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Merry Christmas greetings with a short cover of Gladys Knight’s Do You Hear What I Hear in the midst of Moscow snowfall
Together with Gladys Knight I wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year! Let you be blessed, in good health, and let peace and love reign in our hearts and in the world.
I posted Do You Hear What I Hear a few years ago, and I’ve always loved to sing it during the festive season. So this year I recorded my singing its final verse in the midst of the glorious snowfall in Moscow.
This was the view from my window a few days ago. I wrote once that I had always been presented with a difficult choice between some lovely scenery of my district and the ugly industrial sites overshadowing it.
Looking at this photo that came out rather well made me recall George Orwell’s admitting that industry can, in fact, be designed to look beautiful, in order to conceal everything that is unwholesome about it. And indeed, many plants and factories today are built to be pleasing to the eye. They are no longer those terrifying gigantic blocks of brick or steel; instead, they are often light in both colour and shape to look elegant and inviting. To the younger generations industry has nothing to do with unhealthy vapours, low pay and child labour.
The picture thus illustrates my favourite topic of what we choose to focus on. Considering this is the view I am most likely to see from my window, the question is: what do I look at? Do I look at the thermal electric station in the distance and pity myself, or do I look at the trees, the vast terrain and the sunset and enjoy the natural beauty?
I am pretty sure you know my answer.
The photo is this post has been taken today on my way to one of my students. The blurring effect wasn’t intented; it was a fortunate coincidence to my current thinking about how we make sense of life.
For life, in fact, is very similar to this alley seeded with blurry bulbs. The terrain is vast yet it invariably narrows because “narrow is the Path that leads to Life”. And on this Path we try to be guided by what is traditionally called “values”. Yet what are these values? Does everyone share them? Or holds the same definition? Or really adheres to them?
Obviously, what is fair for you may be unfair for thy neighbour. Or vice verse. Or thy neighbour thinks you’re barmy because of your values. And so you walk through your life, watching out for these blurry lights that might signal the right turn or path.
To me, however, it is important to follow Andre Gide’s advice: be true to that which lies within yourself. Your heart and faith save you where the mind fails. And it fails too often to rely on it completely.
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