Christmas, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, is long behind us, though more like the old winter festival of Yule, focusing on food, drink and presents!
Perhaps that's fair, because Christians took over Yuletide to celebrate Christmas when days start to lengthen, revealing the hope of spring. People keep saying how dreadful things are today, but they haven't changed that much!
When Jesus was born, the Romans occupied Judea. A puppet ruler in Jerusalem ordered the murder of all young children in Bethlehem because prophets foretold a new king would be born which might challenge him.
Three kings came with gifts, whose image is now diversified to include at least one black! Personally, I think the three kings came from Korea. 2,000 years ago was a period of their history known as "the three kingdoms".
Christianity in South Korea is more widespread today than other parts of Buddhist East Asia; the three kings were traveling together.
2,000 years later what is new? There is worldwide turmoil, war, oppression, starvation and the corrupt abuse of power. In 90% of the world women are subjected, whether by social custom or religious belief; North America and Western Europe which claim to be more enlightened are only one tenth of the world population.
A long blonde wig would keep my head warm in this cold weather and the law may soon permit this. The rest of the world seems to have gone mad, why not join in.
People are not thinking things through. Ambulance strikers tell us that they are fed up with delays getting patients into hospital; the staff do want more money, but are primarily motivated to support people needing help.
But it is the care sector that needs to make room for new admissions by getting well people out of hospital. If care sector workers go on strike, would that help? Of course not!
There are real issues needing attention; even local problems are not being thought through.
The Exmouth Journal shows that those opposing the government are ranting about what is wrong without explaining how to get things right. When they are in charge, everything will be better, maybe.
Even Putin is not thinking straight. He wants to take over the whole of the Ukraine, but it would be an even worse nightmare to face the hostility of the whole Ukraine people against Russia.
Meanwhile, God's Heavenly Host, or the planet's guiding spirit for those that won't accept God, has a couple of shots in reserve. An asteroid could restart life on the planet again, just as when the dinosaurs were wiped out. Volcanoes could erupt with a cloud of dust to reverse climate change, causing another ice age. Earthquakes could also make major changes.
Meanwhile we need to address the problems here and now, mostly rooted in selfishness. Herod in biblical times tried to preserve his power, Putin wants his legacy to include re-uniting the Russian empire, Donald Trump wants to "make America great again, Bolsonaro wanted to run Brazil his way, just as Frank Sinatra "did it my way", as some people do today.
We are all in this together whether we like it or not. It will all work out if we all of us work together - but it won't if we don't!
Christmas is past, but the messages of hope, optimism and the need for mutual care continue.
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