Think upon these things Christmas 1974

The make of Arizona and the lands bordering its legal perimeter is more similar in character to the Holy Land than any other place on earth. It is in parts a land of olive trees, palms, almonds and pomegranates. Our Colorado River is the counterpart to the river Jordan, the Rim country might well be the mountainous region of Gilead. The determining quality of the characteristic similarity, however, is the deserts. It is interesting to note that the longer lived of the world's religious philosophies were born in the desert regions of the world. Islam, Judaism and Christianity were born of the same earth, nourishing people of the same basic, simple qualities.

The Indians of Arizona's deserts live according to the traditions, teachings and prophecies of their respective beliefs. They live and thrive on a life of hardship and love of nature, as did the shepherds and the people of the earth in the time of Jesus. Arizona's Indian people lived in the Arizona desert wildernesses centuries before the first Christians came. They found the desert challenging but good - to them a haven of peace and security. After centuries of desert living Arizona's Indians still prefer to cling to the desert. The lands of the Papago and Pimas are of a bleak and unyielding nature. The Hopi desert land is a vastness of eroded mesas and windswept plateaus. Navajoland is so much like the Holy Land in character that little more than a decade ago Jesus would have felt very much a part of the scene, though somewhat startled to see himself in the person of Charlton Heston. He would have seen Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem along Glen Canyon's Kane Creek Road. The waters of Lake Powell now cover the site on the Colorado River where the sequence of Christ's baptism by John the Baptist was filmed. The desert wilderness of the forty days fast is forever there. He would have seen the Roman soldiers high on the hill as Charlton Heston preached to the multitude...it all happened in Arizona during the filming of "The Greatest Story Ever Told." DirectorProducer George Stevens' choice of Glen Canyon was made after extensive study and comparison of the present-day Holy Land with the American Southwest. Mr. Stevens felt that the story of Christ could not be filmed in the Holy Land because the Holy Land of Christ's time does not exist anymore. The Glen Canyon region was primitive and unspoiled, and had never been used as a setting for a motion picture. It will never be used in the same way again as the area is now filled with the waters of Lake Powell, behind Glen Canyon Dam (see pages 24-25). Now that we have related Arizona to the Holy Land and our people to the greatest story, we must confess the foregone ruminations are an introduction to our Christmas presentation for 1974. The genius and perceptiveness of our photographers are a testimonial attesting to the beauty of Arizona and the Southwest. The God-given qualities inherent in all true artists are expressed by the degree of awareness and understanding of the story of man and his journey, as communicated through our reproductions of their works. Ours is a direct message, man-to-man, and related to all things and all seasons. The word Christmas is beset by many trite associations which color and confuse its meaning: Christmas is for children... Christmas means the pleasure of giving.... Christmas means the joy of receiving...etc.

In a mature universal sense the Spirit of Christmas, the meaning of Christmas, is a celebration, a testimonial to the glory of one the world knows as Jesus Christ, honored for his teachings and his genius with a four letter word spelled L-O-V-E.

Had Jesus died before his thirtieth birthday there would be no reason for honoring the “greatest life” ever lived. His great years were numbered 3. The critical days of his great years were the forty days Jesus spent in the desert wilderness. Neither the cleansing water of the Jordan, nor the prophetic voice of John, his Baptizer, calmed the crises in his heart and mind. A voice bidding him to give his life for the cause of a better world drowned out all else. Jesus went from the river into the desert in a quest for his Spirit and the peace of his soul. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and thirsted. The Spirit led and eluded him at last he grappled it. He denounced evil and dedicated his life for the good of all men. Jesus had gone into the desert a carpenter, a small-town man, a neophyte inspired by the word of John and a sounding from God in his conscience. The New Man came out of the desert a citizen of the world, a prophet, a genius and a teacher.Jesus was a genius at teaching. He had a way with words. He had a genius for knowing what people wanted to know. He had a genius for the power of faith, a genius that inspired hope into despaired souls. Above all, he had a genius for courage - the deepest measure of courage known to man. He knew his mission and he knew The Way, simply, without precept or example. Jesus was thirty years of age when he began to teach. In less than three years, his enemies had him nailed to the cross. Those years of teaching were the great years of the “Greatest Life” The teachings attributed to him have influenced the course of human history more than by all the Kings, Emperors, Popes, Generals and Presidents put together. His teachings have been the religious inspiration of Christianity throughout almost two thousand years in a movement which has dominated and molded the cultural, social and political polarity of the entire world. During that period believers in the faith explored or discovered or occupied the whole of earth's surface to the outline now shaped by civilization. In view of this foregone conclusion Jesus, the teacher, stands easily as the most important figure that has appeared in the history of mankind.

Christmas is the season for reflection and self improvement. This is a time of world crises, national crises, family crises and crises of our conscience. Crises have been only temporary roadblocks on the highways of civilization.At Christmas time we are all somehow synchronized to a harmonious rhythm strangely apart from the unsynchronized beat measure of the world's metronomes. In our Arizona desert co country where highways stretch forever into opposite horizons, there are times when the traffic seems hopelessly stalled on both sides of a roadblock. What a great time to stop, park and ponder - to take a walk “in the desert” and think think about how you can make this world just a particle of an atom better. There is no better place than the desert for grappling with the crises within your conscience. If nothing else, you will get to know yourself, who you are and what you could be and cannot be. You may not emerge from the desert the greatest personality of your time, but person-to-person, friend, the time of the human universe is not set by any individual's wrist watch. The great clock of humanity is set by sun time - which is Everyman's time.

Understand these things and live Christmas knowing that the positive glories and beauties of civilization will outlive the negative promises of our crises. - JOSEPH STACEY

Mother earth, men, women and sheep - the inseparables in the world of the Navajo.

BELOW: "Navajo Girl and Goats," left, and "Navajo Boy and Dog," far right, both by RAY SWANSON. courtesy Husberg's Fine Art Gallery, Sedona. Center, sunrise in Monument Valley - CARLOS ELMER ABOVE: Animate forms, sunlight and natural textures in a moment of enchanting composition. - ALLEN C. REED RIGHT: "Navajo," oil on canvas by ROBERT RISHELL. courtesy Troy's Cowboy Art Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona

The Navajo lives in the Beauty of his land and his intimacy with Nature. He reflects it in his manner, the line of his roof and the pattern of his personal adornment.

The Navajo wife and mother is the focus, not only of the family, but of the economic life as well. The matriarchal system, as practiced by the Navajo, is based on a system of a vertical division of authority, duty and property between husband and wife. The wife controls the home and its furniture and the children. The sheep are owned by her as is the wool, the blankets, the jewelry ...and perhaps several horses.

Hopi Land is the charm of strangeness ...unusual forms, unusual colors and the enchantment of native rhythms.

Seventy-five miles northwest of the Petrified forest are the seven principal villages of the Hopi. Shungopovi and Old Oraibi are the oldest. All are built on the tops of once almost inaccessible mesas. They are picturesque and remarkable in appearance with terraced houses of stone and adobe. The social-political ambience of each village is synchronized to the philosophies and teachings born of the kivas and released through the rhythm of their dances.