Silent Night/Christmas card from a hooker in Minneapolis, Tom Waits


Life is messy

One of the great things about this song is that it doesn’t mention Christmas at all. Instead we hear the contents of a Christmas card. And the writer is messed up…

Hey Charley, I’m pregnant
Living on 9th Street, right above a dirty bookstore

As the song continues you feel for her as she seems to have turned her life around…

Hey Charley, I think I’m happy

It seems she has sorted her mess. But the whole thing is a lie...

Do you want to know the truth of it?
I don’t have a husband…
I need to borrow money to pay this lawyer
And Charley, hey
I’ll be eligible for parole, come Valentine’s Day

She wasn’t getting her mess together. She was still in a mess.

What do you do with people like that?

When Waits performed this song live, he often accompanied it with “Silent Night”. It seems an odd pair. Yet he understands life is messy.

Traditionally “Silent Night” is sung with reverence. But like Waits’ song, it too is a lie. A baby was born. There would’ve been screams. There would’ve been blood. There would’ve been mess. Waits’ sloppy delivery of this classic carol isn’t meant to elicit laughter but truth.

It wasn’t a silent night. It was messy.

And as Jesus grew, what did he discover? More mess. Messy friends, messy people. Including the odd hooker…

The Pharisee said, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

What do you do with messy people? Jesus offered to clean up her mess…

He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

Even when they messed him up on the cross his message remained the same…

Father, forgive them

Life is messy. People are messy. What do you do with people like us?

Christmas is a reminder that Jesus was born to clean up our mess

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