Just out of curiosity, I asked my kids if any of them knew why we celebrated Christmas. There was kind of a dead pause for a good three or four beats. The middle one thought the answer was "Presents?" Which I have to admit isn't 100% wrong, as far as I can tell. I live next to a mall.
The oldest one--the one who spent kindergarten through second grade in the loving arms and wandering hands of Roman Catholic primary education--put together that it was to do with the birth of the Baby Jesus.
At first I enjoyed the totality of the realization that children in this country can grow up engrossed by and in the iron grip of Christmas Anticipatory Disorder* and not inhale a single whiff of the incense supposedly burning way down at the bottom of the consumerist bonfire. I'm starting to think maybe the "Put Christ Back in Christmas!" people may actually be on to something. It's possibly that we have so thoroughly secularized the holiday that it has become alienated entirely from its beginnings.
This isn't a complaint, mind. Its beginnings include angel visitations, a virgin birth, magic stars and child murder. British people put these elements in plays acted by children for a reason. Espoused by adults, the suspension of disbelief required would be unattainable.
But I did feel a little bit bad. What I want most for my kids is, when they leave my home, for them to carry with them just as much sanctimony as they can cram into themselves. I want them to go out into the world looking directly down their noses at it. The hope is they won't be deterred by setbacks or the idea of failure if they go into a venture knowing that theirs is the best way. Their life experience is the only life experience worth considering. Empathy is for the weak and the homosexual. All setbacks are temporary setbacks, a sign not of their own failings but of the determinations of their enemies conspiring to frustrate the inevitable glory of their Destiny.
Ideally, would I like that sanctimony to derive from an unparalleled precocious intellectual development bolstered by genuine insight and experience in human art and literature? Sure, but dang, is that going to take a long time and a shit-ton of work. No, I can get the same results from religion in almost no time at all. All the impenetrable self-righteousness you could want and none of the book-reading. Well, one Book, but honestly, how many of those people actually read it? One guy, that's who. He's the guy standing in front of the church not only reading it, but telling you what it all is supposed to mean. If you think about it, church is just annotated books-on-tape. Well, again, Book-on-tape. I'd prefer it if Pastor Liturgy would mix in maybe some Tolkien or a Tony Robbins motivational book, but I guess beggars can't be choosers. It's like in-flight entertainment. You don't always get to choose the programming.
Now I know, though, that I can't rely on the society we live in to provide the necessary indoctrination I hoped for my children for me. It's no small blow to my own sanctimonious liberal-progressive worldview. If you'd asked me, I'd have gladly spouted back all kinds of conventional left-thinking wisdom about how pervasive and pernicious the effects of Christianity are in this so-called secular (Constitution-guaranteed, no less) country of ours. I would have told you that the protests of the religious are simply a leftover collective memory cult of victimization still rolling with the learned inertia left over from the last believer fed to the last lion in imperial Rome 1,700 years ago.
But now... now, I'm not so sure. Maybe we're not all as Jesus'd up as I'd thought. I haven't really looked for Him in a while now, but I'm remembering now that Jesus is just like the cops: never around when you need Him.
Being older now, though, I understand the absence better. Jesus wants me to be self-sufficient. To do things for myself. Plus, he's busy winning football games. He's only one man. He can't be everywhere at once. You're thinking of His dad.
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*known symptoms include insomnia, chronic listing and conspicuous displays of calculated good will.
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5 comments:
Pops, a very Merry Christmas to you and your boys. Thank you for a year of laughter, great writing and provocative thought. (I still can't figure out how you spent so much time in the Philippines without posting a single review of the local cuisine!) I hope that 2012 is a wonderful year for you and yours. Best regards, steely
Thank you, kind reader. It's hard to be flip and dismissive in the face of such earnest and heartfelt positivity, which pretty much eliminates all of my normal methods of communication. Instead I will again say thanks and return the good wishes.
i received an exceedingly interesting (though not well-written) essay from a student this semester on the secularization of xmas. She happens to be non-Christian (her family is Pakistani, in fact, which suggests she may even be Muslim!!!) but she, and her family, celebrate Secular Christmas.
She made rather a compelling argument for taking the Christ out of Christmas as a *positive* development. Season of sharing, giving, joy, great sales at the mall, that kind of thing.
It is a perspective I have to admit I never considered before. Under her worldview, your kid's "Presents" response would be absolutely correct.
hope you all had a merry xmas, Pops.
Well, if you're looking for case studies, I can say from my own case, it is possible to have 10 years of Christmas and never once mention the Jesus story. It's anecdotal evidence, sure, but I can always create a bunch of fake e-mail accounts and send you very similarly worded accounts if you need something more statistically substantive.
Christmas is just fun, said the Agnostic.
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