my senior. And it was pretty clear to me that he was not hip to what I had just discovered. And we were very close, and he was a great big brother, loved me more than I deserve. So now I have the tough task of relaying this news to him. So I sat him down and I'm like, Hey, I know this is going to be hard and everything, but I don't think I can go through this day without you with me. And we both knowing the same thing. So then I revealed to him what I had recently come to know, and as I anticipated he looked crestfallen and I did the, it's going to be okay.

(04:22):

I think we're still get presents because dad really gets 'em. I think I know where they're hidden. Anyway, so we're doing all right. And he says to me, he goes back like four hours later and he says to me, I was thinking about what you were saying that you might be right, but I was also thinking, what if we just believe one more year? Turns out I was a sock touch. I'm like, yeah, that's great. Let's believe's believe one more year. So I shifted internally, I'm like, okay, let's go for it. And then my brother did everything in his power to make this Christmas stellar. In this instance, what he did was you went to my dad and he gave my dad these set of bells on a string, and our room was directly beneath my parents' room, and my brother said, dad, at 11:06 (PM) take these bells and ring 'em right in front of our window. And then he went outside and hit snowed fresh snow and he took skis, like cross country skis, and he made trails, sled trails, marks in the snow and then covered up his boots and they were right below a window. And then 1105, I'm dead asleep. And my pro is like, do you hear the like? He says, look, we should look. So we get outside, it's like, do you see the tracks, the slave tracks? I'm like, oh my god, I believe!

(06:07):

And then our Santa came to our house in the basement. But in order to go be revealed to have what Santa brought be revealed, we had to have our parents with us, which meant we had to go up the stairs to wake them up in order to come down the stairs in order to receive all Santa's gifts. My brother was very emphatic about my not peaking, and I don't know why he would think I would do that, but he was emphatic while might not peaky. So he made me promise to not peak, and then he didn't think I could do it. So he made me put my head up the back of his T-shirt and put my nose against his back so he was sure that I wouldn't peak. We went upstairs, woke up my parents at some obscenely early hour, and then they came down and then he reveled in the largess of Santa and love and God. And every year I say to myself, let's believe one more year. And I guess that's the question for Stories and Other Things Holy this year, this Christmas, is what would it mean to believe one more year? And how would our interior lives be different? How would our interpersonal lives be different? How would our politics be different? How would our environment be different? How would our church be different if we believed one more year? Merry, beautiful, faithful, mysterious Christmas from Stories and Other Things Holy.

Joshua Minden (08:09):

Bless us, oh Lord,

Terry Nelson-Johnson (08:10):

For these thy gifts

Joshua Minden (08:11):

Which we are currently receiving

Terry Nelson-Johnson (08:15):

From thy bounty

Joshua Minden (08:16):

Through Christ our Lord.

Terry Nelson-Johnson (08:17):

Amen brother.

Joshua Minden (08:18):

Amen. Alright, Merry Christmas and to yourself,

Terry Nelson-Johnson (08:28):

Joyful Christmas.

Joshua Minden (08:29):

Oh, I believe, I believe, I believe. Oh, what a gift. Let's believe one more year. It's such

Terry Nelson-Johnson (08:42):

A beautiful declaration.

Joshua Minden (08:45):

So good manifesto. It really is. Yeah, it really is. It's a beautiful gift that your brother gave, that your dad gave you. Oh, you're a poor mom. Terrible liar,

Terry Nelson-Johnson (09:03):

Huh? No, she just couldn't do it. Could not do it.

Joshua Minden (09:12):

I think about this story and I think about we've spent the last four weeks preparing, we, we've been preparing to receive the incarnation, not just that's coming in Christmas, but that is already in our world. That is that. And I love how it all flows together. Hopefully as a result of the last four weeks, we're a little more open. We're a little more sensitive to the different, the subtleties of the way in which God can join us in the chaos of our lives and our mess. And things don't have to be perfect and pristine. And I love this. Your brother found a way to, in the midst of that, grappling with the realization of everything I thought about Christmas and Easter and the tooth fairy isn't what I thought it was. Your brother found a way to kind of invite back the wonder and really kind of got to the heart of what your mom was trying to do with the whole, everything we say about Santa, we're really talking about God. But there's something about the way your brother went about it that really allowed the magic to come back in. It's such an incredible gift.

