Today is the first day of Advent. Among many other things, this season is a good time for remembering that hope is always an option: no matter what’s going wrong at the moment.
Celebrating the Moment When God Became One of Us
City lights by the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Photo from the ISS. (2017)
My culture doesn’t have a seasonal phrase like “Jolly Advent!”, which may explain why I could buy Advent calendars, but not Advent cards.
Hallmark (merely links, I don’t get a cent if you click them 😉 )
For me, and quite a few other folks, today is the start of Advent. It’s a pretty big deal, which is one reason this household has an Advent calendar. It’s the same one we’ve used for I don’t know how many years.
As for why Advent matters, it’s when we get ready for celebrating that moment in time when God became one of us. As I said, it’s a pretty big deal.
Pope St. John Paul II talked about that, and some current events, in 1998. Here’s a link to that, and some other resources:
Angelus Pope St. John Paul II (Sunday, November 29, 1998)
USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
“What is Advent?” (Sunday, November 30, 2025 – Wednesday, December 24, 2025)
Advent, Christmas, and Jesus: a Very Quick Review
“The Shepherds and the Angel”, Carl Bloch. (1879)
Because this is Advent, I’ll be getting ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus: the man who is God, whose birth was announced by otherworldly beings, who died and then stopped being dead, and who offers forgiveness and life to anyone who accepts him.
Again: it’s a pretty big deal.
I’ve talked about that, why we need a Savior, and what’s happened over the last two millennia, before:
I’ve said it before. This isn’t the world I grew up in.
Today’s focus on safety, for example, feels over-enthusiastic.
But then, I’m one of those people who launched rockets in the basement. With the permission and cooperation of my father.
I’m not sure how old I was at the time. Early teens is my guess. We were still living at 818, so it could have been while I was in sixth grade, or maybe fifth. Anyway, the Space Age was very much in progress.
I don’t know where I learned about making a rocket with a match, aluminum foil, and a pin; but seeing how it worked seemed like a good idea.
It’s quite simple.
Paperclips, Pins, and Tiny Rockets
Take a match, a scrap of aluminum foil, and a pin. Set the match and the pin on the aluminum foil, with the pin sidelong the match with its point touching the match head.1
Contemporary sensitivities being what they are, I’ll point out the obvious:
Contains flammable materials
Do not swallow
May have been in contact with peanuts
Burning your fingers hurts
Do not use as earplugs
I’ve probably missed something, but will assume that you have a smidgen of sense.
Keeping the pin where it is by the match, wrap the aluminum foil around both, then pull the pin out.
Bend a paperclip so that one end will lie flat on the ground or floor, with the other at about a 45 degree angle. Put the paperclip on the ground or floor.
Put the wrapped match on the little ramp, being careful not to crush the tiny tube left when you pulled out the pin, with the open end of the tiny tube at or near the bottom of the ramp.
Light a match, hold the flame under the aluminum-foil-covered match head.
The enclosed match head should light, hot gas and smoke should shoot out the tiny tube, and the whole tiny rocket should fly off the ramp.
Technically Flammable, But Our Safest Option
That Science Guys video says you should try launching your matchstick rockets outside. That’s a good idea, actually, if the only inside spaces you can use contain carpeting, paper, wood shavings, or open containers of gasoline.
But for me and my father, the basement hallway was probably the safest spot we had.
Outside, even if we launched from a concrete surface, the matchstick rocket might have landed in grass or among leaves. Likely, maybe not; but possible, yes.
The basement hallway, on the other hand, was concrete with linoleum flooring. The walls were, technically, flammable; but igniting them would take much more than one match.
The test flights were a great success. The longest one, my memory tells me, went more than four feet from the paperclip launching ramp.
I only remember launching those matchstick rockets one time. But it’s among my happy memories, and connects with my interest in making and flying model rockets later on.
Technology, Thinking, and Taking it Easy
Model rocket 4H exhibit at the Stearns County Fair. (2012)
I was surprised at how many folks have been writing about how you can make and fly matchstick rockets.
Some, most of the ones I noticed, included unnecessary extras like making little tiny fins for the things.
My oldest daughter pointed out that those fins would probably make the tiny rockets more stable. She’s right, but in such a short flight there’s not much time for the match-and-foil rocket to tumble.
