The 24th and 25th were wonderful. Spent time with the family. Opened the new toys for the "kids." Katrina's first Christmas met with her approval, and seemed to make up for weeks of being hauled away from trees, pies and wrapped puddings. She discovered the joy of feathered toys, and, I can safely say, any bird who gets near her will discover the terminal aspects of play. Her current favorite is a stuffed, vaguely bird-like thing with feathers on it like a rooster's tail. She immediately attacked and appropriated it. Katzie, who has never cared for feathery toys, preferring rolling, jingling and glittering stuff, went to see what was so fascinating and received a growl. I went to see, and received a growl. It is definitely Katrina's toy - though she isn't serious about the growling and comes to me, daring me to take it, just so I will and she can chase me, and dropped it close to Katzie so she could cuddle with him on their favorite bed, which is me.
The Midnight Service was decent, though a real pea-soup fog and the nasty weather currently smashing all the way across the country dampened - literally and figuratively - some of the joyfulness. We had a performance by a classical guitarist often featured on NPR, which was wonderful. Christmas morning had a service of carols and readings with Eucharist, and I went with the sister-in-law, and was one of the four who made up the choir. It's the die-hards that show up to Easter Vigil and/or Christmas Day service. The four were a soprano, an alto, a tenor and a bass, however, so we did well. We rocked "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming," certainly.
James cometh upon the weekend coming, so Christmas will then be complete.
I sit in my house, with water dripping, nee pouring, from the light fixture over my bed, water heater malfunctioning, and am still content. Father Jay, in his vigil sermon, said that the Heavenly Host had appeared to the shepherds, not to the great in temple and palaces. I wonder, though, if they didn't appear in those places - in all places - but only the poor and outcast heard them, because it was only to the poor and outcast that a Messiah, a King, like Jesus could be Good News. I am joyful in His coming, and He comes, still, in all of us. That, I firmly believe, is the Second Coming; we embody God, Jesus returns in us. Fools who teach that altruism is a vice, who measure others' worth in their own selfish scales, they have not suffered, because they haven't learned from lack or privation. Such people are the first to cry foul when change and chance take from them their "worth." Some are too weak to learn, even then, the strength of reliance. Fiscal cliff, economic disaster? I kind of hope so. Maybe, that would bring enough suffering, shatter enough complaisance and false "self-reliance" to be the tipping point, bringing enough people to that state to form the Second Coming. Until then, what Good News could come for the replete, the insulated, the over-fortunate from a King who demands sacrifice for and reliance upon the other; who commands community and altruism; who puts at no value all the things that give all this - laughable - "worth?" Only those who lack - and still feel that lack, even in plenty - can comprehend, can appreciate, can Become That. Too much suffering in this world?
Perhaps, not enough.
