Alive and Well

OAFS Photo

Just to let you all know that The Missus Herself and Your Humble Scribe arrived safely at our holiday destination. We're happy, grandkids are happy, the granddogs are a happy, and Tuttle and The Nuke will eventually be happy once their workplaces shut down for the holidays.

I remember what that felt like, though it be a year in the past.

I just thought I'd jump in here and say hi while Beans entertains you with Christmas music. Speaking of Christmas music, here's one based on a poem by Longfellow, written during the Civil War when the country was being torn apart. (Tip o' the hat to Brian up in Minnesota.)

Never despair, God's in control ...

Longfellow wrote this on Christmas Day, 1863, here are the original words ...

Christmas Bells

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along

The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime,

A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth

The cannon thundered in the South,

And with the sound

The carols drowned

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent

The hearth-stones of a continent,

And made forlorn

The households born

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;

"There is no peace on earth," I said;

"For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men."

Peace be with you, now and always.