Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas

By Bobby Neal Winters

The days have been getting shorter since late June.  At first we didn’t notice; then only a little bit;  then a little more.  By Halloween it was just about as short as it was going to be.  These days when I take my walk after work, I am welcomed back home by the stars if the night is clear.

One generation passes away, and another generation comes; /
The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, /
And [hastens to the place where it arose.

But the earth abides forever. /

And Christmas is once again upon us.   This year we have the so-called Christmas Star.  What they mean when they say that is that Jupiter and Saturn are getting closer in the sky.  When I took my walk last night and got home, I put my hand up in front of me and covered them both up with my thumb.  They have been getting closer together in the sky for a while, and they have been setting earlier each day too, but if you go out to look--weather permitting--it’s a nice sight.  Jupiter and Saturn also came close in the night sky back in 7 BC and Johannes Kepler, who laid a lot of the groundwork for Isaac Newton’s theories of planetary motion, thought they might’ve been the Star of Bethlehem. 

Jupiter and Saturn were associated with the Greek mythological figures Zeus and Cronus.  Zeus was the king of the gods and Cronus was the father of the gods.  Zeus had overthrown Cronus as Cronus had overthrown his father, Uranus.  Given that, it makes a kind of sense that Zeus and Cronus would witness the birth of the One who would displace them from that part of the world.

And now they are looking down on us again.  Best not think about that too much.

We are going through times of change.  Things are always changing, sometimes more, sometimes less, but changing.  But things stay the same too, as the Preacher from the Book of Ecclesiastes observed. Man is still the same animal he was 2000 years ago, 6000 years ago, 30 thousand year ago, but we’ve been building something else within us.  To put it in techie terms, the hardware is the same, but the software is being updated.

Our software has become so sophisticated that we can delude ourselves that we aren’t animals anymore.  We’ve got a lot of knowledge, and we think we are superior, but we forget whatever we know was purchased by others with blood, sweat, toil, and tears.

At Christmas, on Christmas morning, we can get a reminder of what we’ve learned and what we’ve lost.  When our children or grandchildren toddle out of there beds to see what Santa has brought them, they *believe*.  Santa is as real to them as the stars in the sky are real to you and me.  

I view this quality in them with joy and sadness.  The innocence is to be treasured, but you don’t want them believing in Santa when they are thirty.  (I will leave a pause here for Republicans to make their own personal joke about Democrats.)  They need to learn the world is full of greedy, self-centered people. (Here is equal time for the Democrats to jab the Republicans.) 

We are stretched far from our natural state. The innocence of that state is attractive, but there is no going back.  We cry when they learn to ride the bike Santa brought them; we cry when they stop believing in Santa.  As did our parents for us, and theirs before them.  Around and around the sun we go.

Things do change. But they stay the same too.  I still look at the stars with wonder.  What I know they are has changed, but the wonder remains.

Regardless of all the changes, the wonder is still there.

Merry Christmas.

Bobby Winters, a native of Harden City, Oklahoma, blogs at redneckmath.blogspot.com and okieinexile.blogspot.com. He invites you to “like” the National Association of Lawn Mowers on Facebook.