This season, the planets literally aligned to bring us the perfect Christmas.
You only see this every 800 years
— Devin Nunes Devinnunes
Tuesday, December 22, 2020
The double transit—or great conjunction—of Saturn and Jupiter, which has been visible in the winter night sky, peaking on Monday, Dec. 21, was a rare treat.
It was touted in some headlines as the “Christmas star,” with suggestions that the same astrological phenomenon might have inspired the story of the Magi who attended the Nativity bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
In our modern society, those unaware of what to look for might have mistaken it (as I initially did) for a low-flying plane or streetlight or all other manner of man-made photoluminescence.
But the hunt for it brought me out of my COVID seclusion on a brisk walk with my parents’ Shih Tzu while enjoying an unseasonably mild night (which the Left would, no doubt, ascribe to global warming).
Although the celestial conjunction was not pointed out to me until later in the evening, I saw many other beautiful “stars” and light arrangements adorning the neighboring houses, and I felt, in a sense, at peace.
Like all things, though, the balmy air was not expected to last.
Thunderstorms were forecast for Christmas Eve before a cold front from the northwest was due to arrive, dropping temperatures by double digits and raising the prospect of another rare (for the southern US) yuletide phenomenon: a White Christmas.
Even the coronavirus seemed to be on the back-burner—provided one ignored the sensationalist reports of muckrakers like Matt Drudge trying to milk the pandemic indefinitely by hyping the possibility of a deadly mutant strain.
For most, however, there is hope that the array of Trump vaccines on the horizon—whether one chooses to take it or not—will finally put to rest the months of fearmongering.
Meanwhile, for myself and many others, the lock-downs have made workplace flexibility a new option, permitting quality family time without the burning of vacation days.
It would be callous to think that everyone is in such a position to see, as I do, the silver linings. Nonetheless, I choose to believe that there is an inherent, fundamental balance in all things good and bad.
The dichotomy is one often experienced gazing up at the stars, characterized by the Romantic poets of old as a sense of sublime—the mixture of profound awe and terror in recognizing things bigger than ourselves.
Of course, that means there is also a sinister aspect to those feats of nature. And, in modern times, there seems an even greater danger in the prospect of corrupt leaders preying on the fears that arise from them.
For conservatives in particular, Democrat Joe Biden’s recent promise that “our darkest days … are ahead of us, not behind us” seems all too real. The turmoil that 2020 wrought may soon be looked upon with wistful nostalgia compared to the dystopian chaos that awaits.
Thus, it is easy to be consumed by the despair of politics and personal anguish that have been dealt of late. But in that, too, one must search for the good, which can easily be lost amid the torrents of societal noise and cultural pollution, just like the “Christmas star” in a sea of streetlights.
As I wrote last week, many now accept that—despite clear evidence of widespread vote fraud—that Democrats soon will be in control of the White House. (That includes President Donald Trump, whose raft of pardons and vetoes this week seemed increasingly like a leader approaching the end of his term.)
There is cynicism about the systemic failures that brought us here—the courts’ refusal to intervene, for example, or the Justice Department’s foot-dragging and suppression of evidence in key investigative matters.
But at least we enter into the nightmarish scenario armed with a far clearer knowledge of the evils we face than existed in 2016.
Trump’s tumultuous (first) term has been the North Star, of sorts, that led us to this terrifying epiphany.
His tragedy—the many injustices wrought upon him over four years—may actually have been his greatest gift by virtue of the fact that it exposed countless structural flaws in our democracy and blatant acts of bad faith by America’s enemies, both domestic and abroad.
Their Trump Derangement Syndrome forced leftists to cast off plausible deniability and act out in ways that may now be used against them. They did, after all, write the playbook themselves for civil disobedience and political gridlock.
Rather than dwell over how we reached this particular nadir in history while sleepwalking in the dark, we have the opportunity now, armed with the knowledge of our opponents’ true nature, to rise up together and tear down the newly exposed pillars of corruption.
In doing so, we must keep faith that the 74 million (or more) Americans who stand against Biden’s army of paper tigers ballots truly are the silent majority, contrary to the false claims that bombard us on fake news and social media.
More importantly, from time to time, we must also remember the need to unplug, step aside, and regain our perspective on what we are fighting for—and why.
With that, a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season to all. May the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, guide your hearts and minds in the journey ahead.
Follow Ben Sellers on Parler at parler.com/profile/Sellers.
