BAD AND GOOD

It isn’t night yet, and so I haven’t started to read. But I do have two interesting things to tell you, while they are fresh.

When I was walking downstairs before lunchtime, I stepped into the billiard room to get a look at my apartment in the bright sunlight at the far end of the building. A television was running and suddenly a man began singing “Silent Night.” I waited to hear that. Here is what he sang:

“Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright.
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Sleep in heavenly peace.”

Do you recognize what he left out? These lines:

“Round yon virgin mother, and Child,
Holy infant, so tender and mild,”

Perhaps this isn’t the correct spacing, but the comma is correct after “mother.” And that is the center of what Christmas is about: the baby Jesus was born of a virgin mother. This singer did know what he was doing.

The second thing to tell you is a super good one. For a change, our mail came before lunch today. What a surprise there was a Christmas card from a girl whom I’d taught almost 30 years ago. She didn’t know whether or not I was the same Mrs. Rinard who taught her. She recalled my talking about MY ANTONIA and she said that my eyes lit up! Years later she read Willa Cather’s great story and said she fell in love with the stalwart characters that she knew I already knew. She said more than that, but I won’t tell you the rest. She made my day! as a few other former students have also done years afterward. What a great Christmas present. ♥