Merry Christmas to you.

This Christmas I'm conscious of miracles. I mean that literally. Not as in "It's a miracle I got a parking spot" (although there are those of us who have received compelling evidence over the years that Mother Cabrini will, in fact, pull a few strings in that regard*). I mean unexplained — perhaps even unexplainable — changes in the world, in lives.

I'm also deeply conscious of my own inability to understand what happens in the world. Clearly there is more going on here than meets the eye. Or at least my eye.

This Christmas, I wish wonder and befuddlement for you. I wish perplexity. But not fear, because not understanding is not, in itself, scary (or shouldn't be). I wish you fearless cluelessness! That's the place from which learning begins, isn't it?

*"Mother Cabrini, Mother Cabrini, please find a spot for my little machini." I am not making this up.