away with the manger
I think too few people know how hilarious my coworkers are. And truly, I can't remember a place I have worked where I have not found beautiful friendships and hysterical people. Life is for the living, I say. There is goodness everywhere, there is beauty everywhere. And, if you ask me, there is hilarity everywhere. From little kids to full grown adults--bliss, everywhere. If you are willing to see it.
On the way to lacrosse tonight, I was telling Mags about my friend and teacher's aide and how funny she is. I remarked, "She has a dry sense of humor. Like Will, she can crack a joke and not laugh," and that--as a power humor tool--is irresistible to me.
At our school, and all Catholic schools I imagine, we have a prayer table in our classroom and it needs to remain relevant. So, last week I was setting out the Nativity and the white tablecloth to denote the Christmas Season in the Church (Late to the party, I know, but I'm working on it!)...
I set out the creche. I placed Mary inside. Next, the baby Jesus in the manger. I placed the Three Wise Men off to the side. We, Bess and I, were both watching this scene unveil itself with a curious and absolute silence.
I placed the two disproportionately large kneeling angel children next to the lambs and the miscellaneous cow. I placed the herald angel in the back, but she wouldn't stay upright on only one foot, so she was just sort of leaning against the outside wall. Then we stepped back to study our Nativity scene, Joseph so mysteriously absent.
Into the silence of our studying, she speaks.
"So few people know that Mary was a single mother," she said, which made me about fall over the chair laughing. Really the best way to start a Monday morning.
In the car, Maggie burst out laughing at the retelling, the laugh of approval that only a teenager possesses.
I said to her, "And do you know that not a-one of those kiddos noticed all week that we only had sweet Mary and the baby Jesus in that manger, but no Joseph!"
These. These are the moments of real life. The preposterous, the sublime. So precious and hysterical to me.
~originally published January 2019