Virginia Tech beat Virginia 17-0 today.  You can read about it here.  And just in case you are interested, Virginia Tech came into this game ranked 1st in the nation for scoring defense.  :)

Well, in America, the day after Thanksgiving holiday marks the official beginning of the Christmas shopping season.  As a result, over the years, this Friday has come to be known as “Black Friday.”  Consumerism and Materialism at its worst.  This year some folks have initiated “Buy Nothing Day.”  There’s even a Hungarian translation of the website! http://www.nevasaroljsemmitnap.hu/

Happy Thanksgiving!  Our friend Arden was in the Szeged newspaper today!  Check it out.

Wow.  We will be flying to America on December 5th…less than two weeks away.  We are so excited to visit family and friends, to see Virginia Tech, to go to Walmart, to see the Appalachian mountains.  But, as the trip approaches, we have been surprised to feel a little sad about missing Christmas in Hungary with our Hungarian friends.  Why can’t we be in two places at the same time?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fw1CcxCUgg]
This is Jason McElwain’s story.

Meaning. Finding meaning helps us to act. It makes us learn. Meaning is the sense to see connections, as well as our place and significance within the course of life’s events. We need others to shape meaning.

Szabadság, Szerelem!

E kettő kell nekem

Szerelmemért föláldozom

Az életet,

Szabadságért föláldozom

Szerelmemet.

-Petőfi Sandor, 1847

Freedom, Love!

These two I need

For my love I sacrifice life

For freedom I sacrifice my love.

• What inner abilities do we need to cultivate in order to promote the value and importance of other people and not just to pursue our own interests?
• How do we stay meaningfully engaged with people in a society that emphasizes what we can get out of it, not what we can give it?
• In an increasingly globalised world that worships personal happiness and the making of money, what are the values we need to become fully human?

A couple weeks ago, Laura’s sister came for a ten day visit, and we had a great time.  She brought a box of fun surprises which included this children’s educational game, Mighty Mind.  As you can see it, “makes kids smarter and keeps them busy for hours!”  Whoa.  Whoever did the marketing and cover design for this should get a raise. 

Here is an English translation of Petőfi’s 1848 poem.  I think the translator took some liberty in order to make it rhyme in English, but it is a good translation. 

Rise up, Magyar, the country calls!
It’s ‘now or never’ what fate befalls…
Shall we live as slaves or free men?
That’s the question - choose your ‘Amen”!
God of Hungarians, we swear unto Thee,
We swear unto Thee - that slaves we shall no longer be!

For up till now we lived like slaves,
Damned lie our forefathers in their graves - 
They who lived and died in freedom
Cannot rest in dusts of thraldom.
God of Hungarians, we swear unto Thee,
We swear unto Thee - that slaves we shall no longer be!

A coward and a lowly bastard
Is he, who dares not raise the standard - 
He whose wretched life is dearer
Than the country’s sacred honor.
God of Hungarians, we swear unto Thee,
We swear unto Thee - that slaves we shall no longer be!

Sabers outshine chaine and fetters,
It’s the sword that one’s arm betters.
Yet we wear grim chains and shackles.
Swords, slash through damned manacles!
God of Hungarians, we swear unto Thee,
We swear unto Thee - that slaves we shall no longer be!

Magyar’s name will tell the story
Worthy of our erstwhile glory
we must wash off - fiercely cleansing
Centuries of shame and condensing.
God of Hungarians, we swear unto Thee,
We swear unto Thee - that slaves we shall no longer be!

Where our grave-mounds bulge and huddle
Our grandson will kneel and cuddle,
While in grateful prayer they mention
All our sainted names’ ascension.
God of Hungarians, we swear unto Thee,
We swear unto Thee - that slaves we shall no longer be!

(March 13. 1848)