Christmas in London

When you study The Weird, it helps to have a sense of history.

No one can move forward without a sense of where they have been.  That, in fact, is not an  insignificant factor in our modern problems.  Most Americans appear to have the sense that the world was just cut out of whole cloth about 20 years ago.  Universities are abandoning curricula such as history, literature, and other aspects of the Humanities and Arts.  Real smart.  Yes, why study history when you can just watch it repeat itself?
Whatever my future academic plans, I want history...as well as a few other fields of study...to be integrated into them.  But I digress...

There is a block of text I read every year on Christmas Eve.  It helps me to place the difficulties I face into perspective and to really analyze my supposed "unhappiness."  The words were from the paragon of journalism himself, Edward R. Morrow, as he broadcast from London in the wee hours of Christmas Day, 1940.  It was the height of the German attack on Britain.  Here was how he described it:

"Christmas Day began in London nearly an hour ago.  The church bells did not ring at midnight.  When they ring again, it will be to announce invasion.  And if they ring, the British are ready.  Tonight, as on every other night, the rooftop watchers are peering out across the fantastic forest of London's chimney pots.  The antiaircraft gunners stand ready.  And all along the coast of this island, the observers revolve in their reclining chairs, listening for the sound of German planes.  The fire fighters and the ambulance drivers are waiting, too.  The blackout stretches from Birmingham to Bethlehem, but tonight over Britain the skies are clear.
This is not a merry Christmas in London.   I heard that phrase only twice in the last three days."


Taking a few days off to spend with family.  Wishing you a Happy/Merry Whateveryoubelievein.

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