The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1914-12-15
CHAPTER x.
The Turn.

In; the year begins to mount.
~ Birth is in 1t; growth is in it.;
spring is In it. Sometimes,
away back in beginnings, they knew
this. They knew that the time of
the winter solstice is in some strange
fashion the high moment Of the year,
as the beginning of new activity in
nature and In the gods. They SOL
emnized the return Of the fiery sun
wheel; they traced In those solstice
days the operations on earth of Odin
and Berchta; they knew in themselves
thing they could not name, and
when the supreme experience took
place in Christ they made the one ex-
perience typify the other and became
conscious Of the divine nature Of this
nativity. So, by the illuminate, the
prophets, the adopts, the time that fol-
lowed was yearly set aside-forty days
Of dwelling within the temple Of self,
forty days Of reverence for being, of
consciousness Of new birth. Then the
emergence, then the apotheosis of ex-
preston typifying and typified by
spring-the time when bursting, press
ing life almost breaks bounds, when
birth and the impulse to birth are in
every form Of life, without and within.
These festivals are not arbitrary In
date. They grow out Of the universal
experience.
Is It not then cause for stupefaction
that this time Of "divine bestowa"
should have become so physical q
thing? From the ancient perception,
to have slipped into a sense Of annual
social comradeship and good will and
peace was natural and fine-to live I'm
the little what will some day be true
in the large. But from this to have
plunged down into a time Of frantic
physical bestowals, of present trad
Ing" of lists Of Grace and Margaret
and Philip, Of teeming, shops with
hunting and hunted creatures within,
Of sacri1cial trees and beasts, Of
sovereign sense of good for me and
mine and shameless show of Lord
and Lady Bountiful-how can that
have come about? How can the great
festival have been SO dishonored?
Not all dishonored, for within it is
its own vitality which nothing can dis
honor. Through all the curious varia-
tons which it receives at our hands,
something shines and sings; self CIV
ing, joy giving, vast, dim upflicker-
ing on humanity Of what this thing
really is that 1t seeks to observe, this
thing that grips men so that no mat
ter what they are about, they will drop
1t at the touch Of the gong and turn
to some expression, however crooked
and thwarted, Of the real spirit of
the time. II in war, then bayonets
are stacked and holly wreathed, and
candles stuck on each point! If at sea
some sailor climbs out on the bow
spirit with a wreath Of green. If on
the western plains a turkey wishbone
for target will make the sport, at fifty
PAGES; If at home, some great extrav-
agance or some humble gift or some
poignant wish will point the day. If
at church, then mass and carol; in GER
tain hearts reverence. Everywhere
the time takes hold Of folk and re-
ceives whatever Of greatness or gro
tesqueness they choose to give it. So,
too, the actual and vital experience
which 1t brings to humanity is univer-
sal, is offered with cosmic regularity.
cannot be escaped. Through all the
ftumult Of the time Christmas week
and the time that lies near to it Is al
ways waiting to claim its own, to take
to itself those who will not be deceiv-
ed, who see in the stupendOus yearly
pageant only the usual spectacle Of hu-
manity trying to say divine things in
terms of things physical, because the
time for the universal expression is
not yet come.
When that time comes, when the
time of the worship of things shall be
past, when the tribal sense of holiday
shall have given place to the family
sense. and that family shall be man
kind: when shall never be seen the
anomaly Of celebrating in glorifica.
ton of little family tables, whose
crumbs fall to those without. the birth
Of him who preached brotherhood, and
the mockery Of observing with wanton
spending the birth Of him who had not
where to lay his head; when the rudi-
ments Of divine perception. Of self per-
ception, Of social perception, shall have
grown to their next estate; when the
area Of consciousness shall be extend
ed yet farther toward the outermost,
when that new knowledge with which
the air is charged shall let man begin
to know what he is; when that time
comes they will look back with utmost
wonder at our uncouth groupings to note
and honor something whose import we
% obscurely discern, but perhaps, too.
with wonder that so much of human
love and divining should shine for us
through the mists we make.
Two days before Christmas Ellen
Bourne went through the new fallen
snow Of their wood lot. Her feet left
scufied tracks clouded about by the
brushing Of her gowns wet hem and
by a dragging corner of shawl. She