It’s Christmas all the way on the blog for the next few days, with a large serving of kranberry sauce. JR puts us in the mood with this philosophical and time travelling piece, decorated by art from his mantelpiece.
Over to you JR.
It’s coming on Christmas, they’re cutting down trees, they’re putting up reindeer and singing songs of joy and peace. I invite GANTOB and her friends over for festive sherry and mince pies.
After a couple of schooners I ask The Benefaktor why there are so many songs about Love and so few about Hope? “All you need is love! Ba dada da da” he replies. But Little Grapefruit disagrees. “We all know that’s not true” she says, citing a mix of Maslow and Kant “We need food, shelter, something to do and something to hope for too”.
We wrack our brains for a song of hope. GANTOB reminds us of Frank Sinatra’s High Hopes with his ant and his rubber tree plant. But then Frankie went to Hollywood and Holly and the boys sang of the power of Love as a force from above and we’re back with Love again.
The Foundation Doktor has heard about my Time Teleskope and suggests we should see if it can find an answer. I set it up, hand out some extra eyepieces and twist the fokus… Immediately we sense cold. We feel a crowd around us. Everyone is wrapped up against the freezing night. It’s December 15th, 1969. We’re in Times Square. Everyone is looking up. We follow the kollektive gaze. A huge billboard proclaims “WAR IS OVER if you want it”. “There!” exclaims The Benefaktor: “Happy Christmas War is Over” may not have Hope in the title, but it’s a song of Hope”.
But it hasn’t quite worked out, has it? The kicker is the “if you want it”. A call to Kollektive Aktion that never quite gained enough traktion. “Maybe that’s because”, muses GANTOB, “while Yoko dreamed Vladimir Putin received his copy of the book, with the exhortation to make war? The book has been more successful”.
We need another schooner while we consider this. The oloroso is soon empty. The Benefaktor takes the last pie.
I give the fokus another twist and we hear waves crashing, the sound of creaking wood. The smell of an ocean. We’re on a longboat. A red dog is barkin’. Two men are talking about spray paint. A girl holds a red balloon. A loudhailer is roaring “Ukraine! Russia! Israel! Palestine! Ethiopia! Sudan! Yemen! Myanmar! Afghanistan! …” the litany of nations goes on for some time.
Things are fuzzy, it must be the sherry.
The speaker builds to a deafening climax. The final cry: “AMERICA! WHAT TIME IS HOPE?”.
A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Let’s Hope it’s a good one, without any fear.
JR
22 December 2023