Terry Nelson-Johnson (10:37):

I love that phrase you used, brought back the magic, the wonder,

Joshua Minden (10:44):

The wonder,

Terry Nelson-Johnson (10:44):

The wonder.

Joshua Minden (10:45):

Yeah.

Terry Nelson-Johnson (10:45):

Yeah. That's one of the things that strikes me about the story, like his passion to sustain my innocence for one more year. And there's that French philosopher that says, we are in need of a second naivete. And second naivete is the one you get after you've been hurt, after you are invited into cynicism or despair or practicality or when you know that this all might not go that well. My mom might not feed me all the stuff, and as a 12-year-old psychologically, it should all be about him. He should just roll his eyes at me. Really, you're just figuring this out now or whatever. And his sole focus is, I want to extend his original innocence for one more year. It's very, that part of the story always just strikes me so powerfully.

(11:54):

And then the energy expended. It's Christmas Eve, he's all psyched about his own presents in the midst of it all, he finds the bells, gets the string and strikes. My dad, makes the sleigh tracks and is utterly invested in this whole thing. And I think I've used the phrase here before, but Jesuit priest, Nick Weber, who started the Royal Lichtenstein Quartering Circus, which represents one of the great regrets of my life. I've had very few regrets, which is fascinating. I've thought about it a lot actually. And maybe my greatest regret is that I was invited to audition for the Royal Lichtenstein Quartering Circus with Nick Weber, who's the Jesuit priest, and then go around the country performing the circus. And I don't want to brag or nothing. I think I would've been a big hit in the Royal Lichtenstein Quartering Circus. And I didn't go for it because at the time my dads and my relationship was strained.

(13:10):

And I was the last kid. I was the great white hope that he might get a lawyer or a doctor out of this whole thing anyway. And now his son is studying mime. It is just not going well for him. And the thought of saying, dad, I'm thinking of maybe running away with a circus with the Jesuit clown, just felt like that could have brought the whole thing down, and I think I should have let him deal with that and gone and auditioned. And so that was a segue or a parenthetical commentary. But Nick Weber, who was the clown who started the Royal Lichtenstein Quarter Inc. Circus says it takes a lot of energy to make belief. And I heard him say it when I was 20, and I've never forgotten it 39 years later. And I think how true that is, that if it comes down to God comes down to energy and that Christmas is a declaration that the energy will continue, can continue, but we have to participate in that belief, contribute to the belief energy only works if it's moving and if it's in relationship. And so the energy that my brother expended to invite us into the realm of belief and wonder in awe and delight, the things that presumably stand at the center of the Christmas celebration,

(14:49):

It's really a powerful dimension of that story to me. And are we willing to expend energy to believe, not fake it, not like there's nothing to support this, but I'll just pretend I believe it's not that. It's like I will suspend judgment. I will lean into the possibility that there's something more, that there's something more. And to that I will contribute my energy in the service of belief. I believe that that's really

Joshua Minden (15:23):

Powerful. I'm struck by this question of will we expend the energy to make belief right now in our world, there's a lot of people hurting for a lot of different reasons. Some of them hard to comprehend wars and rumors of wars and us in almost a biblical in proportion. And the idea of expending a little more energy for some of us in our world is at most or at best, inconvenient and at worst, like no

Terry Nelson-Johnson (16:12):

Inconceivable,

Joshua Minden (16:13):

Inconceivable, excellent word. Friend of mine shared a quote with me this morning, said that there's hope is made of sterner stuff. I think it was not Chesterton, but the prime minister during World War ii,

Terry Nelson-Johnson (16:31):

Winston Churchill,

Joshua Minden (16:32):

Churchill. And when I think of making belief, it has That's good. Has a parallel to hope, right?

Terry Nelson-Johnson (16:44):

Yes, absolutely.

Joshua Minden (16:46):

And so I'm just curious if as you're sharing a story like this in a church basement or any other number of places in a room full of parochial school teachers, how do you attend to that weariness to expend a little extra energy for belief?

