Merry Christmas ILP people!!!
Merry Christmas!! 
Happy (belated) Christmas, gib and ILPers
Hope you and your kids had a wonder-full Christmas, gib.
Arhhhh the pure joy of being a kid at Christmas especially if you believed in Santa and tried to stay awake to catch him.
I believed in Santa as a kid – mostly because my parents went to elaborate lengths to make him seem real – but, as a bit older, I became suspicious and asked my mother how a fat guy could get down the chimney and a host of other questions that had me perplexed. My mum must have been ready because she said he wasn’t a normal man, he was a spirit, and left it at that.
“OK” I thought. I guessed he must just appear when he wants to and disappear again which is why we never saw him? Cool.
Next year I asked why we put out milk and cookies out for a spirit. Again, my mother seemed to be ready. This time she said he wasn’t that sort of spirit. He wasn’t a ghost; he was the spirit of giving that resides in everyone and the milk and cookies was our way of giving.
I was NOT happy!!! I was pissed off but over time it sank in; Santa was the invisible spirit of giving inside all of us. He was real, so I hadn’t been totally deceived, but it wasn’t as much fun anymore 
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Oh man, that raises so many more questions than it answers. I would have been way more confused by this than I was before. I would have said, “So you’re saying the spirit of giving that lives in all of us flies around the world once a year in a slay pulled by magical reindeer and comes down the chimney to deliver toys into the stockings of all the good boys and girls around the world? That’s quite an achievement for an abstract intangible concept.”
I was 19 at the time so I understood what she was saying. 
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This was her way of saying ‘Santa is dead’ – my first Nietzschean moment – but Santa (aka St Nicholas) lives on inside of every human.
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Well, that’s better than what my dad consistently tells us: “If you believe he exists, then he exists.”
We have a joke in our family. We predict on his death bed, right before his last breath, our father will tell us, “Gather around, I have something to tell you, a secret that I don’t want to die with me… Santa Clause isn’t real.”
An Australian Christmas song.
PAUL KELLY: HOW TO MAKE GRAVY.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwMXUAp5rIY[/youtube]
Like Johnny Cash, Paul Kelly does a lot of work to help those on the lowest rung of the society so when he was asked to write a song for the Salvation Army’s Christmas Appeal in the 1990’s, he wrote this.
Instead of writing a traditional Christmas song of families coming together, Kelly tells the story of a family split apart. This is a story of a man in prison writing to his brother a few days before Christmas. It’s not a Christmas song about joy and thanksgiving but a song about regret, loneliness and fear. The letter rambles from one thought to another, jumping from describing his yearning to be with his kids, his fear his brother will make out with his wife, his self-hatred, his promise of redemption and his commitment to pay everyone back by making his special Christmas gravy next year.
To put these lyrics in some sort of context you have to remember that Christmas in Australia falls in the middle of summer where it can reach 40C (104F) and despite this, we still have our traditional Christmas roast. It’s quite bizarre but Kelly has managed to capture the atmosphere of a suburban Australian Christmas perfectly.
[tab]How to Make Gravy - Paul Kelly
Hello Dan, it’s Joe here, I hope you’re keeping well
It’s the 21st of December, and now they’re ringing the last bells
If I get good behaviour, I’ll be out of here by July
Won’t you kiss my kids on Christmas Day
Please don’t let 'em cry for me
I guess the brothers are driving down from Queensland
And Stella’s flying in from the coast
They say it’s gonna be a hundred degrees, even more maybe
But that won’t stop the roast
Who’s gonna make the gravy now?
I bet it won’t taste the same
Just add flour, salt, a little red wine
And don’t forget a dollop of tomato sauce for sweetness and that extra tang
And give my love to Angus and to Frank and Dolly
Tell 'em all I’m sorry I screwed up this time
And look after Rita, I’ll be thinking of her early Christmas morning
When I’m standing in line
I hear Mary’s got a new boyfriend, I hope he can hold his own
Do you remember the last one?
What was his name again?
Just a little too much cologne
And Roger, you know I’m even gonna miss Roger
'Cause there’s sure as hell no one in here I want to fight
Oh praise the Baby Jesus, have a Merry Christmas
I’m really gonna miss it, all the treasure and the trash
And later in the evening, I can just imagine
You’ll put on Junior Murvin and push the tables back
And you’ll dance with Rita, I know you really like her
Just don’t hold her too close
Oh brother please don’t stab me in the back
I didn’t mean to say that, it’s just my mind it plays up
Multiplies each matter, turns imagination into fact
You know I love her badly, she’s the one to save me
I’m gonna make some gravy, I’m gonna taste the fat
Tell her that I’m sorry, yeah I love her badly
Tell 'em all I’m sorry
And kiss the sleepy children for me
You know one of these days, I’ll be making gravy
I’ll be making plenty, I’m gonna pay 'em all back
Songwriters: Paul Maurice Kelly[/tab]
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Someone was playing Paul Kelly’s “How to Make Gravy” today and it reminded me of this thread
Thought I’d come by and wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS 
Hope everyone is healthy and happy as one can be in this bizarre, crazy, insane world?
Anyway here’s another version: Pub Choir “How to Make Gravy” – one of my favourite Chrissie songs (lyrics in the ‘UNTAB’ link of the previous post)
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CearsS1koA[/youtube]
An Australian Christmas Carol.
Merry Christmas!
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Good tidings, to All.
Merry Christmas Chakra, and everyone else!
Nice song… is it based on a true story?
Howdy Gib (MagsJ and Ichthus). 
No; the song isn’t based on a true story, not literally anyway, but I guess it’s somewhat true for tens of thousands of incarcerated men around the world. I love idea of writing a Christmas song from the position of a someone who isn’t there. I love the idea of it being about sin, repentance and hope for salvation on a small, personal scale – which is really what Christmas is about. Paul Kelly’s a great storyteller.
PS: I never did get to finish of the ‘I don’t get Buddhism (2)’ thread. I got carried away with ‘real’ life and left heaps of your questions unanswered. It was great fun for me because it forced me to articulate stuff as succinctly as possible which was far from easy because each question needed more context or background info. One day, I’d like to go back and try it again – just for my own sake, if nobody else is interested – because you asked some really good questions and I like the challenge of trying to answer them.
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Yes. Merry Christmas all, oh gib, how did your sci-fi novel go, just curious, remember reading all of it …
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Chakra! bae… nice to hear from you [hug]
Howdy Mags
How’s ol’ London town? Whose your PM today? I can’t keep up. 
I think BJ will get back in after they’re finished with Sunak. Not that it matters, they’re all following the Internationalist’s script rather than completing Brexit and focusing on what’s best for the British people.
(oops… this is a Christmas thread. Shouldn’t get into politics here. Sorry 
)
Chakra Superstar wrote:
Geez we are a weird mob! 
You’ve just found that out, Shield? 
Returning here every Christmas is like turning up at the annual Christmas dinner with all the crazy relatives. Each year you swear this will be the last, then… next year, here you are again.
Please, be my guest. The thread is still open and we both left it just when Sanjay joined in. I wonder if resuming it will prompt him to resume with us. No pressure of course. You seem to be a man that doesn’t settle down, that goes where life’s winds take him, and only on occasion do you return to ILP to touch base with your acquaintances here and catch up. So I understand if your life doesn’t permit you to commit to what could turn out to be a lengthy drawn out discussion that could keep going for days, weeks, months, etc. Your occasional contributions are always welcome, appreciated, and enlightening.