merry christmas

Christmas is my favourite time of year. I love everything about it: the music, the decorations, the sounds and smells, the food, the snow,the generosity, the love, memories, family, friends, the presents, the excitement!

And I am fascinated by Charles Dickens right now. Charles Dickens is the bomb dot com [actually, .co.uk, but anyways]. One of his favorite pass times was to, through literature, light up the poor and marginalized, and gently throw the decadence of the 19th Century upper-class in their own faces; and he did it in such a gentlemanly way that most people don't realize, he was one of the greatest prophets of justice of these centuries.

This is my favorite quote from "A Christmas Carol," and a picture of my church building [thanks Ji Lee...hope you don't mind! jileemusic.com]

"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself. "Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common wellfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

Love your family and friends so much it hurts today.