“Tonight’s December thirty-first,
Something is about to burst.
The clock is crouching, dark and small,
Like a time bomb in the hall.
Hark, it’s midnight, children dear.
Duck! Here comes another year!”
— Ogden Nash
WHAT THOMAS AN BUILE SAID IN A PUB
translated from the Irish by James Stephens
I saw God. Do you doubt it?
Do you dare to doubt it?
I saw the Almighty Man. His hand
Was resting on a mountain, and
He looked upon the World and all about it;
I saw him plainer than you see me now,
You mustn’t doubt it.
He was not satisfied;
His look was all dissatisfied.
His beard swung on a wind far out of sight
Behind the world’s curve, and there was light
Most fearful from His forehead, and He sighed,
“That star went always wrong, and from the start
I was dissatisfied.”
He lifted up his hand
I say he heaved a dreadful hand
Over the spinning Earth. Then I said, “Stay,
You must not strike it, God; I’m in the way
And I will never move from where I stand.”
He said, “Dear Child, I feared that you were dead.”
And stayed his hand.
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.
1911 The first performance of the Indian national anthem
Written in Bengali by Nobel Prize winning poet Rabindranath Tagore, the song “Jana Gana Mana” was first sung at a meeting of the Indian National Congress. After independence, it was adopted as the Indian national anthem. In English the first verse proclaims:
Thou art the rulers of the minds of all people,
Dispenser of India’s destiny.
Of the Dravida and Orissa and Bengal;
It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas,
mingles in the music of Yamuna and Ganga and is chanted by
the waves of the Indian Sea.
They pray for the blessing and sing thy praise.
The saving of all people waits in the hand,
thou dispenser of India’s destiny,
Victory, victory, victory to thee.
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
Some interesting folk beliefs about Christmas:
From a curious old song preserved in the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, we learn that it was thought peculiarly lucky when Christmas-day fell on a Sunday, and the reverse when it occurred on a Saturday.
Lordinges, I warne you al beforne,
Yef that day that Cryste was borne,
Falle uppon a Sunday;
That wynter shall be good par fay,
But grete wyndes alofte shalbe,
The somer shall be fayre and drye;
By kynde skylle, wythowtyn lesse,
Throw all londes shalbe peas,
And good tyme all thyngs to don,
But he that stelyth he shalbe fownde sone;
Whate chylde that day borne be,
A great lord he shalbe.If Crystmas on the Saterday falle,
That wynter ys to be dredden alle,
Hyt shalbe so fulle of grete tempeste
That hyt shall sle bothe man and beste,
Frute and corn shal fayle grete won,
And olde folke dyen many on;Whate woman that day of chylde travayle
They shalbe borne in grete perelle
And chyldren that be borne that day,
Within half a yere they shall dye par fay,
The summer then shall wete ryghte ylle:
If thou awght stele, hyt shel the spylle;
Thou dyest, yf sekenes take the.’
An astonishing number of church-related actions took place on December 25. Here are a few of them:
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