Merry Christmas

I want to wish all a merry Christmas this year and all to come.  We do live in the greatest country in the world, even if we have idiots or evil people in our government such that we now have a national debt that cannot be repaid unless we really expand our economy, but that is possible.

A billion people on Earth go to bed hungry or malnourished every night.  The celebration of Christmas is really an evolution of the ancient celebrations for the sun, or hours of sunlight, returning.

Ancient people had not defined the idea of repeating cycles and had many bizarre beliefs they had to do something special every year to make the sun return as it had gone away in response to something stupid, wrong or offending to the gods and if they would sacrifice a few people the gods would grant them grace. How convenient for leaders wanting to get rid of a few "pains-in-the-butt."  And, let us not forget, cannibalism was common in antiquity.

The celebrations of Easter began much the same way as the blooming of flowering plants confirmed the gods were happy and brought life to plants we could eat.  Never forget that for all but the last 10,000 years we were little more than groveling animals spending every hour looking for something to eat.  Most everything we ate up to 40,000 years ago was raw and the only cooked meals that came to us were the aftermath of fires which happened only when lightening struck something combustable in the forest.

Progress has not been a regular sequence of events. It has always come in leaps including fire, counting, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, metallurgy, firing clay to make bricks, smelt iron, brew beer and wine to make water you could drink and not fear disease as a consequence.  That you then felt better about everything, especially girls if you were a boy, was only an added benefit.  That everyone was at least a little drunk all the time is a fact seldom appreciated.

Even our Constitution was a product of alcohol and water.  55 men were involved and the first act of the new Congress was to deal with the liqour bill for the Constitutional convention.  The amount amount of beer, wine, whisky and "spirits" consummed force the conclusion that our most cherised document, the principles for which millions of us have fought for, killing and dying, is the result of a week of serious drinking by 55 men and it has stood the test of time!  So, "Have a cup of kindness" on this day and celebrate that America was brought forth by the work of three score inebriates if we include those who were serving them and likely sozzeled too.

Adrian Vance.