Some more thoughts for Christmas

Some more thoughts for Christmas December 3, 2017

 

Never-Trump temples?
The Oakland California Temple at Christmas time (LDS.org)

 

 

“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.”

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

 

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My apologies.  I’m a bit late with this “Light the World” item for 3 December 2017.  It’s been a long and busy day.  Which is, maybe, almost appropriate:

 

“Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days”

 

But please keep it in mind for Sunday next.  (Or, if you’re in the Middle East, for next Friday or Saturday.  Or, if you’re in certain LDS branches in Hong Kong, for whenever your Sabbath happens to fall.)

 

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Here’s a very pleasant rendition of “Gloria (Angels We Have Heard on High)” by BYU’s female a cappella ensemble, Noteworthy:

 

https://www.mormon.org/gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5vSwudPv1wIVBLjACh0S2AL9EAAYASAAEgJE1_D_BwE&cid=99119764&ef_id=Whe0SgAABFhVfFIV:20171204054449:s

 

***

 

And here’s a rather . . . umm, unconventional take — certainly an irreverent one — on the holiday season, by Joseph S. Salemi:

 

The Corporate Christmas Carol

God rest ye merry businessmen,
Start markups on your trash!
Remember that this holiday
Is when you rake in cash!
It saves you from those creditors
You owe from that last crash…

            Oh, tidings of bottom-lines grown fat, ever so fat!
Oh, tidings of bottom-lines grown fat!

From commerce wonks in Washington
There comes this press release:
“Just keep the boobs in spending-mode
So cash flow doesn’t cease!
A Christmas without splurging means
That profits won’t increase…”

             Oh, tidings of credit lines gone wild, ever so wild!
Oh, tidings of credit lines gone wild!

The euro’s going down the tubes;
The E.U. too, en masse
We owe some fifteen trillion bucks
That we don’t have, alas!
If China calls our paper debt,
We might as well take gas…

             Oh, tidings of bankruptcy and loss, ever such loss!
Oh, tidings of bankruptcy and loss!

That’s why we need this frenzied rush
Of buying gone berserk!
At Christmas you must drum into
The head of every jerk
That he should spend and spend and spend
To keep us all in work…

             Oh, tidings of avarice unrestrained, unrestrained!
Oh, tidings of avarice unrestrained!

 

Of course, the poet is an academic, and many academics affect a smug contempt for the world of business — without the revenues of which there would be no economic surplus to allow them to live from their own work, which typically produces very little of any practical value for survival.  There is nothing dishonorable in trade.

 

Posted from Park City, Utah

 

 


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