Complex Numbers

Let's try this again.

I have this intense back pain that's coloring everything I say or do. And it doesn't help that this computer keeps crashing, usually whenever I do something like try to figure out WHY it's crashing. So I'm grumpy - grumpier than usual, anyway.

But it's Christmas.

And though Christmas has never been my holiday, I think that on Christmas - whichever Christmas you observe, be it the commemoration of Jesus' birth, a time to make kids happy, a time to run up debt and keep stores in business, a day to be with family, a day of peace and contemplation, or even just a day when you don't have to be at work, or whatever - you should be nice to people. It's the one day when you can get away with that without other people thinking you want something in return.

There's not much I like when it comes to Christmas songs. I prefer the parodies and the fringe songs to the jingle bells and silent nights. But there's one Christmas song that I always like to hear and, fortunately, the rock station I listen to at home plays it from time to time in December.

Greg Lake, of Emerson Lake and Palmer fame, did the song, called "I Believe in Father Christmas." And even though its message - deploring the commercialization of what he feels should be a spiritual holiday is not one that I totally agree with, I like it anyway. You have to hear the song to get the full effect, but the lyrics pretty much stand on their own.

They said there'll be snow at Christmas,
They said there'll be peace on earth,
But instead it just kept on raining,
A veil of tears for the Virgin birth.

I remember one Christmas morning,
The Winter's light and a distant choir,
And the peal of a bell and that Christmas tree smell,
And eyes full of tinsel and fire.

They sold me a dream of Christmas,
They sold me a silent night,
They told me a fairy story,
'Til I believed in the Israelite.

And I believed in Father Christmas,
And I looked to the sky with excited eyes,
Then I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn,
And I saw him and through his disguise.

I wish you a hopeful Christmas,
I wish you a brave New Year,
All anguish, pain and sadness,
Leave your heart and let your road be clear.

They said there'd be snow at Christmas,
They said there'd be peace on earth,
Hallelujah! Noel!, be it Heaven or Hell,
The Christmas we get, we deserve.

Have a great one.