PARTRIDGES IN PEAR TREES
No doubt you’re already tired of hearing Christmas songs by now, including this one, but according to it we have yet to get started.
Because Ancient Christians celebrated Christmas starting with the day after the birth of Jesus and ending on January 6th with the visit of the Magi in Matthew 2:11 known as the Epiphany. Start with December 26 and end with January 6 and you get: the Twelve Days of Christmas.
Nonetheless, you may still be wondering what the heck partridges in a pear tree and eight maids a-milking have to do with the birth of the founder of Christianity.
So, as we do annually here at TTP as we prepare for all the festivities, here’s the explanation of the song’s origin, meaning, and myth. For it’s important to know that all of the song’s twelve gifts are Christian symbols.
KEEPING YOUR SANITY THROUGH PURPOSEFUL IMAGINATION
Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics called it akrasia – a weakness of will, acting in a way contrary to our consciously held moral values. It’s the quality that most distinguishes criminals from the rest of us; and the quality that most distinguishes less successful people from those who are more successful.
The ability to resist our short term impulses and desires, and to focus instead on our long term values and goals is the most important capacity for living well.
Best news here is we can learn to do this by using “purposeful imagination” – that even four-year-old children with marshmallows can do.
LAKE BLED
First Lady Melania Trump would instantly recognize Lake Bled, for it is considered the most beautiful place in her home country of Slovenia. It’s a glacial lake up in the Julian Alps near the border with Austria. The small lush island you see has been a pilgrimage site for millennia – first to the Temple of Ziva, the Slovene goddess of love and fertility, then until now to the Church of the Mother of God. For all that time, Slovene couples came here to get married.
There are 99 steps from the rowboat landing to the church, and from ancient times to today, the tradition is that for a happy and long-lasting marriage, the groom must carry his bride up all 99 steps while she must remain silent while he does.
Lake Bled is a place of deep serenity and joyous calm. Come here to experience both. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #178 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
BUT AMERICA WON’T LET HIM… RIGHT?
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – THE BLACK MANED LION OF ANGOLA
August, 1983. It was pitch-black dark as I and a couple dozen heavily-armed UNITA guerrillas were rumbling over the roadless Angolan bush in a huge captured Russian truck. Suddenly there was an entire pride of lions running in front of the truck’s headlights. As they scattered, without warning a massive black-maned male jumped in front of us. The driver didn’t have time to swerve – we crashed into him full on, killing him instantly.
The UNITA fellows had me pose with him the next morning – obviously with no rifle as I was not hunting. It was to memorialize a tragic ending to a magnificent animal. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #125 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 12/10/21
That’s the Democrat’s nightmare, isn’t it? They desperately need it to keep the pandemic/feardemic/scamdemic going, not only to feed their lust for fascist power, but as a distraction away from Bidenflation.
But, alas, Omicron is not cooperating. As the European CDC reported ereyesterday (12/08), out of hundreds of Omicron cases throughout all 21 countries of the EU, not one is a severe illness. The same is true for 34 countries outside the EU, globally 1, 458 confirmed cases reported by 55 countries in total.
“All cases for which there is available information on severity were either asymptomatic or mild. No deaths have been reported.”
Omicron is turning out to be an epidemiologist’s dream: a weaker version, mild and non-lethal but very widespread, drives out the lethal version. Same as how the Spanish Flu of a hundred years ago died out.
Which brings us to the TTP Dem Distraction Contest. With Omicron failing as their Great Viral Hope, what do you think the Dems' will dream up as the Next Distraction from Bidenflation that will destroy our economy and their electoral hopes for 2022?
Let us know your answer on the Forum. The winner will receive a To The Point shirt of their choice. All TTPers – me too – await your thoughts!
IT’S TIME FOR A NATIONAL INTERVENTION
So turns out there are only two sexual orientations. Leftists and everyone else.
It's true, according to an Axios poll yesterday (12/08), 71 percent of Democrat college students wouldn't go on a date with someone with opposing views - versus 31 percent of Republicans. That's a difference of like a thousand percent, Kat!
Also: 40 percent of young Dems refuse to be friends with the other side - compared to just five percent of Republicans. So apparently the newly woke prefer to judge you as good or evil based on political affiliation. Which explains how a child-rapist rioter attacking someone in Kenosha suddenly becomes a martyr.
It's time for a national intervention to put an end to these spoiled brats taken over our culture.
HEAVEN ON HERM
Belvoir Beach, Herm, Channel Islands. Could there be a more idyllic lunch—grilled lobster, fresh garden salad, chilled Chardonnay – here on Herm, the smallest of the five main Channel Islands. There’s Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, Alderney – and tiny Herm. Less than one square mile, but overflowing with charm and hospitality – from the Victorian White House Hotel to the Mermaid Pub to lobsters at Belvoir Beach. Coming here is a true escape from the worries of the world. At Herm they are a long ways away. Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #177 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 12/09/21
Watch out below. But is he talking about just markets or the Democrat Party too?
The Bottom Is Far Lower Than Anyone Believes Possible
Historical perspective for investors - and anyone else who wants to survive the next decade:
Our $29 Trillion Deficit, Interest Rates, Inflation, And Debt
A current warning for investors; insider stock sales at record highs; they know things that you don't know
What Do They Know? Insiders Are Dumping Stocks At The Fastest Pace In History
And be sure to check out the Saudi scandal of botoxed camels….
EVERYTHING THEY TOLD YOU IS A LIE! EVERY AMERICAN MUST SEE THIS MOVIE!
The inimitable actor Nick Searcy was present in D.C. on January 6. You just watched the trailer of his film about what he saw that day, Capitol Punishment.
For all Americans who find it hard to believe that our FBI and DOJ are now dangerous enemies of the people, this film will be a shock. Those two law enforcement institutions are most assuredly now enemies of all law-abiding citizens. The phenomenon of January 6 was no insurrection; it was a carefully calculated set-up.
Searcy's film shows just how far toward totalitarianism America has gone since Obama had his way with our federal institutions and just how perverse they have become since Donald Trump threatened to drain their swamp. You have got to watch this movie.