It is the Sunday before Christmas. I hope you like the photograph of our crib here in the apartment. I took the photograph last night. The figurines were purchased by Denis on his last visit to Ireland. They look well. The blue material is blue tensel and the lamp was one I purchased in Manor a few months ago. Our crib is a bit like living in Geneva in that it is on three levels. The Three Kings are on the very topmost layer. Our magazine rack is doing duty as a crib support.
As always, Sundays are very quiet here. And today is no exception. There is very little of the Christmas spirit that one associates with Ireland. No carol singers. Scarcely any lights except for a few corporate buildings like the railway station and a few of the banks. None of the streets have Christmas lights. However, if one goes across the border thirty minutes away to France, there you will find lights and lots of them. Now there is something to ponder there. Does the absence of lights in Geneva suggest, yet again, something of the Calvinist influence. If so, pour Jean Calvin has a lot to answer for.
I went to Mass this morning in the Basilica. As always the singing was good. We had our last of a series of four broadcast Masses on Radio Suisse Romande (Espace 2). The reading from Romans appealed to me. I always enjoy Paul when he waxes eloquent on the love of God outpoured in the world. Always a consolation.
Yesterday, I did my book thing. I escaped up to Gaillard where there is a tolerably good “librairie” just at the frontier tram stop. I intended purchasing the current issue of Le Monde Diplomatique but ended up buying a copy of Bernard Henri-Levy’s latest book. Bernard Henri-Levy (BHL) is one of France’s foremost contemporary philosophers and a personal friend of one Nicolas Sarkozy. It is one of the interesting aspects of French politics that it is almost expected that a French President be not only a politician but an intellectual as well. And maybe there lies the problem! Maybe a dash of Bertie would suit them a lot better.
Anyway I am looking forward to getting stuck into BHL over Christmas. He has lots of interesting things to say about the collapse of the Left in Europe. Compulsory reading for ERI people, I should imagine!
