Daily Nativity 121107; Updated And Bumped

A little humor for Christmas Eve, bumped up from 12/11.

Now the moonbattery, courtesy of my school:

Dear University Community,

It is with the warmest greetings that I write to you this, my last Communiqué in 2007. The holiday season is upon us all and I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a restful season and peace in the New Year.

As I was reflecting on this season, I was struck by the arrival of another Winter Solstice. This year’s solstice – the year’s shortest day and longest night – will arrive on Dec. 22. As we all know, astronomically, the solstice is the instant when the sun’s position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the person observing. In broader terms, the Winter Solstice marks what many consider mid-winter and delineates the point at which our daylight hours will grow longer and the nights shorter.

While the astronomical significance of the solstice is clear, its importance as a symbolic moment in our year has captured my thoughts. Most cultures stretching back thousands of years have celebrated this event as a time to reflect on that most basic cycle of life, of birth, death, and rebirth. The lengthening days, for most ancient cultures, heralded their ability to continue their agrarian or nomadic way of life. It reminded them of the ordered march of the yearly seasonal cycle and the promise of rebirth at the end of the long winter months.

This event parallels the moment we find here at our university in many ways. During the course of this year, as in the life of any institution, we have faced many challenges. During these challenges, I know that each of us have also found moments that renewed our sense of purpose and deepened our pride in individual and collective accomplishments. It was novelist and playwright Albert Camus who wrote, “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”

May the symbol of the Winter Solstice assist you in finding your “invincible summer” and may it remind all of us of the great potential that lies ahead for our individual work and this great institution. I want to thank each of you for your daily dedication to supporting and serving our university.

Happy Holidays,

M. Roy Wilson

Chancellor

Not a single mention of, you know, Christmas--and I received this "communique" today, no less. Just a little PC "holiday" cheer.

Via XDA, this little response to moonbats:

To all my friends on the left--Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to observe religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures.


And to all my Republican friends--Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.