Dark and Light

Good morning!

Again, it's a long time since I wrote. I wonder, am I running out of steam?  Nothing more to say?

We'll see. Perhaps I will write once a month or so in 2012.
Who knows?

Speaking of dark and light, today's the shortest day of the year. That  is nothing unusual; it happens every year at this time. Tilted as we earthlings are, we experience once each year one day on which we are tilted out as far as we can go from the sun, and that's our short day.  I am glad it happens at Christmas time.  Otherwise, what would Christianity have been built on? The mythical and ceremonial part of it I mean.

I've sometimes thought I could live in Australia or Argentina, but for the fact that Christmas comes in summer.  Always summer, but never Christmas, is a despairing idea,--even worse than Lewis's "always winter, but never Christmas....," which is a phrase that strikes to the heart. At least, the heart of me.

Christmas is so important.  It is a glow and a joy in the midst of deepest coldest darkness.  Even the word "Christmas" is lovely: crisp and bright and rich, hinting at stars and snowflakes and the deep red of blood and flowers.

When San Diego changed the name of its winter festival from "Christmas on the  Prado" to "December Nights"...well...how DUH can you be?  "Christmas on the Prado"" sparkles in the dark, in the arboreal and architectural splendor of Balboa Park.  You can't cater to everybody.  Christmas is Christmas, and those who don't like it should say,Bah Humbug and go their own way. 

All this means that tonight will be shorter than last night, and very shortly the difference in the light will be easily perceptible at the hour in which I usually wake and arise: 5 to 6 a.m. A little more light might be desirable at that hour; this a.m. while bending over to put some kitty food into Freckles's plate, I hit my head smartly on the glass tabletop.  And I have the goose-egg (bird's-egg) and blue skin to prove it.  Perhaps I would not have my vision problems if I'd get that operation to put a piece of plastic lens   in my right eye instead of a defective cataracted one. 

Well, this is all for today. We have before us a visit to Kaiser, our second this week and I hope the last for a few weeks.  And I am going to keep on writing this blog if I can muster some gumption, until the end of the year at least. YAZZYBEL