Good King Wenceslas was a diamond of a human being indeed, in the short time he enjoyed the throne of Bohemia. He shared his new Christian joy with his people, and his desire to have Bohemia join with the new Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne and become a part of a renewed, larger border free Europe. This in 912.

However, his mother who was still a pagan was not amused. She saw the pagan ways special to Bohemia for many centuries as having to give in to a larger central government far away near Brussels today- do you hear that irony in the historic wind?- led by the great new convert to Christian beliefs and education, Charlemagne.

Gone would be the local ways and customs and giving in to a central authority was not for our ways. So Wenceslas banished his mother from the kingdom, her allies brought forward his pagan brother Boleslav, by most accounts a violent fool, who began to make impossible demands of new King Wenceslas. He wanted a stone castle on low ground at the confluence of two rivers: even the King lived in a wooden castle in 912.

Soon, most cowardly by Boleslav and his men in front of a church door, Wenceslas was cut dead. The pagans had won, and Bohemia stayed ignorant and outside the civilization that Christian monks brought to all around.

So much so that the beloved grandmother of young Prince Wenceslas, St. Ludmila, who had been strangled by Wenceslas' own pagan mother, and Wenceslas himself were adored and enshrined in the hearts and souls of the good people of Bohemia. Within a century converts of good King Wenceslas dared to come forth.

Soon the pagans lost control of the ceremonies, and most of all the hearts of the people. Saint Ludmila and her grand son Good King Wenceslas were very good indeed, and when they looked down on the feast of Stephen, every where he looked around the frost was deep and even.

And as empires lift and fade after great men die too soon, the mists of time blended over this first greater out of the dark ages attempts to bring about a border less market free Europe. It has been a way from 912 to today, and there have been some terrible bumps and off ramp crashes, but here we are.

Well done, great visionaries. Burn in Hell, Boleslav. God and St. Peter willing, I hope to see you inside Heaven at Christmas, Wenceslas: can they arrange frost that crunches deep and crisp and even? We will see. But the question what if reamins in front of us so open to vision.

What if Wenceslav had not turned his back on the treacherous brother and his thugs, and believe his hand on the church door would stop them from killing him?

What if Charlemagne had been aware of the treachery in the court of his dear new friend Wenceslas and sent soldiers of Christ to prevent these pagans from allowing Europe to spread east as it has only managed now.

That was 912, and today in 2008 we can say it is a good thing, long overdue, could have saved hundred of millions of lives in wars, but seems to be happening now.A diamond of an idea, so long overdue.