QUARANTINE BLOG # 260

December 15, 2020

Continuing with historical monuments and buildings we go today to the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, one of the most famous monuments in Paris, France, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées.  The Arc de Triomphe honors those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. 

The area today is called “Place Charles de Gaulle,” but it’s historic name is “Place de l'Étoile” – the étoile or “star” is formed by the conjunction of twelve radiating avenues. 

It was commissioned in 1806, after Emperor Napoleon’s victory at Austerlitz at the peak of his fortunes.  Construction began on his birthday, August 15, 1806.  Laying the foundations alone took two years and, in 1810, when Napoleon entered Paris, he had a wooden mock-up of the completed arch constructed.  On December 15,1840, Napoleon’s remains were brought back to France from Saint Helena, and passed under it on their way to the Emperor’s final resting place.  

France planned a victory parade on the Champs Élysées on July 14, 1919, to mark the end of hostilities in World War I.  The military command ordered airmen to participate “on foot,” like the infantry.  Pilots objected and a group of aviators secretly selected one of them to fly through the Arc de Triomphe during the parade. The choice fell on Jean Navarre, a flying ace with 12 air victories, but he died in a practice flight on July 10.

Charles Godefroy volunteered to make the flight in Navarre’s stead.  He had less than 10 feet clearance on either wing tip.  Journalist Jacques Mortane, a close friend of Godefroy photographed the flight.

Crowds of French patriots lined the Champs Elysees to view the 2nd Armored Division as it passed the Arc du Triomphe, after Paris was liberated on August 26, 1944. 

Beneath its arch lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.  Because the tomb is under the arch, parades march around, rather than underneath the structure.  The remains of the Unknown Soldier were interred on Armistice Day 1920.  An eternal flame burns in memory of the dead who were never identified (now from both world wars).  

Tomorrow we’ll go to the Eiffel Tower. 

👉  Two sources told ESPN that the Cleveland Indians plan to drop the nickname they have used for more than a century, becoming the latest professional sports franchise to shed its Native American imagery amid accusations that its use is racist.  The team abandoned its Chief Wahoo logo in 2018.

From 1887 to 1899 they were known as the Cleveland Spiders, because dressed in their black-and-gray uniforms the skinny, long-limbed players looked like arachnids.  From 1903 to 1914 the team was called the Cleveland Naps, after Nap (Napoleon) Lajoie, their star player and manager.  When Lajoie left the team in 1914, the team became the Indians. 

The organization is expected to announce the change this week, sources said, continuing a years-long process in which it and committed to exploring a new nickname.  One group protesting the traditional name and image has proposed the Cleveland Caucasians as a new moniker.

👉  Sandra Lindsay, a nurse in New York was among the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine yesterday morning.  The first U.S. Covid-19 vaccinations outside of clinical trials began Monday, kicking off the most urgent mass immunization campaign since polio shots were rolled out in the 1950s.  Some 145 U.S. hospitals and other sites were slated to receive vaccine doses Monday, followed by 425 on Tuesday and 66 on Wednesday, according to Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of President Donald Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed,” the federal initiative to deliver Covid-19 vaccines.

👉  I knew that if you suffered from triskaidekaphobia you were afraid of the number 13, especially when it falls on a Friday.  But I did not know that if looking at a honeycomb or lotus seed pods or the dimples of a strawberry or the bubbles in a chocolate bar freaks you out, you may suffer from trypophobia, an aversion to clusters of small holes, bumps or repetitive circular patterns.  There are no specific treatments for trypophobia, but most phobias are treated with “exposure therapy,” so this is likely to be effective in treating trypophobia, too.  The article I read did not suggest eating more chocolate, but even if it did not produce a cure, it would be about the best medicine anyone could hope for.

👉  The Third Tuesday in Advent

The Yet on the Other Side

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at?  A reed shaken by the wind?  What then did you go out to see?  Someone dressed in soft robes?  Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces.  What then did you go out to see?  A prophet?  Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.  This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’  Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:7-11).

John is the one who gets everything ready; you cannot jump into the goodness of Christmas without readiness from him.

“Did you think when you heard John that he would be a cowardly little guy?” Jesus asks.  That’s not Advent.  Did you expect when you saw him he would be all dressed up in fancy party clothes?  Maybe for Christmas, but that’s not Advent.

If you knew what he looked like, you would have expected a prophet.  You know about prophets.  They are Israel’s hopers.  They have their eye on God’s future, the newness God will give.  The prophets are Israel’s demand-ers who keep reminding that you must face the demands of God’s Torah commandments of justice and mercy and neighborliness, individual risks for the sake of the community.  The prophets are Israel’s greatest summoners who call Israel to change, to repent, to move away from the world’s fast track, to the patient reality of neighborliness and humanness and compassion and justice.

Jesus knows his jailed cousin is crucial for getting ready.  But after he speaks of John for a while, he reverses field.  As if he said I do not want you to pay so much attention to John and Advent that you do not notice the change in your life when the newness comes.  John is a big public figure.  Everyone knows about him, from King Herod on down.  Yet the least in the kingdom is greater than John.  What a footnote!  No matter how crucial is the old moral urgency, the old disciplines of obedience and devotion, that produce good deeds and mercy and compassion, what comes at Bethlehem is greater.  Greater are those who believe and practice the newness.

These weeks of Advent are a time to stand with John in jail and look to the newness.  Imagine what it would be like to be least in newness and thereby greater than all the old arrangements.

This yet is our news.  Jesus says, Let anyone who has ears, listen.

The newness of God is at hand!  May we believe the newness, receive it, and practice it that we may share in the works of Jesus and live into the miracle that is surging around us.  Amen.

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