Today was an odd day. Saturdays are usually our slowest day, but we seemed to have a lot of back-to-back calls that had Mrs. J and I intermittently scrambling for several sets of holds at once. I also set up two new library accounts, and one of these new members took about 1/3 of our Christmas movie stock home for a holiday binge-watching fest.
When not scrambling for curbside pickup, I spent a while scheduling some more daily facebook posts. I usually include odd holidays, author birthdays, and "on this day in history" tidbits. Christmas Eve is also the anniversary of the 1814 Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812. Of course, it took almost two months for everything to wrap up. Famously, the Battle of New Orleans was a major victory for America that occurred after the war was officially over.
One of the oddities of history from the perspective of anti-nationalism is seeing how wars are justified so easily, and often end without addressing any of the justifications used to start them in the first place. In 1814, a war ended with none of the alleged causes addressed at all, and just two years of death and destruction to show for the dispute. Now we are entering our 20th year of the "War on Terror" with no end in sight, no tangible victory conditions, and no political will to just call it quits like they did two centuries ago.
As we enter the season to celebrate the Prince of Peace, let us remember that our kingdom is not of this world, the vanity of men is not our glory, and the wars and destruction they inflict in our names is not our fight.