S6E60 Christmas Beach Talk with Betsey - Hope Still Sings

Welcome to another Beach Talk with Betsey Newenhuyse—a conversation shaped this week by Christmas, contradiction, and the uneasy beauty of holding hope and lament at the same time.

We start with sacred Christmas music. Betsey’s recent church experience reminded her of why Advent refuses to be sentimental. From dazzling GOVEE lights to the Moody Church Christmas concert (both of us have Chicago roots), from neighborhood parades with sirens, golf carts, and off-road vehicles to San Diego’s LIGHTSCAPE, joy is everywhere—but it’s never uncomplicated. A youth group performing a hip-hop retelling of the Bethlehem story captured it perfectly: ancient hope, modern urgency.

And then there’s the lament. Alta Dena, where fires erased hundreds of homes. A Christmas season shadowed by loss. Rob Reiner’s tragic end — and the President’s responding with a post so ugly it united people in disgust. I’ve been writing about this tension in my Substack, A Christmas Lament, because Advent lives right there—between what is broken and what we still dare to hope for.

Betsey and I also dig into politics and power: what democracy looks like when institutions—from the Walk of Fame to the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian to the U.S. Institute of Peace—are tested.

We’ll end on a grace note: my granddaughter playing The Secret Garden - a solo on her new violin at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, and dreams of a European tour—Prague and Vienna calling.

Hope still sings. 

Merry Christmas!

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