So it's Christmas Eve. Crista sent me a Christmas card a couple of weeks ago and told me to put up a damned tree this year. So I did. I also bought some short strings of lights and pushed them into empty wine bottles (I saw this at the UK Art Museum and thought it was cool). So now when I plug in all the Christmas lights it looks almost festive around here. But I still don't feel all that festive. The ambiance created by the warm glow of Christmas lights is kind of romantic and makes me want to kiss my girlfriend. Only I don't have one, so instead of putting me in a good mood it kind of makes me sad. Which is probably why I didn't put up a tree last year.

<tangent>Also probably why I'm doing such a poor job of Christmas shopping: I'm just not into it. I feel no obligation to buy anyone anything, so I mostly don't. Yet I've bought a few presents for my kids, but only the ones with whom I actually interact and who have expressed an interest in something that seems reasonable to me, i.e. "Get us all iPhones!" does not count as reasonable. I'm aware of the lack of equity in buying something for some of the kids but not for others, and I'm certain to be accused of liking some better than others and making the non-getters feel bad. I didn't go out looking for presents for anyone; the things I did buy sort of fell into my lap. They were there, so I bought them. All fuel, I'm sure, for future psychoanalytical sessions. </tangent>

All this as intro to my next statement, about how I was having this conversation with my imaginary girlfriend about how we should make love and her reply was, "Well, we don't really make love so much as just demonstrate the love we have. The love already exists and doesn't need to be made." Damn, my imaginary girlfriend is not only hot, but also insightful!

This line of thinking is just another twist on my existent cosmological view in which we are created in the image of God, who is love, so we too are of love and are not satified until we rest in Thee, until our lives are a reflection of our Creator and of our essence, which is love. So then since we are already love, we are not making love so much as doing or acting love. This makes more sense in European languages than in English. The meaning of fare l'amore means more to act or to do than to actually build or create. This same meaning translates in the German machen which can also mean doing more than making. Was machts du? doesn't really mean "What are you making?" so much as "What are you doing?"

So we probably don't make love, but maybe God does. But He is love, so does He actually make more of Himself, or just fashion what already is into another form? I'm guessing the answer is: b. In the creed we refer to Jesus as God's only begotten Son. To beget means to procreate or to generate, but it can also mean to cause or produce as an effect. I'm guessing this latter is how Jesus was "made": as the inherent emanation or effect of the God who is love.

But there doesn't seem to be any love to be gotten around here, so I think I'll just go eat some Christmas cookies.