!Peace
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agk's diary 
14 December 2025 @ 03:20 UTC
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written on GPD MicroPC
on a quiet night
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The second candle of advent burns. Night's longer,
light's brighter.

Daughter and I sing:

 Light one candle for peace,
 one bright candle for peace!
 He brings peace to everyone,
 He comes! He comes!

I ask what peace she prays for.

"For the Palestinians," she says.

For anybody else?

"Peace between mama and mommy."

Two kinds of peace.

When Micah described the messenger, when John the
Baptist proclaimed, like Isaiah, PREPARE YE THE WAY
OF THE LORD, they meant daughter's second kind.

The last Sunday my dad preached when we were run out
of Indiana, the lectionary challenged him with this
tale of Matthew's. The baptizer upbraided virtue-
hoarding quislings and quietists,

 You sons of snakes, you brood of vipers,
 who warned you to flee from the wrath 
 fixin to break on your heads?

 The chainsaw's at the root of the tree.
 Trees that produce nothing useful
 will feed the imminent fire

Fire purifies silver, writes Micah. Soap cleans
linen. What's coming isn't shunning to hellfire, but
change in the care of the smith, the laundress.

REPENT, thundered the baptizer. BE SO GRIEVED BY
WHAT YOU DONE YOU'RE FREED FROM THAT WAY OF BEING.
He dunked the penitent like laundry in the muddy
Jordan that once washed away Naaman's skin disease.

By refining, winnowing, burning, washing, a new
heaven and earth means a new person.

Peace means letting something go.