“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy–the Son of God.

— Gospel of Luke chpt. 1

Here it is.  The Christian prequel to the Nativity, an entirely natural birth of a child, under less than fortuitous circumstances.  I have mentioned that I could not be considered a believer, a Christian under the terms widely understood by the words “Christian believer.”  Not that my relationship to religion is anything that I would take credit for.  Belief or disbelief is not a matter of volition.  One does not calculate the probability in order to commit or not.  There is no evidence to be considered, Q.E.D., (Latin abbreviation for quod erat demonstrandum) leading to clear cut conclusion.  After all the Gospels are a patchwork of stories, polished in the day to day use by a subculture in Greco-Roman late antiquity.

The notion of a virgin birth is mind boggling.  Even in a culture that revered Athena, goddess of warfare, wisdom, and handicraft, born from the forehead of Zeus, a virgin birth was more than a stretch.  In the 21st Century only if, by virtue of heritage you “drink the kool aid” of Christian faith, — can one turn a blind eye to the absurdity of the story of the dialog between Mary and the angelic messenger. The terms, 1) son of the most high…  2)  the throne of his father David  3) of his kingdom there will be no end, etc.  Transparently these are metaphors!  Interpreted literally the phrases beggar the meaning of language!

And yet, there is something seductive, true-to-life, persuasive about all of this.  The shear absurdity, the impossibility of the matter, the wild gamble, the nod of the head to chance, the anguish that comes when you really, really need circumstances to break in your favor, to unaccountably benefit from “good luck” …

Upon reflection on my life, such a description fits my experience, more times than I can remember.

So, what is your point, the reader surely is asking…  Am I doing my best to say that luck, good and bad, that is — chance is god?  Yes.

What do you think?

---

Going back over the course of my life,
I see myself slowly approaching a limit.
Anguish awaiting me on all sides: I walk a tightrope
and stare at the sky;

I perceive a minuscule star, shining with a light brightness;
it consumes anguish – which awaits me on all sides.
I have a charm, an infinite power.

This morning I doubted my luck.
For a long moment – interminable waiting imagining everything lost
(at this moment it was logical).

I followed this reasoning: “My life is a leap,
an impulse whose strength is chance. If chance
on the level on which this life now risks itself,
fails me, I sink.
I am nothing if not this man assigning chance,
giving myself the power to do so.

Misfortune, bad luck, taking place, chance
which impelled me, was only an illusion.
I lived believing that I had the power to charm chance:
this was false.”

–excerpt On Nietzsche by Georges Bataille, trans. by Stuart Kendall p. 118

---

I have offered something, not the answer which I or the reader had hoped for.  But there is always a tune!  This one by The Velvet Underground, Sweet Jane will elevate our spirits for today’s journey.

Sweet Jane

By The Velvet Underground

Standin’ on a corner
Suitcase in my hand
Jack’s in his corset, Jane is in her vest
and me I’m in a rock ‘n’ roll band. Huh.
Riding a Stutz Bear Cat, Jim
ya know, those were different times
all the poets studied rules of verse
and those ladies they rolled their eyes
Sweet Jane
Sweet Jane
Sweet Jane
Now Jack, he is a banker
and Jane, she’s a clerk
and both of them save their monies
when they get home from work
sittin downby the fire
Ooo, the radio does play
the classical music there, Jim
The March of the Wooden Soldiers
All you protest kids
you can hear Jack say
Sweet Jane
Sweet Jane
Sweet Jane
Some people they like to go out dancin
and other people they have to work. Just watch me now
and there’s even some evil mothers
Well there gonna tell you that everthing is just dirt
you know that women never really faint
and that villians always blink their eyes
that children are the only ones who blush
and that life is just to die
But anyone who ever had a heart
they wouldn’t turn around and break it
and anyone who ever played a part
They wouldn’t turn around and hate it
Sweet Jane, Sweet Sweet Jane

Lyrics by Lou Reed

POST SCRIPT

They say; “In the place of God, there is the impossible – and not God.”
Add: “the impossible at the mercy of chance.”

–Georges Bataille