Christmas Every Day

Listen!



Listen, 
if stars are lit


it means – there is someone who needs it.


It means – someone wants them to be,


that someone deems those specks of spit


magnificent.


And overwrought,


in the swirls of afternoon dust,


he bursts in on God,
 afraid he might be already late.


In tears,


he kisses God’s sinewy hand


and begs him to guarantee


that there will definitely be a star.


He swears


he won’t be able to stand that starless ordeal.


Later,


He wanders around, worried,


but outwardly calm.


And to everyone else, he says:


‘Now,


it’s all right.


You are no longer afraid,


are you?

‘
Listen,


if stars are lit,


it means – there is someone who needs it.

It means it is essential


that every evening 
at least one star should ascend


over the crest of the building.

–Vladimir Mayakovsky 1914

As you set out for Ithaka

hope the voyage is a long one,

full of adventure, full of discovery.

Laistrygonians and Cyclops,

angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:

you’ll never find things like that on your way

as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,

as long as a rare excitement

stirs your spirit and your body.

Laistrygonians and Cyclops,

wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them

unless you bring them along inside your soul,

unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.

May there be many a summer morning when,

with what pleasure, what joy,

you come into harbors seen for the first time;

may you stop at Phoenician trading stations

to buy fine things,

mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,

sensual perfume of every kind—

as many sensual perfumes as you can;

and may you visit many Egyptian cities

to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.

Arriving there is what you are destined for.

But do not hurry the journey at all.

Better if it lasts for years,

so you are old by the time you reach the island,

wealthy with all you have gained on the way,

not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.

Without her you would not have set out.

She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.

Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,

you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

For life, larger music

    wilder laughter

       louder drums

  greater struggles

       shorter sorrows

    deeper passions

       stranger dreams

For freedom, brighter magic

    stronger witches

        endless nights

  unknown allies

        slower dances

    grand delusions

        deadly fights

For blood, more mysteries

    crueler tyrants

        harder choices

  faster rhythms

        higher voices

And if you’re like me, choose what remains,

    more fear

        deeper danger

  and death as the truest advisor.

Willis Eschenbach

“One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don’t clean it up too quickly.”

— Andy Rooney

In our racist, sexist society, Christmas is the 8 hours when we stop killing each other and gratutious over eating is encouraged so that the starving and other people in the world can die!
— Lloyd Kaufman

Let’s see if we can do better than that for Christmas:

God never gives someone a gift they are not capable of receiving. If he gives us the gift of Christmas, it is because we all have the ability to understand and receive it.

— Pope Francis

Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice.
— Dave Barry

“Unless we ourselves take a hand now, they’ll foist a republic on us. If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.”

— Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard