Christmas, Christianity and keeping in touch

Christmas and the New Year is definitely a time of reflection (more of this in the days to come I'm sure) but it is also a time when we may think about Jesus Christ.

I'm not a believer in Jesus as the son of God but broadly speaking I would aspire to see the Jesus of compassion, and love as a role model, I don't know if other religions can be separated off in the same manner and the unbelievable elements 'parked'.

It seems to me (and others I'm sure) that there was a man called Jesus who lived what we might think as an almost exemplary life (there was that though I think that bit when he worried his parents) - what happened after his death is that legends sprang up about his conception and his rising up after his death (perhaps this allegorical?)   - like so many heroes we (mankind) often need to add to the story beyond what is possible (I can imagine that this is the bit that does demonstrate religion and faith).

We become Fans (as in fanatics) - Clapton is God, some footballer or other walks on water

Well we might decry organised religion and the terrible things that have been done in its name over the years and certainly the lives damaged by abusing priests seems difficult to countenance but the idea of aspiring to be a better person, more charitable and kinder does not seems such a bad ambition.

 And here's an example of rebirth - in Uxbridge Road Ealing

Demolished, Removed levelled

..and remade new again as A2 Dominion 

Christmas  Cards

Well Christmas is an odd time of the year, pressure for some, great joy for others - a time for enjoying company but others suffer loneliness.
When  I look at the people who we keep in touch with Christmas it seems a slightly odd selection, relations and friends acquaintances and loved ones, but why this old school friend and not this one or why this cousin and not this one?

Talking to an old friend recently we reflected on how the cards we went to were a selection of discrete groups,   some who would know each other and others who were their own single entities as far as we were concerned - an enormous Venn diagram shifting and shrinking through the years.
I continue to send cards to some who I know I think I will never get cards from - just as a small shout out in a tiny voice from the edge of diagram to the edge of theirs.

My list includes people we holidayed with once, old school and college friends and those I worked with twenty or so years ago - long may it be so.

They'll be out for recycling in a few weeks