Christmas, Revisited.

Here is a journal entry from right before Christmas that is part of the reason I wanted to move somewhere a little different from Pennsylvania:

Christmas. Xmas. Navidad. Noel. Yuletide.

I love Christmas, I think almost everyone does. This year I found myself pondering the many facets of Christmas that are presented in mainstream media and common thought and traditions. One of the most common themes of Christmastime is that family, friends, and goodwill towards men are what is important in life. Our national pastime in December is to gather 'round to watch Christmas specials to get us in the mood for the holidays. Time and time again we tear up when the Grinch hears the Whos singing even though the presents are gone, Scrooge takes the biggest goose to the Cratchets, Ralphie and his family have their Chinese Christmas dinner, or Bedford Falls bands together to save George Bailey. At those moments we are filled with the true Christmas Spirit that we have come to associate with the season. But every twenty minutes in these movies we are assaulted with commercialism - buy this toy, save 10% here, get a Lexus with a gratuitously large bow for your hubby... Does anyone else sense contradiction? I don't mean to sound bitter - I watched movies and bought presents too - but I just find it strange that we as a society can transition so seamlessly from fuzzy-warm feeling of Love Actually, to the mad frenzy of excessive shopping.

Most people think these is nothing wrong with these these shopping frenzies and spending a large amount of money on gifts, but I just wonder if it adds to the generally happiness of people today. A majority of gifts are given because of want. Johnny wants an Xbox 360. Dad wants a LCD 72 inch TV, Aunt Sally wants Botox. We give these gifts, but they fill an extraneous wish, and distract from those things that movies tell us are truly important. Love, health, family.

I suppose that today most people in our society have few if any needs unfilled that can be filled monetarily. Also most of us have wants filled more frequently. I remember my great-grandmother telling me that for Christmas when she was little, for Christmas she would get a tangerine, a stick of penny candy, and one doll to be shared among all 11 kids. Kids today look at that and think, "Wow, that would suck!" but when my great-grandma told me this story, she was speaking with longing of how wonderful it was to have that one tangerine a year, and how she would savor the smell of the peel when scratched, the fine mist of oil from peeling, and how she would slowly eat section by section over the course of the day. All I could think as she was lost in this reminisce, was that I have never enjoyed a present than much. And she was talking about a tangerine...

Perhaps it is just a product of fruitful and rich society that today we it takes more and more money to make a truly exciting gift. But as long as we are filling wants, they will not even mean as much as those gifts that fill needs. Growing up poor among 10 siblings in the early 1900's my great-grandmother rarely received anything extravagant, so Christmas brought her yearly chance to have have something different from day to day - and all it took was a tangerine. She still was having a want filled, but it was barley above a need. I can only imagine how the truely needy must revile in a gift that fills a need.

I suppose there is nothing wrong with Christmas today. I have a feeling that I simply see more pointedly how societies with everything, seem to lose something. Life is a balance of opposites; hot/cold, light/dark, good/evil, - so maybe those in our societies without true need cannot experience true joy. Perhaps this is why the rich still battle depression, apathy, and substance abuse. I am again reminded of what I have learned by visiting other societies that we consider poor, and how they seemed to have more happiness in many cases, especially when it came to appreciating family, and simple things in life.

Perhaps we should evaluate who is rich and who is poor. And that the best Chrismtas gift might be some self reflection.