Editorial: Hope and generosity in the bleak midwinter

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan;
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter
Long ago.
That is the first verse of an extraordinarily beautiful Christmas carol called In the Bleak Midwinter, based on a poem by Christina Rossetti.
As sung by soaring voices of the McGarrigle family to a crowd huddled in an icy Outremont square Wednesday night, the carol seemed to have particular resonance.
Not just because of the bit