The day arrives, on the face of it, like every other day.

Everything up to this day has been preparation, doing the work requisite to celebration.  Not that the “to do” list of decorating, seeking out and

purchasing the “right gift” for those whom you have a natural obligation etc. is without satisfaction.  Work ought to be fulfilling if you can manage to notice the process,  acknowledge the interesting features of the people who assist you reach your goal.  I have in mind the 30’s something male behind the Barnes & Noble counter who cheerfully looked up a title offered for a book of poetry.  The volume was not in stock.  I was grateful for his professionalism and good will to promptly answer my question.  Happy Holidays!

I am sure on Christmas morning in Bethlehem, it was another day of work. It always is another day of work, if you do not

happen to be among the elite, who have blocks of time to whack around, chasing a small white ball on acres of resource and labor intensive grass. (Golf) The majority of humanity rises to their chores even on a holiday, a day of festival such as this one.  In America we live an unprecedented life, more akin to that of the Caesars of old Rome.  Out of sight were hosts of slaves, worker-bees making possible a life-style of leisure, and acquisition.  Another day in Paradise!

The future cannot be foretold, extrapolated from the causal effects of the present as they give birth to “what comes next.”  Baby Jesus did not know that he’d be acclaimed the son of god in the distant future.  No one could have known that he’d conceive of a message of universal human rights that would threaten the politico-religious sensibilities of the devout city fathers.  They knew how to box him in with the no-nonsense Romans.  They never doubted his end.  No one could have imagined.

Would you have imagined when you were an infant, cared for 24×7, before you learned language — the adult you have now become?

The future is created by an inscrutable tangled nexus of cause and effect in the present, opening like a magnificent flower, a poinsettia maybe?  Or perhaps devolving into a ruined civilization….  You can’t have one possibility without the other.

These photo’s are holiday related, taken within the last twenty four hours.