Aaaand It's Advent!

 Already. Right after Thanksgiving. Barely have time to put the Pilgrim decorations away.

I think this will be an interesting Advent for me. I'm already sensing opportunities to make sacrifices.

For instance, on Saturday evening it's a custom in our house to listen to "Radio Deluxe," a wonderful jazz program hosted by jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and his wife Jessica Molaskey, a lovely vocalist. They play Rosemary Clooney and James Taylor and Peggy Lee and Blossom Dearie and... well, you get the idea.  Listening to "Radio Deluxe" always seems to tell us that it's time to relax as a family. We all love it.

But this past Saturday... 

Okay. How many of you know that dreadful 1970s hymn, "Let There Be Peace On Earth And Let It Begin With Me?" Come on, you remember.  Cue the sappy melody:

"Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me/Let there be peace on Earth, the peace that was meant to be/With God as our Father, brothers all are we/Let me walk with my brother in perfect harmony..."

Blah blah blah. It only goes downhill from there. Remember?

So there I am, standing in my kitchen, working up a pot pie from Thanksgiving leftovers, sipping a glass of Sauvignon blanc, savoring the Saturday evening feeling of a leisurely supper and catchy jazz tunes, when all of a sudden John Pizzarelli announces, "Now we'd like to play a song called 'Let There Be Peace On Earth, And Let It Begin--"

"NO!"  I howl. "NO NO NO!"

 I mean, really! Here I am, sipping wine and loving life, and all of a sudden something wraps itself around my ankle and drags me back to the desert that was church music in the 1970s! Not to mention the felt banners and the hand-thrown ceramic chalices! Radio Deluxe, how could you do this to me? I thought we were friends!

That's when my eye fell on my Advent wreath. Three of those four candles are purple. Purple means penance. 

 Right. I can handle this. I can, as my mother used to say, "Offer it up." And as anyone who grew up Catholic knows, "offer it up" is a direct translation of "shut up already."

OK. OK, I thought. I'll zip it. I won't turn the radio off, I'll listen to the song. Besides, maybe it won't be so bad. 

And at first it wasn't. 

But things took a turn for the worse when "With God as our Father" became, and I kid you not:

"Through some higher power/ Connected all are we..."

Through some "Higher power?" What is this, an AA meeting? Weren't the '70s bad enough? What's next, "Kumbaya, My Sponsor?" "The Twelve Steps of Christmas?" Quick, where's the nearest church basement!

Fortunately songs like LTBPOEALIBWM and Kumbaya and the dreaded "Gather Them In" are increasingly rare these days, at least at the masses I attend. And maybe  the altered-- oh, excuse me, "updated"-- version of  LTBPOEALIBWM was a one-off for Radio Deluxe.

At least, I hope so. 

I mean I really, really hope so. 

Because if there's a jazz version of "Kumbaya," I don't want to know about it.