Veni, veni, Emmanuel

Curently at UW: 1.2. High today: 7.3. It's been well above freezing pretty much every day since last report. Chances of a white Christmas are looking pretty remote. When I was a kid, that would've distressed me greatly. It still distresses me a bit.

I have attempted jelly. The attempt has been, so far, less than a complete failure. I have apple-honey jelly and pomegranate-honey jelly which have set, and their lids are down. I have champagne jelly which has not set, but the recipe says it may take a few days, so who knows. What I do not have, however, is confidence that my jelly is properly antisepticized. I do not recommed attempting jelly without a proper canner. The bottom line, given that I don't particularly want to give people jelly that may or may not slowly grow nasties, is that my attempt to make Christmas less stupid seems to have made Christmas slightly more stupid.

And yet I plan to attempt further jelly. Still without a proper canner.

Last Sunday was L's mother's church choir's Christmas concert, which will, barring a Christmas Miracle, have been the only time I was in a church this Christmas. (Or Advent, as the case may be, but never mind. Merry Christmas, Santa Claus. And let me tell you another thing: Christmas sure is making out pretty well--I mean, you know, business-wise--for there being a war on it, eh?) There are a few bits that get me every time--still and all--and some new bits still come through. There's hardly any bit of music that gets me more than the descant to Hark the Herald Angels Sing. They didn't do it, but it gets me even in imagination. They had a screen with the words, and seeing the words "Veiled in flesh the Godhead see / Hail, the incarnate deity"--that got me. Shivers.

(Last week, I saw a Christian harping about a newscaster calling Christmas the most important Christian holiday, which is a standard complaint and it makes perfect sense and everything (though there are several senses in which Christmas is obviously the most important Christian holiday; they just happen not to be theological senses (and in at least one of these non-theological senses, Hanukah is the most important Jewish holiday)), but: from a philosophical perspective (not that that doesn't sound idiotic, and which is, anyway, of course, to say, from my perspective), it's the incarnation that's the profound event. Not just the Eternal's entrance into history, but the incarnation of spirit as a symbol of human incarnation generally. (Which reminds me, I recently discovered that I am, apparently, a New Mysterian. Oh dear.) The idea of redemption (and conversion), well, that's interesting too, but I've never really gotten what the incarnate god's dying (or, particularly, being killed) and coming back to life has to do with it--what the logic of it is.)

It was probably the words on the screen, too, that made me notice, for the first time (!), what's going on in We Three Kings. The first thing that caught my attention on the screen was "incense owns a deity nigh"--it occurred to me that some of a certain Protestant persuasion might find that to be unabidable papist nonsense. And then the next thing that caught my attention was "Glorious now behold him arise / King and God and Sacrifice". Pretty harsh: hurray for the baby who's born to be killed. And then I realized that "King and God and Sacrifice" is what is represented by the three gifts. Which is completely obvious, but, you know, that's the kind of thing that happens when you grow up with something. (When I was a little boy, I thought the three kings were from Orientar. I'm pretty sure I asked my mother where Orientar was.)

So, saintalbatross, three years of Miguel Batista, eh? Good luck with that. ;)