Mish Mash (with some Christmas thrown in)

Since I don't feel like doing actual work this morning (Motivation is a little low on a Wednesday morning.) and I'm don't feel like playing sudoku, I think I'll write up some random things.

First: Monday Photo Shoot: Show us something of interest on your porch.


Ellen's ferrets


2. Did you know that when after a woman has a baby and her ligaments all tighten back up her hips may not return to their normal position? This apparently happened to my mom about 35.5 years ago. This is why her already bad back has gotten SO bad. So our spines are designed to carry all that weight out front but our hips could use some work.

C. What large piece of equipment is backing up outside my office and why is it's beeper so damn loud? It's stopped now.

D: Why the f^@k isn't our heat on? Yes, I could get a space heater but that still begs the question "WHY?". Has the university really saved any money by not having the heat on through the entire semester (steam plant cranked up Monday, they have heat next door) when students, faculty, and staff are putting (illegal) space heaters in their dorm rooms and offices?

5th: I forgot now what that was going to be.

Sixthly, I was reminded Sunday of a Christmas anthem that I really like. Nettie and I went to the choir concert at church and one of the things they sung was "This Christmastide" the chorus of which is "May peace and hope and love abide, this Christmastide." It is a very pretty quiet song. I don't remember all the words but it is a nice quiet Christmas song. Another anthem I love for Christmas time is "Peace Came to Earth." Not only does it have a lovely French horn part, but it is also a quiet awe-filled Christmas song, too. The chorus isn't exactly the same every time but follows the pattern "Who could but ____ Emmanuel? Who could but _____ Emmanuel?" with different verbs filling the blanks. The piece builds to the last verse ending with "Who could but shout Emmanuel? Who could but praise Emmanuel?"

Driving in this morning I was thinking about how I like the joyful Christmas songs but I also like the quite reverent ones, too. While the Christmas holiday is one of joy at the coming of the Christ (going to be a bit religious for a bit here) and we should celebrate His birth, it is also one of awe. (If you are not a Christian, try to imagine how the following knowledge would make one feel to believe this.) God choose to come down to earth not as a king or a hero or champion. He came to earth as a baby, a most fragile and vulnerable creature. Not even a prince or the child in a wealthy family but the son of a carpenter. Jesus bumped his head a million times as a toddler, scraped his knees playing chase, and got his butt tore up for sassing his momma (of the Israelite equivalent). God choose to be born a baby, to be a surly teenager with raging hormones*, to have to do chores, to fight with his parents for his independence, etc. God didn't have to do that. That is what we celebrate Tuesday. (Well, those of us who celebrate it as a religious holiday as well as a cultural one.)

Luke 2:19 say "But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart." I have an image of Mary, obviously not jumping up and down with glee since she'd just given birth, sitting there with angels signing and shepherds adoring and thinking not only I am now a mother and responsible for this child but my child is the Christ. And possibly following that up with an "OMG, WTF am I suppose to do?" Sometimes I think we Christians are suppose to just sit and be amazed. There is a lot about the Christmas story that doesn't make much sense. (Why were the shepherds in the fields in winter? It had to have been spring.) And I'm not entirely sure I'm completely on board with the whole virgin birth thing. But, to me, that doesn't change the beauty of it all.

Sorry, didn't mean to get all theological on you.

*I do not believe that Jesus was always a perfect child who never got in trouble. If he was fully human than he screwed up a bit along the way.