(The last few years we've been invited to choose a song for Beer and Carols at the Quiet Man in Flemington.)
Why is ‘Joy to the World’ the IHH carol for this year’s Beer and Carols pub singalong in Flemington?
Last year we rewrote the ‘12 days of Christmas’, eulogising the various items that get donated to us:
On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me…
Condensed milk that expired in 1999…
4 cakes of soap,
3 bags of rice,
2 tins of beetroot,
And a kilogram of kangaroo!
This year, we’re singing ‘let every heart prepare him room’. We spend time preparing for our guests by crawling around on bunkbeds tucking in sheets, plumping pillows, emptying the wastepaper bins, tidying, checking if we need to provide a heater or a fan. At the same time, we are preparing our hearts to be open to whoever comes through the door, and our heads to learn something of what is going on for people with their hospital business, and in the social and political conversations about health and treaty and land justice. And every so often, we’ll end up singing along with ‘fields, floods, rocks, hills and plains’ and Nathan’s guitar, to repeat the sounding joy.
- Samara
