Copacabana

Peace on Earth

The History Channel had this little piece on the other night called "In Search of Christmas" or something like that and this one woman made an interesting statement about why Christianity took hold after the death of Jesus and ended up becoming influential in nearly every aspect of human endeavor -- art, literature, music, etc. Christians attribute this to the divine providence of the passion. Of course this happened, they say, when God came to Earth. But non-Christians may have a harder time understanding the hoopla and I think what this woman said speaks to why the influence of this backwoods preacher from the backwater of a Roman province moved humanity like it did. She said it was a shining time in humanity, when someone spoke of forgiveness and seeing the divine in the most downtrodden and reviled; when the ideas of brotherhood and friendship were honored and when someone willingly gave everything they had -- indeed, the only thing they really had to give -- as a testament to these ideas. She said that this does not happen everyday.

That's pretty much the understatement of the century.

So I send out this last clip to everyone. It is the movie I watch every Christmas Eve and I never fail to get that hopeful feeling again after watching it which I think, above all the other great lessons this season has to teach us, is the most amazing because of its sheer utilitarianism. Clarence, we all want to live again.

Oh yeah, Stella says Merry Christmas, too.

posted by Lola @ 8:07 AM