Christmas
By: Pat Adams 24 December 1998Just what is Christmas? it's easy to say that it means different things to different people. Many do not even celebrate it. Yet almost everyone (at least in the USA) makes a big deal of this time of the year. Is there a somewhat common thread? Is there a broad meaning of the whole holiday season that we can find?
To some, Christmas is happiness:
lights and decorations,
cookies and feasts.
To some it is greed:
presents and false pretenses,
civility in selfishness.
To some it is wonder:
an infant staring at the lights
and the hustle of family reunions
To some it is loneliness:
The homeless have no tree
to decorate, much less a house.
To me? I just don't know. It's all those things and none of them, so much more and too much less. I wish I could fall into the endless happiness of holiday parades and charoles. But it also brings out some of the most dishonest behavior I am capable of. I always try to be "good", but around Christmas I try to act even better. Others are dishonest in return, telling you of mythical beings when you were a child, now lying to you about how much they love your gift. Time spent looking at decorations may be better spent elsewhere, but we all need a break. But above all of that I think about how lucky I am, yet how much I don't have.
Christmas is the year-end finale of the battle between the good and evil of human nature. We are exhausted after it, and celebrate its beginning anew in the new year. Christmas is a release of pent-up frustrations and the start of things to come.
Whether people celebrate the holiday of not, Christmas is society collectively in need of psychotherapy, with the mad rush to the stores and self-destructive eating and drinking the whole season long. Is it any wonder we make new year's resolutions and head to the gym?
To some, Christmas is happiness:
lights and decorations,
cookies and feasts.
To some it is greed:
presents and false pretenses,
civility in selfishness.
To some it is wonder:
an infant staring at the lights
and the hustle of family reunions
To some it is loneliness:
The homeless have no tree
to decorate, much less a house.
To me? I just don't know. It's all those things and none of them, so much more and too much less. I wish I could fall into the endless happiness of holiday parades and charoles. But it also brings out some of the most dishonest behavior I am capable of. I always try to be "good", but around Christmas I try to act even better. Others are dishonest in return, telling you of mythical beings when you were a child, now lying to you about how much they love your gift. Time spent looking at decorations may be better spent elsewhere, but we all need a break. But above all of that I think about how lucky I am, yet how much I don't have.
Christmas is the year-end finale of the battle between the good and evil of human nature. We are exhausted after it, and celebrate its beginning anew in the new year. Christmas is a release of pent-up frustrations and the start of things to come.
Whether people celebrate the holiday of not, Christmas is society collectively in need of psychotherapy, with the mad rush to the stores and self-destructive eating and drinking the whole season long. Is it any wonder we make new year's resolutions and head to the gym?
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