OMG: A Black Santa Claus Masquerading as a Horse

Let's see now, Sint Nikolas came from somewhere in the Mediterranean, and then Krampas, and then Father Christmas, and Black Piet that comes with Sint Nikolaas
And Jesus was white, right? Even though Jews in the middle east were more a nice brownish shade...fantasies, fantasies,
fantasies.

Temporary Frozen Inpermanence

     My metaphorical imagination can travel simultaneously through galaxies, recognize h2o crystals, and see the marvelous lines that I believe are what the Tao would refer to as the "Flow", that line that suggests the meeting point of all the forces at play in that spot at that moment...
     Wouldn't the universe be boring if there were permanence instead of constant change?  It's hard to accept, but the absence of flowers in winter, helps us appreciate them in spring; the absence of abundant sunlight leads to frozen lines of force and beauty not usually seen.
     We must see death, too, as impermanent, for it is no more than a state of dormancy, a dramatic shift of energy to other matter, and we must accept, even welcome this change, as any other, if we are to live fully in the moment without fear, without a sense of failure that we haven't completed all we desired, to recognize we are the product of our own inner forces, looking to reach stability and find those beautiful etched lines of harmony seen above.

I write these words while very conscious of a remarkable soul, Nelson Mandela, who comes as close to the Bhuddist enlightened man setting forth to enlighten others, in everything he did.  He had the courage to be himself, no matter what the consequences.  And there is, even in me, the skeptic of all matters socio-political, that we have, in Nelson Mandela, a model we can turn to in times of ethnic stress if we wish to live without violent turmoil around us.