Mormons, Mormons, Mormons!

We made it to the aughts! Just 9 days 'til Christmas. Garfield says that the greatest thing about Christmas is "the insomnia and anxiety kids get from having to wait." I feel ya buddy. It looks like the snow is going to melt all away before Christmas-we just need it to snow again to have a white Christmas.

To make this Christmas a little more special for my readers of the Latter-day Saint faith I've included this link. Watch the Mormon "tap"ranacle choir perform Max Weinberg's holiday song he wrote especially for Mormons.

Here I Go Again

Another quarter of school started for me today. I had last week off and spent my time getting ready for Christmas and sleeping in. That was really nice, but I'm back to the grind now. So far I've learned that (much to my surprise) statistics is not gobbledy gook, and health disparities exist not because of individual choices, but because of the Man. While I am supposed to have the support of an online community in my studies, I feel "like a drifter I was born to walk alone." But it's okay because I have David Coverdale to keep me company, and as you can see from the above clip that's all it takes to make one happy. Merry Christmas to all.

Christmas

About 8 months ago my now 3 year old nephew, with a serious look on his face, started wispering to his mom "let's talk about Christmas." That boy is a big fan of unwraping presents and everything else we associate with Christmas. Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, it is finally time to talk about Christmas. I just finshed getting my tree and decorations up today. Last night my roommate got home and I was wrapping presents in a decorated apartment, wearing my new santa hat, while Christmas music played on the radio. The only thing missing was the smell of cookies baking.

The Who's epic rock opera Tommy isn't usually discussed for its ties to Christmas. However, on one of Tommy's childhood Christmas mornings, Townshend poses the query; being deaf, dumb, and blind, (and thus not knowing who Jesus was or what praying is) "how can he [Tommy] be saved?" (Note of explanation: This is footage from the movie Tommy dubbed over with the original version from The Who.)

While we're giving to charities and developing the Christmas spirit of post-visitation Scrooge, let's remember the reason for the season and spend time looking at the creche and thinking about why Tommy without a knowledge of Jesus can indeed be saved from the eternal grave.