When A Year Ends

The first things to say when a year (any year) ends should be good wishes for the days ahead, even if one only meets someone in passing.  At hand, of course, is the start of calendar year 2015 as recorded by the calendar used often in the “western world” as a standard.  Nature has another timetable.  The calendar is in truth a piece of paper with numbers on it, but it does rather correspond to the workings of the earth everyone known inhabits which began a cycle of existence about ten days ago.  Why the natural year and the calendar year don’t match exactly is topic for another discussion.  The point is that it’s time for a message like this: 

It would be best to remember that there are an enormous number of “years” starting at various times riding through each calendar year – they often merit a similar approach.  Case in point is birthdays.  Those other annual cycles might have just as much of an impact on a life.  The cycle may need to be formally ended (fiscal is one such cycle).  However, the rest don’t ride through the year the same for a mass of humans of one sort or another, so they do not merit a sort of universal attention.  It also would be somewhat inconvenient to be noting all that is worth noting.  However it might be sensible to pay more attention to some things that end.

Best wishes for a wonderful year ahead.  

The Jesus Tale

The biggest problem of the Christmas story is possibly a lack of perspective (if that’s the right word).  It’s a sort of magical story in which people look for evidence that it really did happen when even the setting, both Jewish custom and the Roman Empire, are little known (much less understood) by the persons hearing the story.  That makes it hard to relate even when one sets aside “magical” ideas such as a “star” leading three wise-men from afar.  The Christmas story, of course, has angels, which are even more “magical,” making announcements about what to do – a terrifying idea. 

Was there a flesh and blood person (some have said it already as “a man in time”) born even remotely as described?  The moral system that developed is reasonable enough that there did not really need to be a Jesus of Nazareth who went about preaching, although miracles would surely be helpful for gathering followers.  A “magic,” including the later miracles, aside, establishing factual elements of the time and place, like it’s “x” number of miles to cover from here to there as crows fly, seems within reason.  That may not be in the bible, but it can be something with which to relate. 

May your Christmas be especially blessed.