Gemini SpecsFor a little Chanuka dinner party last night, I found these Gemini Specs cardboard glasses for the kids who were coming. At first I thought these were just like those cardboard glasses you always see, that make rainbows, double images, wavy lines, or other fun hallucinogenic visual effects. But these were different. Through some holographic magic (which I don’t pretend to understand) they surround every point of light you see through them with either a floating Star of David, or a pair of spinning dreidels. It’s the most amazing effect, and very hard to describe. But when you walk down the street at night looking through them, it transforms the world. Every street light, every headlight or tail-light on a car, and especially every Christmas light is transformed into a glowing, colorful, Chanuka decoration.

They’re very fun, but more than that, they provide a very beautiful and powerful lesson and example. I was wishing that I could, just for one night, around this time of year, make every Christian put on a pair of these and walk down the streets of their hometown. For just one night, I’d like them to be overwhelmed by multitudes, omnipresent, inescapable, of sparkling, beautiful, mystical reminders of a religion and culture which is not theirs, in their own country. It’s an experience that I don’t think they understand at all. And it’s an experience that non-Christians in America have every single Christmas season.