"to look at the thing"

Sending out bounteous love to you all this Christmas morning, Precious Spirits!

bink made amazing presents to give at Christmas Eve dinner last night: Glass-mosaic bottles of light.

She cut the glass pieces and applied them to plain Mason jars with silicone glue.  The jars lids have little solar-panels(! ) that fuel a string of LED lights.  

Each one is different. The design of mine, above, bink based on Penny Cooper's red plaid dress. The brilliance! 

Dinner was very nice. 
The pot roast was as good as usual. The only time it wasn't good when I bought a lean piece of beef. 
Ya gotta have fat for tenderness.

bink & Maura brought green salad, and sliced oranges sprinkled with cinnamon for dessert; and Alice brought three bottles of sparkly (Prosecco and champagne).  We drank most of them...

Alice is bink's good friend, and in a smaller way, my friend too. This is the third time she has come to Xmas Eve dinner. 
She was widowed this fall, and I'd wondered if she'd be very sad on Christmas.

Rather, she was ... something like ... um, it looked something like the pause while a new program downloads, or an operating system updates?
That is, not keenly sad, but hovering, in transition.

She said something that I've heard said by other women after a partner dies--(especially women who don't have children or dependents who need caring for):
"For the first time in my life, I'm not taking care of anyone."
And, I've heard this before too, even though the marriage was happy:
"It's sort of a relief. But I don't know what to do..."

I saw my auntie Vi go through that. 
She was only seventy when her husband died, after a good, companionable marriage. It took a couple years, and then she re-planted herself (literally moved house) and proceeded to bloom in new ways--for the next 24 years.

Maybe having a happy marriage actually encourages such new blooming? That is, these women hadn't been eroded by their partnerships, or left burdened with resentment.

I don't know, but it's nice to see people be fruitful in old age.
Gives me a model!
And I sense Alice will be one of them, when the grief subsides...
__________________

Meanwhile, the story of Christmas is more than ever apt this year:
Jesus is born under the reign of "Make Jerusalem Great Again" King Herod.

Sound familiar?––

"Herod the Great was known for two things:
 First, his brutality. (He even executed several members of his own family, including his wife.)

 Second, his ambitious building projects, including rebuilding and expanding the massive Jerusalem Temple. This is the basis for his being called “great.
-- via
___________

Sister sent me this passage from a book  of writings by the physicist Richard Feynman that I'd given her for Christmas.

He says, to begin to truly understand Nature, we must "look at the thing".

Feynman's speaking of natural science, but it's true of the science of human psychology too. It reminds me of Herod's reaction--
the king seeks to control, not to look in order to comprehend:

"The light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." -- John 1:5 

The narcissism of people like Herod is a terrible curse upon them.
They are alone in the dark. 
They do not, cannot look at the thing, seeking to comprehend it as and in itself. 
They cannot receive love and light;
they can only look for proof that they exist by grasping and manipulating things--seeing themselves mirrored in their grotesque effects. 

"Look I am great because I have covered the world in gold with my touch", says another king, Midas. 

Narcissism is a wasting disease, like anorexia:
Midas starves because even the food he touches turns to gold.
It is very sad for them; and they make it awful for everyone around them too.
____________

And that's all part of the Christmas story, which I love and recognize for its weird complexity.

But today we shall focus on a celebratory Marching Band Parade to WELCOME THE LIGHT, as days start to noodle toward lasting one minute longer here in the northland.

First I have to set up the rest of the Girlettes with musical instruments; then I'm going to walk with them to the gardens at the lake instead of taking the bus to the river. Everything will be closed for the holiday, downtown (my closest access to the river), and I fear I would feel sad there. While the lake paths will be full of people with nothing else to do, going for a walk. Jolly!

Best wishes to all of you!