I’m taking it easy this week, so I’ll skip talking about why I think that developing new technology, using our brains, and remembering that hope is an option — all make sense.
Besides, I’ve talked about that before; along with a quick recollection of 818:
“…Among those off the road is this driver in west-central Minnesota, who decided a blizzard is the perfect time to start hauling a fishing boat….” [emphasis mine]
I don’t know who made that decision, or why. But I’m glad it wasn’t me.
Seriously, Though
I’m just glad that, from the looks of it, the fishing boat hauler’s trip ended without serious injury. And, so far, I haven’t learned of anyone getting killed in this storm.
That Bring Me The News article passed along numbers for storm-related accidents from the Minnesota State Patrol, as of 6:00 a.m. today:
253 Reported crashes
30 Resulting in injuries
333 Vehicles off the road
30 jackknifed semis
11 Spinouts
The 30 jackknifed semitrailer trucks include the ones piled up Tuesday afternoon on I-94, about 20 minutes this side of the Minnesota-North Dakota border.
The tangle kept westbound lanes closed for about five hours, I gather. I-94 westbound was finally clear around 9:00 p.m.
It’s easy enough for me to laugh at that someone deciding that hauling a boat in a blizzard is a good idea: and getting the predictable reality check.
I’m in my mid-70s, have lived in this part of the world most of my life, have had my reminders about cause and effect: and learned from many of them. Now that I’ve said that, it sounds like ‘famous last words’, so maybe I’d better stop writing.
Scenes at McStash Mills, near Hillsboro, North Dakota.
More about weather, situational awareness, and stuff that can go wrong:
“Happily ever after doesn’t require any complicated maths, the Vatican said on Tuesday — for Catholics, one spouse is enough.
“In a new decree approved by Pope Leo, the Vatican’s top doctrinal office told the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics they should seek to marry one spouse for life and should not have multiple sexual relationships.
“Criticizing the practice of polygamy in Africa, including among members of the Church, the Vatican reiterated that it believes marriage is a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman.…”
“…’Polygamy, adultery, or polyamory are based on the illusion that the intensity of the relationship can be found in a succession of faces,’ the new decree said.
“The document does not discuss divorce, which the Church does not recognise as it views marriage as a lifelong commitment.
“The Church however has an annulment process, which evaluates whether marriages were properly contracted, and stresses that partners are not expected to stay in abusive relationships.“ [emphasis mine]
This is not what I’ll be talking about this week. But it’s got the potential for becoming ‘breaking news!’, so I’ll take a few minutes with it.
The basic idea, that marriage is between two humans — a man and a woman — isn’t new. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1601-1658)
Neither are rules outlining ways I could, but should not, cheat on my wife. Or vice-versa. (Catechism, 2380-2391)
Most of those prohibitions involve behavior I emphatically would not want to do in the first place, but my guess is that some folks would. I’m surprised that more folks in my native culture haven’t been calling for inter-species marriages. It seemed, in my youth, a likely extension of the animal-rights lunatic fringe. And I’m drifting off-topic.
I found a document on vatican.va that matches the Reuters article description.
“Una Caro” (Italian translation) Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (November 25, 2025)
But since it’s the Italian translation, and runs well upwards of a thousand words, I haven’t read it. Google’s translate function works pretty well, but the document is academese, and — that’s yet another topic.
There’s more I could, and maybe should, say about marriage, Catholic style. But I’ve touched on some of it before:
Something new each Saturday.
Life, the universe and my circumstances permitting. I'm focusing on 'family stories' at the moment. ("A Change of Pace: Family Stories" (11/23/2024))
I was born in 1951. I'm a husband, father and grandfather. One of the kids graduated from college in December, 2008, and is helping her husband run businesses and raise my granddaughter; another is a cartoonist and artist; #3 daughter is a writer; my son is developing a digital game with #3 and #1 daughters. I'm also a writer and artist.
I live in Minnesota, in America's Central Time Zone. This blog is on UTC/Greenwich time.
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Blog - David Torkington
Spiritual theologian, author and speaker, specializing in prayer, Christian spirituality and mystical theology [the kind that makes sense-BHG]
