Speechless, Almost
There are two more days left in November. Then comes December the darkest month, which is also the coming of Christmas. Christmas is a festival of lights. Darkness and light.
This morning I wish that I were a bear having found a warm place to hibernate until spring. But I am not a bear and like my fellow humans will strive to survive the cold months, survive the occasional truly dangerous weather events that may present. Climate change entails a wicked severity in the weather. Perhaps we will be lucky and have a mild winter. I just feel tired this morning.
I trust that the celebration of human companionship, remembering how agreeable, even unforgettable others can be, when we are expressing our better selves–will elevate my 
spirit. That is what Christmas means. What is more innocent, more pure than a new born child? In our abject need, by our dependence upon the love, upon the solicitude of others for survival, for self definition–that is the icon of our potential greatness as humanity. Is it possible to become a mature human, to reach adulthood, without losing innocence?
And so at Christmas time we have a child in a manager. That is a truth inexpressible, wordless, perhaps the most important of all truths. I must hold onto that ideal. The light swaddled with darkness.
Here are some striking lines from Gerontion, by T. S. Eliot
Signs are taken for wonders. ‘We would see a sign!’The word within a word, unable to speak a word,Swaddled with darkness. In the juvescence of the yearCame Christ the tiger
