They sold me a dream of Christmas,
They sold me a Silent Night,
They told me a fairy story,
‘Till I believed in the Israelite,
I believed in Father Christmas,
I looked to the sky with excited eyes,
‘Till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn,
And I saw him and through his disguise
This column is a throwback to my radio incarnation where music often drove points far deeper than my comments ever could.
It all seems so inadequate as I look around me. At least 85,000 children lie dead at our hands in impoverished Yemen. Damn us.
I cry for the beloved country this Christmas. We are the living, killing, lifesaving, lying and dying embodiment of the yin and the yang, the good and the evil. We daily pay for the bloody burlesque of blowing off body parts on the sands of Araby then quickly practicing the latest medical miracles sewing up survivors.
I once thought that yin and yang were supposed to balance each other out.
“Without sorrow, there can be no joy. Without pain, there can be no pleasure. I don’t know why that is.”
So surprisingly stated the Almighty hisself portrayed by George Burns in Hollywood’s greatest morality play “Oh, God!” (1977)
Alas and alack, our world spins out of balance. The Hopi have a word for it, “koyaanisqatsi.” (Do see the films of the same name.)
They said there’ll be snow at Christmas
They said there’ll be peace on Earth
But instead it just kept on raining
A veil of tears for the virgin birth
I remember one Christmas morning
A winters light and a distant choir
And the peal of a bell and that Christmas tree smell
And eyes full of tinsel and fire
St. George Carlin caustically observed “save the planet? We can’t even save ourselves. The earth isn’t going anywhere. We are!”
The late great one is increasingly proving correct. Dear Mother Earth is taking revenge at the poor stewardship we primitives practice on the self-sustaining wonder she rented to us.
By the time this rock goes into the sun in about 100 million years, we will be long gone, back to stardust. In the grand scheme of things, your life and mine are not even as long as the eyelash-bat of a bantamweight flea.
Those who deem themselves more important than others need to occasionally go outside on a clear Nevada night and look up.
All you can do is what you can do in this fingersnap of existence you are granted.
Yeshua of Nazareth propounded a simple philosophy, the oft-stated Golden Rule which preceded his sojourn to Galilee by about 600 years. There’s nothing wrong with any of the world’s great religions. Alas and alack, all have fallen victim to the makeover monster of marketing to the masses.
John Lennon asked “So this is Christmas and what have you done?”
George Carlin answered: “Take care of each other.”
I wish you a hopeful Christmas,
I wish you a brave new year,
All anguish pain and sadness,
Leave your heart and let your road be clear,
They said there’ll be snow at Christmas,
They said there’ll be peace on Earth,
Hallelujah Noel be it Heaven or Hell,
The Christmas we get we deserve
DISCOGRAPHY. “I believe in Father Christmas,” lyrics by Peter Sinfeld, vocals and music by Dan Lake (with turbocharging courtesy of Sergei Prokofiev); topped out at number two behind Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” in 1974. Lyrics from “I believed it all” by the Pozo Seco Singers, 1967.
Happy High Holly Days to you and yours.
“Oh, to be a child again. One and one made two. Oaks from acorns grew. I believed it all. Didn’t you?”
Be well. Raise hell. Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Barbano is a 50-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.