Terry Nelson-Johnson (17:11):

That's really good. There's a movie, I just thought of it while you were talking because there's a scene in it that's relevant and it's going to bug bug me that I can't remember the title of the movie. The storyline is there's guys in prison and Khan, Luke. What we have here is a failure to communicate. So in the movie, there's all these prisoners and there's a character,

(17:47):

And he just will not cooperate with his own imprisonment. So they're on a work gang, and their job is to surface, to prepare, a road to be surfaced. And it's really long, it's unbelievably hot. And they get there and the truck with all the Taras there and they have to prepare it. And then the Tara is laid, and then they prepare the next section, Tara is laid, and the truck to pick them up is not coming till the afternoon and there's water at the other end. And so these guys are going very low. They're like conserving all their energy. And the crazy dude, he's just going for it. And they're like, dude, slow down. You got to slow down. We got all day here. He's like, precisely. And then he just throws himself into this and very gradually it's contagious. And the other guys sort of get the insight like, Hey, if we finish this, we're going to be under that shade tree with water sitting there. And they can't do nothing. There's no more work to do. So we just sit there until the truck comes to pick us up. And they're like, alright. And then they all join them and the last scene is they're just sitting around on that bank within the shade tree with the water. It's a very Jesus sort of image like, alright, what was it that Thomas Woodward said? You're asking me to live by small rules created by small people to keep the world small and manageable. I refuse.

(19:27):

You're asking me to live by small rules created by small people to keep the world small and manageable. I refuse Jack. She says, Christmas is a defiant feast.

Joshua Minden (19:41):

Yes,

Terry Nelson-Johnson (19:41):

We will expend the energy to believe one more year that there's more here, that healing can happen, that it doesn't just have to be like this, that we collectively can somehow mitigate and mediate the grace of God in this world now. Yes. And in order to do that, somebody has to go first. And the image of Jesus is like, all right, you need someone to spend energy. I'll spend energy, but you guys better start to dig your asses off so we can get to that shade tree with water and baptize ourselves one more time. Let's do that. Anybody with me? Alright.

Joshua Minden (20:25):

Yeah, let's go.

Terry Nelson-Johnson (20:27):

Let's believe one more year and then the belief will cost us. It's like, oh, I'll believe everybody's believe. And we've reduced Christmas to the kid's pageant on Christmas Eve, which is cute. And as you know, I don't like the word cute as a rule, but that thing you, the Mary's like a foot taller than Joseph Joseph's belt invariably falls off. The wings are sideways, the star's arms start to shake. And then the star just says like, that's off from me. This is way too long. This birth has taken way too long. And so then we all go to the five o'clock mass and whatever we do, but we've reduced it to that. Like, no will you spend the energy to get us to the shade tree and the water and baptism and to just be contagious. That belief is possible and it's sure it's crazy, but it's good crazy. It's a little bit like John Lewis's. It's good trouble. Christmas is good. Crazy.

Joshua Minden (21:34):

It's so good. Christmas is good. Crazy. All right, let me paint a picture. Guide me through this. I am sitting in my living room. It's Christmas morning. Well, let's say it's Christmas afternoon. The gifts are open, the kids are beating each other with the toys. The in-laws are over. There's a sports game, kidding football game on the TV or parade or both. And my family, several of the women are gathered around in the kitchen subtly critiquing each other's cooking. And there's any number of reasons why that not just this year, any year is going to be terrifying. And I want to believe one more year, I want to believe there's an odd premise. I don't do this with you very often, but I'm kind of curious. How do I bring that hope? How do I bring that defiant? How do I bring that defiance to that feast when I am, we can always cut this out. I'm just curious if you're track in with where I'm going with this, I want to do it, how do I do? It's so many reasons in my head why not to do it? What is it?

Terry Nelson-Johnson (23:24):

It sounds almost quaint or little sy. But the AA community or some communities, they do the thing, do the next right kind thing. And his holiness the 14th Dai Lama, there's only one religion. It's kindness and practice it to yourself. So sometimes that means I need to take a break from football and the dishes and the cooking and the, so there's that self-kindness. Then there's just that exercise of the uncle who you know is awkward being there, engage 'em in conversation. Find a place that you find some element of mutuality. How about those stocks or whatever one would say, yeah, yeah, that sounds, and then you sort of grow from there.

