December 11, 2005

• CELEBRATE

  Zimbo says he is
  “in trepidation” anticipating what kind of number I might be planning
  to do on Xmas.  He seems to be offended by my repost of that old
  newspaper story about the Anchorage family that uses Christmas as an
  excuse to extoll the excellence of themselves, their material
  possessions and their lifestyle.  I don’t even know if he read
  what I quoted from the article and my comments on it, or looked at the
  picture. 

  I think HomerTheBrave
  was paying attention.  But Zimbo seems to have missed some salient
  features of that article… either that or the man’s yard reminds him
  of his own.  Now, there’s a thought.  It could be way off
  base, but would explain the defensive tone of his comment.  Zimbo
  also made some debatable statements regarding our tawdry commercialized
  year-end holiday season’s being the “celebration” of the birth of Jesus
  the Christ, and he wondered if I celebrate Yule.

  I can’t count how many times I have been mistaken for a Pagan just
  because I criticize the present-day degenerate form of non-worship that
  passes for Xianity in this culture.  For the record, one more time
  for those who are new to my blog:  I am a Christian, a gnostic
  Christian – not Gnostic with a capital G, not a member of even that
  organized religion, just into the gnosis.

  If I didn’t know that it is equally unevolved spiritually to willfully
  take offense as it is to deliberately give it, I might be tempted to
  take offense at the gross misuse of language in calling this time of
  the year a “celebration,” or in saying that most people “celebrate”
  Christ’s birth with these colorful displays and the frenzy of shopping
  and debt accumulation.

  For some people, there is joy this time of year.  For those same
  people, there is joy all year long.  It takes some transcendent
  spiritual evolution to remain joyous amid the moods expressed and the
  vibes projected by the masses this time of year.  Workers in
  retail establishments hate this time of year not only for the long
  hours and dense crowds grabbing things from the shelves so fast they
  can’t keep them stocked.  They are oppressed by the moods and
  attitudes of the shopping throngs.

  The vast majority of Christmas shoppers go at it with dread and
  desperation.  Knowing that they are spending more than they can
  afford, often increasing an already oppressive load of debt, they can
  justifiably assume that many if not most of the gifts they choose will
  be returned, discarded or, if kept, disliked, ridiculed, and/or
  regifted.  One needs only to walk through the crowds and pay
  attention, to understand how harried, discouraged, and miserable both
  the shoppers and the workers are.

  The dictionary says “celebrate” means to have a celebration.

  Quick definitions (celebration)
  

  noun:   any joyous diversion noun:   the public performance of a sacrament or solemn ceremony with all appropriate ritual noun:   a joyful occasion for special festivities to mark some happy event

  Only the middle one of those three definitions can even
  remotely be stretched to cover the ritual of the Christmas shopping
  frenzy.  It is certainly public, and many of those engaged in it
  are glum, indeed, but hardly “solemn” in the sense of a sacramental
  performance.  Certainly the decor in the stores is “festive,” but
  it has been up there since around Thanksgiving and is getting dusty,
  tarnished and stale.  Many businesses play “festive” music this
  time of year, and many shoppers grind their teeth over it and can’t
  wait to get out of there.

  Most of the people who routinely keep gift lists and shop for gifts do
  so not because it is a joy to give, but because it is expected of
  them.  Gift buying and giving becomes for many, especially the more
  affluent who can afford such sport, a competitive game.  Siblings, in
  particular, often compete with gifts for their parents and afterward
  often argue over which gifts the parents liked best.

  I read complaints on many Xanga blogs about the “necessity” of shopping
  for Christmas gifts.  That anyone would consider gift-giving a
  necessity truly saddens me, because it indicates how insecure and
  dependent on external validation those people are.   Either
  that, or
  they are just shallow and acquisitive, and hope by giving gifts they
  will obligate others to give gifts to them.  The best-case
  scenario
  there is that they are simply following a tradition they do not
  particularly approve of but don’t feel free to ignore.  Most of
  what I hear in town and read on Xanga about the sacred part of
  the season is hypocritical crap, empty words used because to use them
  is what is expected of one.  Sad, I say.

  I challenge anyone to demonstrate and document the falseness of my claim that MOST
  people, the majority of shoppers this time of year, are not
  CELEBRATING.  Nor are most of the people who decorate their yards and
  homes celebrating.  They are “observing” the holiday.  Some do it
  routinely and ritualistically, but are more likely to be in a mood of
  nostalgia for their childhoods as they take out their ornaments, than
  in joyous celebration of Christ.

  Some, of course, like the Loranger family in Anchorage, are decorating
  competitively and narcissistically.  To many home-lighting
  enthusiasts,
  having the brightest, loudest, busiest yard on the street or in the
  town is the goal.  That’s a sport, a game, a self-aggrandizing
  activity, not a celebration, because it is ordinarily done with grim
  intent, focused on the desire to triumph over the neighbors.  This
  winter, it is also being done in spite of pleas from the government to
  conserve fuel.  If your electric utility uses hydroelectric or
  nuclear generators, you’re okay.  Anchorage’s utility burns coal,
  the most-heavily polluting fuel and one that is becoming too expensive
  for many small remote villages to afford to heat their public buildings
  or run their generators.

  If you do
  your holiday decorating and shopping with joy, (Handcrafted gifts don’t
  count.  There is certainly joy in creative work and in giving it
  away.) be sure and comment here
  and tell me, but tell me true.  Remember, you’d better not
  lie.  Santa
  Claus is watching.

  • 10:05 am
  • 12 Comments