It all seems so inadequate as I look around me. At least 85,000 children lie dead at our hands in impoverished Yemen.

Damn us.

I cry for the beloved country this Christmas. We are the living, killing, lifesaving, lying and dying embodiment of the yin and the yang, the good and the evil. We daily pay for the bloody burlesque of blowing off body parts on the sands of Araby then quickly practicing the latest medical miracles sewing up survivors.

I once thought that yin and yang were supposed to balance each other out.

"Without sorrow, there can be no joy. Without pain, there can be no pleasure. I don't know why that is."

So surprisingly stated the Almighty hisself portrayed by George Burns in Hollywood's greatest morality play "Oh, God!" (1977)

Alas and alack, our world spins out of balance. The Hopi have a word for it, "koyaanisqatsi." (Do see the films of the same name.)

St. George Carlin caustically observed "save the planet? We can't even save ourselves. The earth isn't going anywhere. We are!"

The late great one is increasingly proving correct.

Dear Mother Earth is taking revenge at the poor stewardship we primitives practice on the self-sustaining wonder she rented to us.

By the time this rock goes into the sun in about 100 million years, we will be long gone, back to stardust. In the grand scheme of things, your life and mine are not even as long as the eyelash-bat of a bantamweight flea.

Those who deem themselves more important than others need to occasionally go outside on a clear Nevada night and look up.

All you can do is what you can do in this fingersnap of existence you are granted.

Yeshua of Nazareth propounded a simple philosophy, the oft-stated Golden Rule which preceded his sojourn to Galilee by about 600 years. There's nothing wrong with any of the world's great religions. Alas and alack, all have fallen victim to the makeover monster of marketing to the masses.

John Lennon asked "So this is Christmas and what have you done?"

George Carlin answered with an admonition: "Take care of each other!"

"Oh, to be a child again. One and one made two. Oaks from acorns grew. I believed it all. Didn't you?"

Happy High Holly Days to you and yours.

Be well. Raise hell.

Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.) / être bien, élever l'enfer (And my French.) / Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)
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DISCOGRAPHY. "I believe in Father Christmas," lyrics by Peter Sinfeld, vocals and music by Dan Lake (with turbocharging courtesy of Sergei Prokofiev); topped out at number two behind Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" in 1974. Lyrics from "I believed it all" by the Pozo Seco Singers, 1967.

COMING NEXT WEEK — Crystal Balls: Barbwire Peerless Predixions 2019 & Beyond
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Andrew Barbano is a 50-year Nevadan, executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, superannuated labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and BallotBoxing.US and SenJoeNeal.org and DoctorLawyerWatch.com, among others. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988 and received its ninth Nevada Press Association (6th first-place) award at the 29 Sept. 2018 NPA annual convention in Las Vegas. (Such ephemera and about six bucks will get you a Latte Mocha Cotsafracas Chingade at just about any Starbux worldwide, guaranteed.) E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

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