I'll tell you something I've figured out today. Christmas is the big chance everybody gets each year to put all their past screw-ups behind them and figure out how to be a better man or woman in the coming year. Jesus died on the cross to prove the resurrection, right? To show that with faith and selfless love you can have a new life. Now, I'm no theologian, but it seems to me that message can apply to you whether you believe in Heaven or not.
As for the consumer orgy that Christmas has become--which I and a million others have defamed as murderous to the traditional spirit of the season--well, yeah. But put on Sinatra singing "O Come All Ye Faithful" or Elvis blues hollering through "Santa Claus Is Back In Town"...feel the cold nipping your fingers...and tell me honestly that there still isn't something about Christmas, some kind of strange magic in the air that isn't there the rest of the year. I don't know if it's Christian or Hindu or Pagan or Schmagan but it's there, kiddies, and it's beautiful.
You have blundered through the last year like a blind bull, hurting and being hurt. Now you have a chance to cut out all that shit and let some happiness into your heart--some simple , uncomplicated, unpossessive happiness. Christmas lets you clean your karma NOW. But you've got to look and listen, and open your heart, or you'll miss the opportunities you're given.
(Sorry for sounding so positive about all this, by the way. I'm uncomfortable with it too.)
4 comments:
Good morning, Bruce
underneath the cynical heart is Santa Claus! LOVE what you said here, and it's so true. There truly IS something special that happens at Christmas--especially for us poets and romantics. and maybe everybody, but they just won't or can't admit it. And then, as you said, you've got to be open to it. So many of us have lost that, sad to say. You are so right on, my friend. Cheers!
Hey Sharon,
I'm glad you liked what was said here. I was listening to Christmas songs all morning and the meaning of the season really came home to me.
Have you ever seen the Cary Grant movie "The Bishop's Wife"? Best Christmas movie ever, hands down. And THAT'S about reinvigorating lost souls, restoring everybody's faith (which was so damaged at the time by the experience of another, even fouler war than the one against Islam.)
Don't know that movie, Bruce, but will have to go find it. I confess to admitting that, sappy as it is, I've yet to watch It's a Wonderful Life without crying. But the thing about that movie is that it shows something this world desperately needs to remember--from the smallest village to the whole world, we really ARE all connected...
I think the best Christmas movie is the oldest Christmas Carol you can find. Dickens used to dress up as the characters and perform on stage. He was a master. Did you know that the idea of Scrooge came from a character he invented by the name of Gabriel Grub. He was a sexton at a church who used to get drunk and curse at all the passersby. One night, while drunk, the elves came to get him and carried him underground. From then on, he was as friendly as can be. It's a great story.
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