Today I saw wreaths, evergreen circles with red-ribbon bows, tied by more wide, red ribbon to each gray pillar\u00a0of the imposing, stony\u00a0facade of the U.S. Treasury building.<\/p>\n
The Treasury of the United States of America: the payer of my government employee paycheck, the payee of my tax checks.\u00a0 The forbidding arbiter, conserver, and nexus of this great power’s vast wealth, hung with these simple symbols of ancient faiths: the evergreen\u00a0 hope that the days would stop getting shorter and colder, that crop and animal nurturing warmth would return, and of the newer, pagan co-opting celebration of life in the midst of icy death,\u00a0God born to share our life and die, but cheat death and live.<\/p>\n
The festive green-pillared circles jar, shake, look at me, unblinking eyes, staring me down, judging, asking: Do you buy this wreath on treasury, little on big, simple on complex, honest on lie?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today I saw wreaths, evergreen circles with red-ribbon bows, tied by more wide, red ribbon to each gray pillar\u00a0of the imposing, stony\u00a0facade of the U.S. Treasury building. The Treasury of the United States of America: the payer of my government … Continue reading