A Momentary Taste of Being

As no one will read this long post on facebook, it seemed wise to repeat myself: While I agree with much that people have posted on the usurpation of Thanksgiving, I note that we are in a time in which the lyrics of this song are most germane: Mame: Haul out the holly;   Put up the tree before my spirit falls again.   Fill up the stocking,   I may be rushing things,   but deck the halls again now.   For we need a little Christmas   Right this very minute,   Candles in the window,   Carols at the spinet.   Yes, we need a little Christmas   Right this very minute.   It hasn't snowed a single flurry,   But Santa, dear, we're in a hurry;   So climb down the chimney;   Put up the brightest string of lights I've ever seen.   Slice up the fruitcake   It's time we hung some tinsel on that evergreen bough.   For I've grown a little leaner,   Grown a little colder, ...

Started the year with Claude Debussy--"Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" and "La Mer."  There's just not much better for easing into what is going to be a fantastic year for all of us.

Reflecting on "Auld Lang Syne" via Books Inq.

Let's start with an epitome: Kobyashi Issa New Year's Day New Year's Day-- everything is in blossom! I feel about average. Tr. Robert Haas  Then we have the inimitably cheerful Thomas Hardy At the Entering of the New Year   and, of course, what would a change of year be without The Darkling Thrush For those making resolutions we have Rainer Maria Rilke's Archaic Torso of Apollo My own haiku: The new year comes in the old goes out; nothing stops the baby's crying. (I claim it for my own--but I will readily say that it is so engrained in memory that I may have stolen it from some great writer of haiku and forgotten.  If anyone reads this and recognizes the real author (if, indeed, I am not he), please let me know.) Then we have Robert Herrick sending A New Year's Gift to Sir Simon Steward And we can depart the subject where we entered--with Issa's quiet wisdom New Year's Morning Kobiyashi Issa  New Year's morning: the du...

A day early, but as I don't plan to be on tomorrow to extend these seasonal greetings--a favorite carol: Noel nouvelet, Noel chantons ici, Devotes gens, crions a Dieu merci! Chantons Noel pour le Roi nouvelet, Noel! Chantons Noel pour le Roi nouvelet, Noel nouvelet, Noel chantons ici! L'ange disait! pasteurs partez d'ici! En Bethleem trouverez l'angelet. Chantons Noel pour le Roi nouvelet, Noel! Chantons Noel pour le Roi nouvelet, Noel nouvelet, Noel chantons ici! En Bethleem, etant tous reunis, Trouverent l'enfant, Joseph, Marie aussi. Chantons Noel pour le Roi nouvelet, Noel! Chantons Noel pour le Roi nouvelet, Noel nouvelet, Noel chantons ici! Bientot, les Rois, par l'etoile eclaircis, A Bethleem vinrent un matinee. Chantons Noel pour le Roi nouvelet, Noel! Chantons Noel pour le Roi nouvelet, Noel nouvelet, Noel chantons ici! L'un partait l'or; l'autre l'encens bem; L'etable alors au Paradis semblait. Chantons N...

The Corrections? Really?  Is it possible to choose anything less seasonal, more profoundly antiseasonal?  As much as I did enjoy The Corrections , I certainly would NOT recommend it in this season.  And were I to recommend a novel along similar lines it would, without doubt, be Rohinton Mistry's Family Matters.

For the Season Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the Season

One of a great many proclaimed Thanksgiving Days--but the one that stuck for the nation

To my readers in the United States--Happy Thanksgiving Day.  May it truly be a day of giving thanks for all that we enjoy. To my readers around the world--you are one of the things for which I am giving thanks today.  Thank you!

Epiphany, despite the American Church's insistence on moving all the Feasts about is today.  This is the twelfth day and I'm awaiting my twelve lords a leapin'. In the meantime, one might peruse this Ephiphany poem from Quid Plura --a real delight, excerpt below Bereft of bark, I bat my bone about, And do my simple service as a spout,

New Year greetings to all.  May all who visit and all they love experience a wonderful, blessed, and peaceful new year.  May it begin a decade that is in all ways superior to this last. And may your reading all be good.

For those of us in the Catholic and related liturgical churches, Christmas season has at least 12 days (although this is highly debated in some circles--those who hold that it continues until The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.  Given the great length of Lent, I tend to side with those vying for a longer Christmas season. Nevertheless, we are merely now a day after, and I trust that all of those who celebrated this great feast had a wonderful celebration.  I was stirred to momentary envy when I thought of my brothers and sisters overseas, who having the foresight and diligence to create what has been called elsewhere their "fruit composts," were able to bring to the Christmas tables their plum puddings with whatever sauce (Devonshire cream, hard sauce, brandy sauce) they chose.  (I'm afraid that one of the places that I do fall victim to the English cuisine is in the area of sweets--plum pudding, stick toffee pudding, spotted dick, any of those sweet cake-like br...

And God bless us, every one. No matter how often heard, nor how badly played, the thought and the feeling behind the words is eternal.  May you be blessed this Christmas with the blessing God has prepared for you from eternity. And now, for something completely different--a less well known Night Before Christmas c/o Laudator Temporis Acti.