{"id":22336,"date":"2013-12-30T00:29:57","date_gmt":"2013-12-30T08:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sparselysageandtimely.com\/blog\/?p=22336"},"modified":"2023-12-17T15:42:01","modified_gmt":"2023-12-17T23:42:01","slug":"the-ghosts-of-xmas-presents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/?p=22336","title":{"rendered":"The Ghosts of Xmas Presents"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Lynn watches as the final days of 2013 come to their end.<\/em><\/p>\n

By the way, despite complaints from the illiterati<\/strong>, spelling Christmas<\/em> as Xmas<\/em> does not amount to “leaving Christ<\/em> out of Christmas<\/em>.” As the American Heritage Dictionary<\/em> notes, “Xmas<\/em> has been used for hundreds of years in religious writing, where X<\/em> is understood to represent a Greek chi, the first letter of “‘Christ.'”<\/p>\n

Likewise, religious scholars have often spelled Christian as Xtian<\/em>. Half a century ago when I took a course in Theology and Contemporary Literature at Stanford, the professor shortened the spelling even further to Xn<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

No doubt thankful that they were blacktail deer and not reindeer so they wouldn’t have to drag a sleigh all over the globe on Xmas eve, two bucks graze in my fields and gaze at my camera.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Also spending a bit of the yuletide in my fields was the bobcat seen here crossing my driveway. Bobcats tend to be merciless loners, sort of like Charles Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If you recall Dickens’ 1843 novella A Christmas Carol<\/em><\/strong>, you know that Scrooge is transformed from his grasping, cynical ways through a series of nighttime visions:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> First,<\/strong> he is visited by the tormented ghost of his late partner Jacob Marley, who regrets his life of avarice, for it has left him cursed to wander the earth forever, dragging the chains of his greed.<\/p>\n

Second,<\/strong> he is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, who reminds Scrooge of his innocent childhood.<\/p>\n

Lynn and I as ghosts of Christmas Just Past (right).<\/em><\/p>\n

Third<\/strong> is the Ghost of Christmas Present (odd name), who shows Scrooge people enjoying Christmas as well as the meager Christmas dinner at the home of his employee Bob Cratchit, who cannot afford treatment for his chronically ill son Tiny Tim.<\/p>\n

Fourth<\/strong> is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Be, who shows Scrooge the death of an unloved businessman, whose servants quickly steal his belongings while no one tends his grave.<\/p>\n

After all this, Scrooge is terrified. He no longer rejects Christmas as “humbug.” He anonymously sends a turkey to Bob Cratchit’s family and gives his employee a raise so he can get care for Tiny Tim. A thoroughly new man, he begins treating everyone with kindness.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With 2014 beginning on Wednesday, four contrails enhanced by a lens-flare sunburst on Sunday morning heralded the coming of a new day. In the words of Tiny Tim, “God bless us, everyone.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lynn watches as the final days of 2013 come to their end. By the way, despite complaints from the illiterati, spelling Christmas as Xmas does not amount to “leaving Christ out of Christmas.” As the American Heritage Dictionary notes, “Xmas has been used for hundreds of years in religious writing, where X is understood to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,10,11],"tags":[689,691,212,690,692],"class_list":["post-22336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography","category-west-marin-nature","category-wildlife","tag-a-christmas-carol","tag-blacktail-bucks","tag-bobcat","tag-charles-dickens","tag-sunburst"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22336"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40397,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22336\/revisions\/40397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}