For those of us in the Christian tradition, we are in Advent Season. Advent is a four-week lead-up to Christmas. I must admit, I enjoyed learning about this stuff since Quakers are not very liturgical. I am pretty confident I never heard about the “liturgical year” until my college days. It was that time in college when I became aware of what so many who grow up in the Roman Catholic tradition, Episcopal and Lutheran traditions, take for granted. Advent is the beginning of the Christmas season and matches, in some real way, Lent as the lead-up to the Easter season. The primary theme of Advent is “preparation.” People are supposed to begin the preparation for the coming of Christmas. It is easy these days to see how bent-out-of-shape our preparation has become. These days preparation is likely to mean the beginning stress of Christmas shopping, etc. I already begin to sense the frenzy in some voices of those who talk about ...