As Advent approaches...

Thanksgiving is over, although we’ll be eating turkey for awhile yet. Thanks to the Better Half’s [BH] efforts today, the house is looking all sparkly and twinkly. Christmas must be coming.

sparkling snowflakes cover the window

Photo by J. Harrington

Tomorrow the BH and I will see about choosing one of the skinny pines on the property for this year's tree. The  Daughter Person’s birthday is early next month and  it’s been a long-standing tradition that the house has to be decorated by her birthday. It looks like the tradition will again be upheld this year. And, after all, aren’t traditions a big part of most Christmas celebrations?

By now you’ve probably heard the news reports about yet another worrisome COVID-19 variant and are wondering how much this year’s “season of joy" will be disrupted by the continuing pandemic. There is at least one other way to look at the circumstances surrounding this year’s Christmas. Any disruptions we experience may parallel those of Mary and Joseph, thanks to governmental lockdowns for the Roman census. According to Luke:

At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) All returned to their own towns to register for this census. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David's ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, his fiance, who was obviously pregnant by this time.

And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the village inn.

Meanwhile, lots of folks these days  are complaining about wearing a mask or getting a vaccination to help protect those who are more vulnerable, especially children under 5, who aren’t eligible to be safely  vaccinated. Makes me wonder how many of US know the form but not the real meaning of Christmas.

“Your Luck Is About To Change”

By Susan Elizabeth Howe

(A fortune cookie)

Ominous inscrutable Chinese news 

to get just before Christmas, 

considering my reasonable health, 

marriage spicy as moo-goo-gai-pan, 

career running like a not-too-old Chevrolet. 

Not bad, considering what can go wrong: 

the bony finger of Uncle Sam 

might point out my husband, 

my own national guard, 

and set him in Afghanistan; 

my boss could take a personal interest; 

the pain in my left knee could spread to my right. 

Still, as the old year tips into the new, 

I insist on the infant hope, gooing and kicking 

his legs in the air. I won't give in 

to the dark, the sub-zero weather, the fog, 

or even the neighbors' Nativity. 

Their four-year-old has arranged 

his whole legion of dinosaurs 

so they, too, worship the child, 

joining the cow and sheep. Or else, 

ultimate mortals, they've come to eat 

ox and camel, Mary and Joseph, 

then savor the newborn babe.  

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