Laurel wreaths indicate conquering and joy.

A Circle of Wreaths

My wish is you are encircled by joy and enraptured by the crown of your conquests.

30 Comments

  1. This has to win the prize for the most interesting of Christmas wishes – I have been blessed I hope you and yours are too.

  2. Hiya Nicola!
    Thanks for the lovely comment.
    It was a challenge to try to as supportive but as secular as possible to include as many people as possible — but then I realized Santa was a big part of the image so I sort of split the baby in a strange and curious way.
    The original title of today’s post was “A Circle of Crowns” because wreaths were used as crowns in antiquity but I thought too many people would interpret that title as too overtly Christian so I brought it to the “Laurel” level instead.

  4. Hi Chris!
    No, the artwork isn’t mine. It’s a scan from an old set of holiday cards that Janna and I both love.
    Thanks for the good wishes, Chris, and I hope you and yours are having a great break together!

  5. Hi David!
    Thank you for the fascinating wish and Merry Christmas to you and Janna and everyone here!!!

  6. Hi Katha!
    It is so fine to hear from you today, and we thank you for the kind return wishes and I hope your schooling went well for the first semester of your PhD.

  9. Greets, David! This is a different holiday wish. It seems fitting to me and I can see why you don’t want a rehash of an angels contempt from last week.

  10. Hello Anne!
    You’re right about that. The hate mail for my “Seeing Angels in Saint Patricks Cathedral” article was surprising and harsh as I was accused of being a shill for organized religion. Most of the most hateful comments did not get published.

  11. It did seem like there were some readers who were writing their thoughts over what you really meant. You can’t worry about those types. Don’t let them change your work.

  12. I agree, Anne, you write what you write and if people are offended by the wide array of your views, then that’s really their problem and not yours.
    True “non-believers” believe in everything.
    :mrgreen:

  13. David,
    Thanks for the insight! True “non believers” really believe in everything becuase they don’t feel pressurized to prove their “beliefs” or “non beliefs”!

  14. Hi Katha!
    Ah! You’re logged in and we can once again see your beautiful Avatar next to your comments. Yay!
    Right on, Katha! We who believe in not one thing are free to believe in everything and I find that much more freeing and prescient and human than those who choose one narrow path.
    There’s a famous atheist scientist who said to a True Believer, “You believe in one more God than I do; and once you list the reasons you rejected all the other Gods, you’ll understand why I have none.”

  15. Hi David,
    Even believers — who truly believe — accept others with love so that they may experience what God intended.
    I gave myself an interesting Christmas present: my very own Wiki. 🙂

  16. Chris!
    Your faith requires belief in Christ, does it not? So you would never be able to fully entertain, or even accept, the beliefs of the Jewish faith, right?
    Your wiki looks very cool! Did you pay for it? Was it hard to install?
    The new Drupal 5.0 that is coming soon looks very promising as a keen CMS and you can even “blog” with it and take comments. I look forward to your very thorough review!
    😉
    http://drupal.org/

  17. Hi David,
    The wiki wasn’t hard to install at all. I used the control panel that’s provided by my host to install the wiki as well as Joomla software. The software is open source, so it’s free for anyone to download. The wiki’s home page has a link to the place where the software can be obtained and loaded onto a server.
    I’m going to use the wiki for my “web goodies” but I’m somewhat interested to see if anyone else adds anything to it in the collaborative way it’s supposed to be used.
    I’ve been playing around with my ChristopherHedges.com domain learning as I go along. I have the dedicated IP and a secure certificate as well. (I’m planning on setting up a proxy so I can surf from WiFi sites via my secure server while I’m out and about without having to worry about someone grabbing my email and WordPress passwords).
    (In the interest of full disclosure and to avoid violating any FTC rules, I have to advise that I’m a domain name and hosting reseller).

  18. Hi David,
    Back to the question about the Jewish faith.
    Since I’m sort of a “mutt” when it comes to religion — I’ve been to every sort of Christian church — I believe that God has a special plan that includes salvation for the Jews since they are His Chosen People.
    I also believe that people can be saved, even if they haven’t heard the Christian message. Someone on a small island some place should be able to get to heaven, even if they haven’t formally been introduced to the faith since the Bible says that even rocks and trees know God. It would stand to reason that people instinctive know and can make choices, even if they are away from organized religion.
    But I also believe that people have free will to reject the message and make their own decisions as well. So, if someone rejects God, then they are allowed to make that choice. But, they are also allowed to accept God at a later date as well.
    I assume that God looks more at intent than at procedure. Good people can go to hell while “bad” people might be going to heaven, depending on what is in their hearts.
    It all goes back to the greatest commandment of loving each other.

  19. Ah! Control Panel installs are divine. They usually default to the friendliest setup. That’s good for having fun and experimenting!
    Getting an IP address and a secure cert helps. Who is issuing your secure certificate and how much are they charging you for the honor?

  21. Oh, and Chris!
    Did you ever weigh in with a full and thoughtful comment on the “Seeing Angels in Saint Patricks Cathedral” post as your promised?
    😀

  24. Hi David,
    Thanks!
    It’s nice to have the 256 bit encryption to keep unwanted eyes from reading ones email. 🙂
    From Activitor.com:

    For example, the combination of a Firefox browser and an Apache 2.X Web server enables 256-bit AES encryption with our SSL certificates. That means that if your Web site is hosted on a server whose software supports 256-bit encryption — such as Apache 2.X —, then site visitors that use a Firefox browser will have their transactions with your site protected by 256-encryption. Thus with the right combination of Web browser and Web server, you can establish a 256-bit encrypted secure connection via a Secure SSL Certificate.

  25. Hi David,
    Thanks!
    It’s nice to have the 256 bit encryption to keep unwanted eyes from reading ones email. 🙂
    From Activitor.com:

    For example, the combination of a Firefox browser and an Apache 2.X Web server enables 256-bit AES encryption with our SSL certificates. That means that if your Web site is hosted on a server whose software supports 256-bit encryption — such as Apache 2.X —, then site visitors that use a Firefox browser will have their transactions with your site protected by 256-encryption. Thus with the right combination of Web browser and Web server, you can establish a 256-bit encrypted secure connection via a Secure SSL Certificate.

  26. SSL can slow down your interaction if it is used for all interaction and not just securing private information.
    WordPress.com used to have SSL turned on for everything and they recently turned it off because the overload was killing their servers. They might offer it again as a addon feature but for now it is dead because the cost ratio between performance and production was not hacking it.

  27. Hi David,
    I’ll have to remember that. Most of the time, it doesn’t matter if someone sees what I’m typing — especially if I’m typing a blog comment.
    I’m always concerned about who is looking at passwords, if I’m using a public WiFi system. SSL provides a little more comfort when using WiFi at Panera or some other place.

  29. Sometimes the best way to learn is to jump in and experiment! One use I’ve found is that I can customize my reseller page and not have warnings pop up about unsecured items because I can call photos from the secured server. 🙂

  30. That’s interesting, Chris! That was a problem with the WordPress.com SSL implementation. If people legitimately called images from beyond the WordPress.com domain the https:// browser warnings would go off and insecure cert warnings would pop up, too.

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