Minuit, Chretiens - Jackie Evancho

This was always sung at Midnight Mass in Sanford, Maine when I was a boy.  The man who sang it had an even more haunting voice.  pl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_Q7AFys6bA

 

 pl

Comments

[The Twisted Genius]

David Habakkuk,

Well said. I echo your reaction to the orphan chorus in Beirut. It was moving far beyond the tune itself. Coupled with the images from Christmas in Aleppo and Pakistan, it is heartening. For some reason, I'm reminded of this Robert Ardrey quote from "African Genesis."

“But we were born of risen apes, not fallen angels, and the apes were armed killers besides. And so what shall we wonder at? Our murders and massacres and missiles, and our irreconcilable regiments? Or our treaties whatever they may be worth; our symphonies however seldom they may be played; our peaceful acres, however frequently they may be converted into battlefields; our dreams however rarely they may be accomplished. The miracle of man is not how far he has sunk but how magnificently he has risen. We are known among the stars by our poems, not our corpses.”

[turcopolier]

All

I note that President Bashar Assad and his wife visited a Christian orphanage on Christmas Day. pl

[jld]

And yet...
https://sciencehouse.wordpress.com/2016/12/09/are-humans-successful-because-they-are-cruel/

[The Twisted Genius]

jld,

That was the contention of Ardrey, that we are descended from "killer apes." I would add that behavior in nature, both in the animal and plant worlds, is quite often what we consider cruel. Sometimes it's successfully adaptive. Sometimes it's maladaptive and leads to ruin.