Gary Carden will do an “old Christmas” program at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 13, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

Carden will discuss many of the old superstitions and beliefs about Christmas and cover traditional celebrations such as serenading, dumb suppers, and the “lost” 12 days of Christmas. 

As author Thomas Rain Crowe discovered during his own long journey from Western North Carolina to California to Europe (and with due respect to another Western North Carolinian, Thomas Wolfe), you can go home again. Crowe did.

Georgia poet and author Rupert Fike and I lived in the San Francisco Bay area during the 1970s in a time of social renaissance and spiritual awakening. He was with a core group community of some 300 young activists and idealists. The earliest beginnings of this community go back to San Francisco and a weekly meeting called Monday Night Class.

The Christmas season, dreaded by some, beloved by others, especially children. Already you’ll find houses festooned with lights and yards dotted with inflatable Santas, “Jingle Bells” and “Silent Night” on the radio and grocery store shelves stuffed with cards, chocolates and holiday cookies. 

Recently, I was gifted the use of a book to read on Native American wisdom by my Sylva dentist Dr. David McGuire. Thousands of years ago, the Toltec were known throughout southern Mexico as “women and men of knowledge” and who formed a society to explore and conserve the spiritual knowledge and practices of the ancient ones.

To the Editor:

The decision facing Jackson County’s leaders is more than an administrative matter. It is a test of values. Will our commissioners uphold the long tradition of education, cooperation and integrity that has defined our community, or will they yield to a small, insistent minority determined to restrict access to educational information under the false banner of protecting children? 

Recently, a teacher of history asked me, a former teacher of history, about ways to bring history alive for high school students. My response hasn’t varied in 40 years: “Make connections.” Students — and the rest of us as well — need to remember we live today with the consequences of events like the signing of the Declaration of Independence or the Battle of Gettysburg.

Acclaimed Western North Carolina author Thomas Rain Crowe will present his new book, “New Natives: Becoming Indigenous in a Time of Crisis and Transition,” with photographer Simone Lipscomb at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

One of the best things about the East Coast is the fall. Last November, I made a trip to California and was surprised to find mild weather and a nameless time. There’s a reason it’s called the place where seasons never change, and I realized then and there, I was an East Coast girl through and through. 

Henry T. and Priscilla M. Ireys will share their new book, “The Keep: Living with the Tame and the Wild on a Mountain Farm,” at 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.