The language of class

Have you ever noticed the different language people of different income brackets use when describing economic realities. Watch any investment program and you'll hear about winners and losers, as if this was a game - Talk to any of the families that use our food pantry, and you'll here the language of trying to keep enough food on the table to feed hungry kids, of going to bed hungry, of not being able to afford proper medical care, of slipping through the cracks - one thing is sure, to them this is not a game.

Or perhaps we even disconnect on the meanings of words when we use the same ones. To the investment manager, or the stock-holder, to earn money means to have money in an account somewhere that multiplies. To all the working stiffs, earning means working your tail off, trying to not get sick and miss work and getting a check every two weeks.

And why do we allow the words legal and illegal assuage our concsience of the ethical failure to defend the cause of the fatherless, widow and foreigner? Perhaps it was legal for the Investment banks to bet against us and cause this economic collapse, while making money hand over fist - but it wasn't ethical or right. Perhaps it's illegal for Juan to bring his family here to seek a better future for his children than the life he got facing child prostitution and unprecedented violence by drug cartels - but it is ethical - because you would do it to.

When did we stop caring?

The Christmas Story revisited

I'm in the process of working on a Christmas presentation that isn't the same old same old. I think we've kinda watered the whole thing down, to the point where while many of us hate the whole commercialization, we're at-least comfortable with it. I've noticed that old engravings and artwork of the nativity scene often have the character of Satan in them, but we've sanitized that right out of the story. Here's the rough draft of what I'm working on for our Christmas pageant this year (may be re-used with attribution):

Let me tell you a little story
Of events that occurred long ago
A battle was fought in the heavens
While other things went on below

With part of the story you’re familiar
A baby, a manger, some hay
But the rest may sound quite peculiar
I assure you it happened this way

There appeared in the heavens a woman
The moon resting under her feet
Clothed in the suns golden radiance
Twelve stars on her brow took their seat

The woman was pregnant with child
You may know how she got there
Pledged to be married to Joseph
Who was afraid lest people should care

That he was not the father
Of this baby within her so fair
Conceived by the power of the spirit
God as a babe she should bear

‘Twas foretold in the very beginning
Her offspring would crush Satan’s head
And so it is not surprising
To find that he wanted it dead

Up in the heavens a dragon
With seven foul heads and ten horns
Awaited the birth of the child
To devour as soon as ‘twas born

This a vision of Christ’s sore temptation
Satan tried to make him bow down
Ultimately he suffered humiliation
On a cross with thorns for a crown

By suffering his salvation was made perfect
For being God, he did not raise his voice
And without sin’s curse to hold him
To spit him out, death had no choice

Being thus brought into heaven
And sitting high up on its throne
He shall indeed rule all nations
His Justice and mercy be known

This is where I join the story
For war was engaged in that night
And I and my minions of glory
Fought darkness with arrows of light

And when we had cast down that serpent
A voice spoke declaring it done
No more to accuse the brethren
The armies of heaven had won

‘Twas to poor Nazarene shepherds
In our most jubilant state
We appeared and sang of God’s praises
And told of the child born late

I can only imagine their bewilderment
On seeing the heavenly host
Encamped in the heavens around them
Scared stiff as if seeing a ghost

Fear not was how I reassured them
Glad tidings of peace and great joy
You’ll find in a manger in Bethlehem
You’re hope, a new baby boy

Glory to God in the highest
On God’s favored ones, peace to them
The battle is now done and over
And born is salvation for men

They went and found this child
With his mother and father so close
All night in and out they filed
Not a single soul dared be morose

But the dragon on earth himself finding
Decided the woman to pursue
But she has gone into hiding
On wings like eagles she flew

Waters he spewed forth against her
But the earth has swallowed them up
God has ordained her protection
From the wrath of Satan’s Cup

So the Dragon, wroth with the woman
Has come to make war with her seed
Those who keep the testimony of Jesus
Who worship in Spirit and Deed