The Year-round Lessons of Christmas Spirit
By: Ted Nesi, The Wheaton Wire (Wheaton College)
December 21, 2006 3:46 PM
NORTON, Mass. -- What gives Christmas its melancholy side?
I always wonder about that in December. Don't get me wrong; I'm no Scrooge. I love the colored lights and wreaths, the cookies, presents, and parties, the homecomings, even the snow.
Still, I can't help but notice the sadness just beneath the holiday's surface. It is most apparent in the season's prime art form, Christmas songs, many of which present the holidays as a chance to briefly forget the world's trials and tribulations.
Quite a few of the most famous ones, like "White Christmas," "I'll Be Home for Christmas," and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," were written during the Second World War, a time of intense yearning.
Their lyrics capture the sacrifices and homesickness of the war. They dream of a Christmas "just like the ones I used to know." Or say, with brutal candor, "I'll be home for Christmas - if only in my dreams." Or simply acknowledge an unhappy present and pray that "next year all our troubles will be out of sight."
I don't think this is simply a case of a few songwriters who could use a bit of Prozac in their egg nog. It is the other side of the spirit of the season.
Christmas is a time of great hope; for Christians, it celebrates a savior coming to redeem a broken world. But with its simple pleasures - a lighted tree, a thoughtful gift, a visit home - Christmas stands in stark contrast to the rest of the year's overwhelming nastiness.
That is especially apparent today, when so much of the world is in terrible pain. Globalization has lifted many out of poverty, but it is also leaving many behind, without a job or hope for the future. The rich get richer, the average get squeezed, and the poor get forgotten.
Overseas, violence plagues the Middle East and Africa, and here at home it cripples inner-cities. Public schools fall apart while college becomes a luxury. And each day scientists warn us more darkly about the perils of a rapidly changing climate.
These are macro problems requiring macro solutions. Yet Christmas reminds us that even as individuals, we can create a better world one by one by restoring the old value of "the common good."
For every crazed shopper seizing a Playstation 3 out of an elderly grandmother's hands this month, there are a dozen people stopping to give money to a Salvation Army Santa Claus, or volunteering at a food pantry, or writing cards to long-lost friends.
Imagine what an impact it would have if we embraced that spirit of thoughtfulness and generosity all year long. Try it. Make it your New Year's Resolution.
When you see a homeless man, don't assume he's a drunk, or should get a job - even though perhaps he is, or he should. Instead, recognize your common humanity, and act upon it in whatever way you think best. Don't dismiss him. He was some mother's little boy, just as you once were. "Judge not, that you not be judged."
In the same spirit, don't dismiss the starving child in Africa; the Lebanese refugee; the Mexican immigrant; the Israeli soldier; or even the Republican congressman. Think of what unites us, rather than what divides us.
I am always surprised by the reaction people have to the smallest kindness, like a friendly "Hello" to a passer-by or an honest "Thank you" to a clerk at CVS. People are really grateful for it - and often surprised. In a better world we would not be so shocked, even taken aback, by kindness.
These gestures seem small because they are. But as a friend once remarked to me, "It's the small things that make a world of difference." A little goes a long way.
Christmas reminds us how easy it is to be different, to put aside cynicism and replace it with generosity. To quote another song: "Oh, that we could always see such spirit through the year."
Indeed. So have yourself a merry little Christmas, 365 days of the year.
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