Seeing the Christmas in Christ

Anthony Esolen has done such a fabulous job of reminding us of the Incarnation that I dare not attempt a similar assay or essay!

Read and enjoy!

http://www.insidecatholic.com/feature/putting-the-christmas-back-in-christ.html

Ya Gotta Love the Burgh!

©2010, Randall A. Beeler

I grew up in the mountainous areas 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, PA, and I remember the city, the people, and its teams with vivid fondness.

What you fall in love with about Pittsburgh is the melting-pot openness of the people. Pittsburgh is a literal melting pot: waves of English, Germans, Scots, Irish, Croatians, Russians, Greeks, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Poles, and my beloved Italians all came to the Pittsburgh area to melt and smelt coal and iron ore into steel.

Even though the coke ovens and the steel mills are mostly relics of the past, the Burgh is still all about people melding together, neighborhood-by-neighborhood, borough-by-borough, hollow-by-hollow, to create a hospitality and welcome that is completely unique, completely nutty, completely beloved. By celebrating its differences, Pittsburgh crafts its own diversity and uniqueness without the ham-fisted manipulation of a so-called "political correctness."

Pittsburgh is political in the best sense of the word—it is a polis, a city that is what it is because it unites humankind in the glorious, grace-filled diversity inherent to our human dignity:

We can see that, transcending all the differences which distinguish individuals and peoples, there is a fundamental commonality. For different cultures are but different ways of facing the question of the meaning of personal existence. And it is precisely here that we find one source of the respect which is due to every culture and every nation: every culture is an effort to ponder the mystery of the world and in particular of the human person: it is a way of giving expression to the transcendent dimension of human life. The heart of every culture is its approach to the greatest of all mysteries: the mystery of God. (Pope John Paul II, Address to the United Nations, October 5, 1995).

Here is a little viral post that inspired this blog post and which is so Burgh-erific!

A Pittsburgh Christmas Carol

Yinz better wahtch aht

Yinz better not paht

Yinz better not cry,

I'm tellin yinz hauscome

Santa Clause is commin' dahntahn

He's makin' a list

He's checkin' it aht

He's gowen find aht who's nebby an at

Santa Clause is commin' dahntahn

He knows if yinzes a jaggoff

He can see inside your haus

He knows if you've been workin' hard

Or sittin' on your caach

Yinz better wahtch aht

Yinz better not paht

Yinz better not cry,

I'm tellin yinz hauscome

Santa Clause is commin'

dahntahn.....

What is frightening is that this

is perfectly understood by those of us

that have grown to love the Burgh.
IT IS SCARY, ISN'T IT? I understood the entire meaning.

Merry Christmas!