The painting I chose to illustrate my post is “Good King Wenceslas” (1898) by the British painter George Sheridan Knowles (1863-1931).

Article if you’d like to read: www.sfgate.com/local/articl...

Betty’s family announced her passing and has requested privacy during this time. In lieu of flowers, they’ve asked that those wishing to honor her legacy consider donations to Betty Reid Soskin Middle School and to a forthcoming film documenting her remarkable life.

Other woods were used for the wassail cup, depending on local custom: ash in Cornwall and Somerset, green maple in Gloucestershire, and mulberry in Staffordshire. Rosemary is named in The Wassail Song by Bramley & Stainer, and may reflect a Yorkshire or Oxfordshire tradition.

"Our wassail cup is made
Of the rosemary tree,
And so is your beer
Of the best barley" - from a traditional Wassail Song.
Wassailing is an old tradition of going from door-to-door singing at Christmas. The singers offer a drink from the wassail cup, and in return are given gifts.

This is my Christmas gift to my homeless neighbors, to the volunteers who get great joy from helping them…and, yes, to myself. Merry Christmas to all!

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And my neighbors who are cold, wet, hungry, and overwhelmed…are now happy that their humble little refuge — where love gets traction, and prayers are answered — will stay in business.

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And now, I get to partner with the wonderful network of volunteers and caring people who run the Lynnwood Hygiene Center. And — thanks to $400K in community donations — there is funding to develop the center through capital improvements.

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So, I purchased the center and the land it sits on — the best $2 million I can imagine spending.

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It's an invisible need… an invisible center… helping invisible people. Meanwhile, I’m haunted by the invisible impact of the insatiable greed that’s so widespread (and sadly, celebrated) in our multi-millionaire and billionaire class.

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And tragically, once a center like this is gone, it’s hard to imagine it popping up somewhere else in these NIMBY times.

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For an entire community of my down-and-out neighbors, this hygiene center is the only place to take a shower, wash clothes, repair a bike, or get a sweater, blanket, or hot meal…while also enjoying a little bit of community.

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Then, about a month ago, I learned that the only hygiene center in my neighborhood was being shut down. The property was being sold...destined to be developed.

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