A Walt Whitman Poem for Christmas Day (substack.com)–Dr. Naomi Wolf:
"I learned painfully, but now I truly don’t care what “people” say about me.
2022 has been a year of terrible combat in my life, and in the lives of those I honor. There is blood all over the floor.
You know that I believe we are in the midst of an all-out war on humanity. The war is aimed at religion of course, and at love and family; it is also aimed squarely at art, poetry, theatre, dance, music, and all the things we humans do that reflect that we are made in the image of God; that raise us up from the serf-like status of “hackable animals,” the gutter-level, where the global evildoers, the Hamans of our time, wish to reposition us.
I mention my father’s training in not caring what the world says, because we are at the end of a year in which the people whom I most respect, and my husband and I too, have been called lunatics, murderers, spreaders of lethal “misinformation,” ignorant, “unhinged,” “anti-science”, terrorists, unworthy of medical care, hysterics, and threats to society.
The people whom I most respect have seen their livelihoods vanish, their institutional affiliations disappear, their former colleagues turn their backs.
These people stood strong to keep a little flame of civilization alive; to save a world in which we don’t murder our elderly with drugs and force them to die alone, in which we don’t encourage depressed teenagers to kill themselves, as they do now in Canada; in which we don’t deny people access to society based on their bodies or their medical choices. To save a world based on justice, mercy and compassion.
Most of these heroes, I would venture to say, stood firm because they believed in something greater than the always-mistaken clamor of the world.
When I was interviewing Dr Jay Bhattacharya, early in 2021, I asked him, late in the discussion, why he had the courage to put his reputation on the line, given the unpopularity at the time of his anti-lockdown views. He had just shared his conviction that millions of poor people would face starvation if “lockdowns” were not lifted; many of them would be children. I pressed, probably annoyingly; finally he responded, modestly and quietly, that he was a Christian.
I am not a Christian, though I really love Jesus and try to follow him as my Rabbi (a subject for another essay, when I can find the words; I don’t even know yet what I mean by that).
But to me, speaking very humbly and with no great knowledge at all of what “being a Christian” means, there can be no better definition of “being a Christian” than what Dr Bhattacharya was describing, in that context.
That stance of his — that selfless commitment to stand up for the wellbeing of others – is to me a perfect example of the grace of which humans are capable when they have a higher calling. Rabbi Hillel, Siddhartha Gautama the Lord Buddha, The Prophet Mohammad, all expressed versions of this immortal truth.
I am not Christian — I guess — but I tear up every single time I hear the child in The Little Drummer Boy say,
“I am a poor boy too.”
Why?
Because this is true for all of us.
We are all, but for the Grace of God, the starving children for whom Dr Bhattacharya, and only a few others, stood up, in the face of every kind of hostility and opposition, in 2020-2022.
“I am a poor boy too.”
Most forgot that obligation to the children, in the years 2020-2022, in order to fit in with the always-mistaken conventional wisdom, the current moment.
May we all remember, in 2023, that we are all supposed to speak up for the transcendent truth, which exists, no matter what the always-mistaken world has to say about us.
We are all supposed to save the lives of our brothers and sisters. Not just a few designated “heroes” — but all of us.
We don’t actually get to sit that out.”…….
Facing the Beast - Outspoken with Dr Naomi Wolf (substack.com)
Ruth 4:
13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a redeemer (grandson, as heir) today, and may his name become famous in Israel. 15 May he also be to you one who restores life and sustains your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”
The Line of David Began Here
16 Then Naomi took the child and placed him in her lap, and she became his nurse. 17 The neighbor women gave him a name, saying, “A son (grandson) has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed (worshiper). He is the father of Jesse, the father of David [the ancestor of Jesus Christ].
Come home, Naomi. Jesus is calling.
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