A decade of heathen’s greetings

For whatever reason, I happened to check today and this will mark the 10th time my annual Christmas Eve post appears on the blog. I do it because I think it’s just one reflection on the fact that, to modify what we tell kids in a Christmas song, we need a reason or a season to be good for goodness’ sake. So, once again, my favorite part of Jackson Browne’s “The Rebel Jesus“:

And once a year when Christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why there are poor
They get the same as the rebel Jesus

But pardon me if I have seemed
To take the tone of judgment
For I’ve no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment
In a life of hardship and of earthly toil
We have need for anything that frees us
So I bid you pleasure
And I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan
On the side of the rebel Jesus

“Happy Xmas (War is Over),” John Lennon