Revolution in the Manger: The Untold Story of the First Christmas

Instrument of Mercy

Growing up, I never thought the story of the first Christmas was very interesting.

Oh sure, it’s a nice story, but for a ten-year-old boy who couldn’t even begin to grasp the meaning of the word “Incarnation,” the Christmas story was the one with the cute baby surrounded by barnyard animals.

But as I got older and the thrill of Santa Claus became a nostalgic memory, different aspects of the Nativity began to shift into focus. Though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, it began to feel as if we were retelling a Disneyfied version of the Nativity out of a misplaced sense of moral obligation and comfortability.

Or maybe we just don’t know another way to tell it.

There is an undercurrent of darkness pulsing in the background of this ancient story that we’ve mostly overlooked in favor of feel-good sentimentality and narrative predictability.

As we…

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Better

Howdy! I am Josh McKenna, a freshman Biology major at Texas A&M University working towards a profession in the medical field, likely in a form of general or emergency surgery, but alas—that is a discussion for another time.

Over the winter break following my first semester of college, I read Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance, an interesting narrative by Atul Gawande about the flawed, furrowed human condition—and how that human condition influences our micro-roles in a macro-world.

This blog explores further into this concept of betterment, of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (not actually the film, of course); within this periodic text, we will explore the premise of perfection and all of its companions.

Daily, some strive and some stray—but this we day-to-day must ultimately decide for ourselves.

So! “Without further gilding of the lily, and with no more ado”, I give to you a wondrous conundrum, both the mantra and mane for this fine feign, my blog’s name: Planes and Plantains.