Joshua Minden (24:28):

What

Terry Nelson-Johnson (24:28):

Does it mean to be kind today, this Christmas day? Sort of what first came to mind then believe one more year, believe one more year in the incarnation, which is sort of the central image of Christmas. And the reality of Christmas is that the mystery of the divine Erie irrevocably, passionately, mysteriously is woven into the living room, the football game, the kitchen, the cooking, the cleanup. If we stretch it to the Eucharistic theology of, and of course the classic song, kumbaya, God has already come by here. God is come by here, God is here in the midst of the weariness, in the midst of the political potential firestorms. And then the energy to make belief is, I will risk believing again that God is present in all of this, all of this. That's where the belief starts. And then in light of that, what should we do together? How should we do the dishes? If God is present in the kitchen, how would that affect our dish doing and our watching or not watching the football game as the case may be hanging out with the uncle that we have very little in common with. What does that mean? Well, if we spend the energy to believe that God is in the midst of it all, then that alters, that affects how we then are there. If God is present, how am I present? Yes.

Joshua Minden (26:34):

I can't close this out before I honor St. Ignatius.

Terry Nelson-Johnson (26:39):

Alright.

Joshua Minden (26:42):

Your dad though, do you remember the story about the family in the woods? And I was so fixated on the sister.

Terry Nelson-Johnson (26:50):

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joshua Minden (26:51):

You're like, I hadn't thought about the sisters since the flip flops. Your dad though, your brothers brothers appeal to, let's believe one more year. I had this moment as we were tricked. I'm thinking about my dad and you've shared stories about your dad and this idea that your dad, the banker is out at 11 something at night, probably in thee the snow in his robe with the neighbors somewhere nearby. And he's jingling the jingle bells. And he's got his old what? Probably wooden skis, like old school retching through the yard. I'm sure some poor lady was looking through her parlor window thinking, what in the world?

Terry Nelson-Johnson (27:49):

What's that Howie Johnson doing over there?

Joshua Minden (27:52):

Oh man. And I know that you've said that you two have very similar effects or similar presentations. And so I could just see a, at least I think the hopeful picture in my mind is a gleefulness on this part. And it's interesting, your brother's appeal to bring wonder back in to Christmas, extended into your dad. And I can't fathom, it didn't extend to your mom

Terry Nelson-Johnson (28:20):

Considering

Joshua Minden (28:20):

You all were her hobby and how that just became infectious. And so tying it back to the question about Christmas morning with my in-laws and what do I do? It is interesting how when you invited to recognize that Christ has already come by here, God is come by here. And so even just recognizing that Christ is here in that complexity, that tension, that difficulty that can be infectious.

Speaker 3 (28:52):

Yeah.

Joshua Minden (28:53):

Like, Hey, did you see that? Or like you said, start up that conversation and you never know what stories will emerge.

Terry Nelson-Johnson (29:04):

And that phrase I used a while back of somebody's got to go first. Yes, there's something important. Does anybody have the energy to give this a whirl? Give Christmas a whirl. I do, I guess. Okay. Yeah, let's go. Well, all I think that brings us to bless us, the Lord

Joshua Minden (29:35):

And these your mini gifts,

Terry Nelson-Johnson (29:37):

Which we have just received from your bounty through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Joshua Minden (29:47):

Thank you friends for joining us for this Christmas episode of Stories and Other Things Holy. It is so good to have you with us on this journey of exploring the power of stories. Terry often says that a story is like a sacrament in that it contains what it conveys. That the power that a story has can impact us, transform us, challenge us, heal us, provoke us, remind us who we are and what it means to be human. And so if you want to contribute to that work of bringing more stories and other things wholly into the world, we encourage you to sign up as a promoter or a supporter. If you go to our website: StoriesandOtherThingsHoly.com, you'll see our support page and you can learn about both of those options. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for sharing the podcast with your loved ones and friends. Thank you for forwarding the emails. Thank you for the feedback we have received the encouragement to the positive words. It means a great deal to us. And so on. This blessed Christmas, as we delight in the one who has come to make all things new, we again, thank you for joining us for Stories and Other Things Holy.