Epiphany 2009
Posted By Kathleen David on January 4, 2009
When I was a child, I didn’t understand why I couldn’t just put the wise men with the rest of the crèche when we set it up. It was explained to me that the wise men weren’t there the night that Jesus was born but arrived 12 days later which is the feast of the Epiphany. Which is when we would add the wise men to the crèche.
Epiphany also means a sudden intuitive leap to understanding, especially through an ordinary but striking occurrence. (I don’t know why but an old joke just keep running through my head. You know that Eureka! Is Greek for the bath water is too hot.)
I have had a few epiphanies during my life. Most of them at those strange crossroads that occur during ones life. There comes just a moment of clarity that is so bright that I wonder why I haven’t thought of it before. The answer was staring me right in the face and I was too preoccupied to notice. Once I act upon this information, I feel better and life seems to be moving in the correct direction again.
Tomorrow the kids go back to school and the house quiets down a bit as we return to the normal schedule of our lives. I am going to sit down and figure out what I can get done in the next month and then do it rather than thinking about doing it. Then I start with point A and work my way to Point B.
I am debating about going to Costume Con. I don’t think I will have anything new to show there and I haven’t figured out who to talk to about getting on panels. If I do go, I’ll probably bring Ariel with me since she loves costuming too. I might even pull together the Doctor Who puppets for the doll show that they have. If I do, I’ll have to rebuild a few and may be make a Matt Smith one as well.
I am grateful for epiphanies.
Speaking of both “eureka” and the Doctor, the Doctor tells Leela in “Talons of Weng Chiang” that “Eureka is Greek for this bath is too hot” in response to Leela’s apparent belief that an Eureka is a thing. That’s the only time I’ve heard that phrase, but it’s possible it pre-dates that episode.
As to the wise men and the crèche, we would move them a little closer every day or so, until they “arrived” on the epiphany.
And you ask me, they weren’t all that wise. What use is gold, frankincense or myrrh to a baby? How about blankets or extra diapers? Maybe some talcum powder? Or at least a rattle?
Sheesh.
Rick
Back in the `950s – or maybe the 40s – Dave Morrah wrtoe a series of stories in burlesque-German dialect, which were collected in a couple of small volumes (one of them entitled “Cinderella Hassenpfeffer and Other Tales Main Grossfader Told”.
In his version of the Archimedes story, “Eureka!” was Greek for “Ich bin burning!”
Umm, that’s the 1950s…
Umm, that’s the 1950s…