'Tis the Season to Be Ranty

-
Oh, how I hate Christmas.

What's this, you say? You hate the most wonderful time of the year? You hate the time of Peace on Earth, Good Will to All, God bless us everyone, merriness and good cheer, lifting up the meek and the lowly, fa la la la la la la la la....

Well, no. Not exactly. All right, not at all. And yet, oh, how I hate it.

Sensing some conflict here? Good. Because I'm loaded with  it--not unlike the season of Christmas, as observed in these United States of America. In fact, I've got a lifetime's worth of joys and concerns, complaints and plaudits, raptures and regrets, heart and spleen aching to be vented.

Good thing I've got a blog.

I have decided to make December the month of Christmas. And yes, I'm aware that, outside of this blog, it already is. But back to me. I'm dedicating my blog this month to taking apart Christmas: the pluses, the minuses, the excesses, the recesses, the blessings and abominations and exploitations and neglected possibilities that put this season at the heart of what it is to live in the First World. My musings will be informed by my twin graduate study tracks, theology and music education, as well as a lifetime's experience being both Protestant and American. There will also be insights drawn in from time spent in the exotic locales of England (birthplace of and template for our obsessive approach to the season) and Texas (where anything worth doing is worth doing to excess), as well as childhood and young adult years spent in chilly places like New England, Idaho, and the Midwest. I'll wrap it all up in as neat a package as I can manage (acknowledging ahead of time that my wrapping skills leave something to be desired), put a pretty bow on top, and sometime around New Years Day--or possibly Epiphany, I haven't decided yet--come to some grand conclusion about how, at the age of 52, I really feel about Christmas. You are welcome to partake of whatever I write, ignoring anything that does not ring true with your own experience, quoting me with or without attribution, and sharing my blog with anyone you wish. In fact, I'd love it if you repost whatever I write, so it gets a wider audience than the 18-20 who usually look at my posts. Consider it your Christmas present to me.

So now, with the introduction out of the way, we shall begin with: Advent.
Location: Portland, OR 97229, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Boys with Toys Are Killing Us

-
Image
Kyle Rittenhouse on his way to shooting up a peaceful protest I've been writing versions of this essay as long as I've been blogging (since 2013), and thinking about it for far longer than that. Some of those essays showed up in this space, triggering fusillades (yes, I use those words intentionally) of reactionary denial from the one or two pro-gun followers I have. I have no illusions about my ability to change the minds of such people, nor of the size of my audience--my most-read posts have garnered views in the hundreds, and usually I top out at about two dozen. Be all of that as it may, I'm writing now because I have to. The fear, anger, and disgust that's been simmering within me needs venting, and needs to be out there, whether or not anyone agrees or even reads it. The painfully obvious thesis of this piece: this country has a gun problem, and there doesn't seem to be anything effective that people in power are willing to do about it. Here's a more contr
Read more

I got a gun, he got a gun, everybody got guns!

-
Image
That's Gyp Rosetti, a very scary gangster in HBO's Boardwalk Empire. He spoke that line during a tense standoff, one of the few times in the series when everybody having guns didn't end in a shootout. In Boardwalk Empire , guns exist to be used on others. It happens a lot. The third season climaxed with a citywide gun battle, bodies piling up all over Atlantic City. Everybody having guns is a symptom of everybody being scared. For the last twelve years, Americans have been afraid. Someone sent me this graphic in 2002:   With planes hijacked and crashed into buildings, anthrax in the mail, terrorist organizations plotting further attacks, perhaps we had cause to be afraid. In such a climate, it should be no surprise that Americans are buying guns, that people who previously would never think of owning a killing device would want one in the nightstand. But there are some real problems with that kneejerk reaction. First, none of the people we were afraid of in 200
Read more

Contact Matters

-
Image
They do this without thinking. Hey, teachers: raise your hand if you've never been frustrated with how little actual content you teach in any given school day. I know I'm not alone in this. There are days when I'm lucky to teach even a fraction of the musical concepts I've planned for. Some of my 30-minute classes wind up being all about the drama going on between two classmates, or the never ending struggle to calm a severely disregulated child long enough to be able to give any attention to the rest of the group. The learning goals I share with children at the beginning of every class always include a promise not to talk without permission, and to listen at all times. In fact, there are times when it feels like all I'm doing is teaching children how to behave so a few of them can finally learn something about music. A full week of such classes--as often happens after children have been away from school for a vacation, break, or even a long weekend--leav
Read more