But happily once a year when much of the world gathers to celebrate the birth of the special child Jesus, we can take a break from troubles pressing upon us to reflect upon the mysteries of life on Earth and beyond.

Mystery surrounds us from the moment we arrive on Earth until we depart. At its most elementary the mystery is about what sustains this "brief crack of light" -- as the great writer Vladimir Nabokov in his autobiography, Speak, Memory, phrased his opening sentence -- "between two eternities of darkness."

Is life merely this fleeting moment compressed between eternal darkness on either side?
 
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This Christmas we could do well sharing Blake with each other and discovering with him the peace that comes in knowing "All deities reside in the human breast."
 
 
 
 

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