From: tjl9@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Thomas J Lee)
Subject: Happy Solstice
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 14:37:32 GMT

	The Lamplighter walks briefly through the Light of Reality and takes
the zipper from the non-buttoning version of his overcoat.  He then presses
it firmly against one of the walls -- around eye level -- pulls sharply
downward with a ZZZIP, and folds aside the curtainlike fabric of this
reality.  He steps through then, out of this pocket and into the sunlight and
snow.

	They gather near these stones this time every year, the people of
this village, to watch the sunlight and talk and drink and dance.  At the
beginnings of cloudy winters they only talk and drink and dance.  The stones
have been here longer than anyone can remember, as have the stones at the
other seven compass-points around the village's perimeter.

	"Isidora, happy solstice!" the Lamplighter calls to a gray-haired
woman tending a kettleful of boiling water that hangs over a fire from a
metal tripod.  "It's good to see you again!"

	"Lamplighter!  It's good that you could join us, dear.  Have a cup of
hot tea?"

	"I'd love one, thank you.  The climate is its usual cold self, isn't
it?"  He looks out at the snow-covered village buildings, and the
snow-covered fields around it.

	Isidora crumbles two dry leaves into a stoneware cup, dips a ladle
into the kettle, fills the cup with hot water, and hands it to the
Lamplighter.  He smells the preparation, sighs, and smiles.  He shall not
drink it right now, but presently, as soon as it cools enough not to burn his
tongue.  "Thank you, Isidora."  He looks around at the villagers.

	Some are talking, some are dancing, and some are singing and playing
music for the others to dance to, but all of them occasionally glance at the
flat stone at the northern end of the stone grouping.  A tall stone near the
southern end of the group is casting its shadow upon it, and the celebrants
know it won't be long.

	The Lamplighter talks with Isidora and with the other villagers who
know him, but there comes a moment when the music goes silent and the dancing
goes still.  Everyone is watching the flat stone.

	Suddenly, like the striking of a bell, a point of sunlight strikes
the flat stone, right in the center.  The shout goes up among the people:  it
is the winter solstice, and from here the days get longer.  The music starts
up again, and the villagers sing the songs they all know.

	The Lamplighter joins in with the shouting, but he has yet to learn
all the songs, so he sings when he can, and sips his herbal tea.  There's a
song he likes about "the wheel of the year;" perhaps he'll learn that one
first.  He looks for Thelma, one of the more enthusiastic singers in town,
but he finds Ewan the poet first.  He and the Lamplighter sing phrases of the
song at each other, Ewan injecting his own opinions about the meanings of the
lines here and there, the Lamplighter not minding.

	Happy holidays to you all, whichever ones you celebrate.

---==--===-+===++==+++=*+++**++***+****#****+***++**+++*=+++==++===+-===--==---
The Lamplighter             |"Se esmera, cora,c~ao ("Do your best, heart
(Tom Lee)                   | E confia               And have trust
                            | Na for,ca do amanh~a"  In the power of tomorrow")
tjl9@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu | - Milton Nascimento & Paul Simon, "Spirit Voices"

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