Dualism is one of the things we set ourselves against when we formed the Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley - inasmuch as we assumed any actual doctrines at all. Why, we asked, divide up the way we are in religion, from the way we are in real life? At this time of year, there's bling breaking out all over, the first Christmas meals are being planned, and the TV channels are already starting to show Christmas-related programmes. I leave aside the honourable exception of UK Gold, which is as capable of showing a Last of the Summer Wine Christmas special in July as at any other time of the year. And yet churches go into a kind of expectant mourning. Purple vestments, purple drapings, purple on the lectern, it's all a feast of purple, while the worshippers think of Death, Judgement and The Last Things. In these circumstances, where you can be expecting the Fall of Babylon one minute and tucking into a mince pie the next, cognitive dissonance is bound to ensue.
So we say, there may be trouble ahead. It may be -6C in the shade. The snow is falling, snow on snow (although just a few flakes so far, to be honest). So let's face the music and dance. Others may sneer at our Advent Jellies, Advent Champagne and Advent Cakes. Not to mention the mince pies, which will start to be eaten today and cease round about Christmas Eve - when we will switch, as night fades into day, to Hot Cross Buns and Cadbury's Creme Eggs. Yes, they may sneer. But at least we are true to ourselves. We look at the dark and say "stuff it, we're lighting the Giant Snowman". We put on our lemon-yellow hi-viz, switch on the Ultra Violet disco lights, let the strobe light up the dawn, and defy the darkness to do its worst. And through it all, we are true to ourselves.
So Happy Advent. We'll have one for you. Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999. And we're gonna do it because we have integrity.
So we say, there may be trouble ahead. It may be -6C in the shade. The snow is falling, snow on snow (although just a few flakes so far, to be honest). So let's face the music and dance. Others may sneer at our Advent Jellies, Advent Champagne and Advent Cakes. Not to mention the mince pies, which will start to be eaten today and cease round about Christmas Eve - when we will switch, as night fades into day, to Hot Cross Buns and Cadbury's Creme Eggs. Yes, they may sneer. But at least we are true to ourselves. We look at the dark and say "stuff it, we're lighting the Giant Snowman". We put on our lemon-yellow hi-viz, switch on the Ultra Violet disco lights, let the strobe light up the dawn, and defy the darkness to do its worst. And through it all, we are true to ourselves.
So Happy Advent. We'll have one for you. Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999. And we're gonna do it because we have integrity.
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