12-21-22
The Holiday Season is an odd time, especially for someone like me who doesn't believe in an Old Man in the Sky. So the certain holidaze festivities can sometimes be a just a tad confusing. But I think it’s something about being an amalgam of Humanity:
It's about feeling thankful for the lot we were blessed with - “I wept because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet."
It's about Helping our Fellow Travelers - “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."
And it's certainly about being Thankful or Giving Thanks. And not at all contrary to my somewhat Atheist-ness, I completely support the idea of “Giving Thanks.” I believe very strongly in being Thankful to the Universe. We have this relationship, y'see - I am but Her Humble Servant, made wholly of Her very own Star Stuff. The Molecules that are me were birthed in the Center of Dying Stars - the most powerful force in the Universe. So, if the Universe is a Master Painter, then with everything that She is, She painted me.
So, in that regard I am thankful in the purest sense, and I think “Service” is a very important way to respond to your Creator. My folks would’ve definitely appreciated it. I think it's one of the biggest parts of learning to be a complete Human... a Mensch.
And oddly, somewhere in the midst of all that, sometimes Christmas is about feeling happy about feeling sad. We're complicate Star Stuff. I sometimes think that happy-sad amalgam is a sorta mutant version of that Christmas Blues thing. When I was single I used to enjoy being alone on Christmas. I truly loved a lonely Christmas Eve. I would drive down to the very empty Market/Castro Area here in SF, and park (there was always lotsa parking) and walk alone, along the sidewalk for some blocks, looking at the creative Christmas Decorations in the dark but luminescent windows of the stores.
I loved how quiet Christmas Morning "was" because everyone else was at home opening Presents and cooking Blintzes or Fresh Fruit Crepes or yummy Avocado, Tomato and Cheese Omelets... and I could get up early and go for a drive down Highway 1, and I would be one of a very few cars out on the lonely cold Christmas roads. I could take hikes in areas that were usually swarming with other hikers but were now peacefully and blissfully silent on Christmas Morning (Apologies to Joe Campbell).
I had a very good friend who was pretty depressed this one Christmas because his gal broke-up with him. He called me for a little support, and towards the end of our call I tried to appeal to the optimistic side of his sadness... I told him that he now had "unlimited potential." He didn't buy it. I told him that all that stuff that worked or didn't work in that last Relationship was all gone, wiped clean, but that, hopefully, he had learned a little about cohabitation and being a pair of humans, and all that other stuff... But that, mostly, what he was left with, was a Future with "Infinite" Relationship Possibilities. He could go to bed that night and hug his pillow and it could be anyone... even Sandra Bullock or Jean Arthur. And what could be better than that?
Being alone is about Potential... not always the lonely "Now."
As I've gotten older I've managed to combine that feeling of infinite potential to my existing Relationship. I think that's a very good thing. I like to cook a nice special Christmas Breakfast these days and then sit around and watch old episodes of the Simpsons while I'm eating... hopefully one with a good Lisa story... maybe even with Bleeding Gums Murphy in it, May he Rest In Peace.
The last few years Val and I will prelude our Christmas by watching some of our Favorite Old TV Show's Christmas episodes. MASH has a bunch. Barney Miller did some really nice ones too. WKRP... Andy Griffith... Monty Python. (I’m Old) I'm sure your fave-rave show did at least one nice one.
So… here’s my wish to leave you with. It’s about being inclusive in the Universe.
"Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom. Lead Thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home - Lead Thou me on!”
~Cardinal John Henry Newman
Merry/Happy Solstice... and if you're in the mood... please have a nice cry. And here’s a little something to go with it.
https://multimedia-english.com/videos/esl/northern-exposure-northern-lights-3088
And if you'd like to follow along with Chris in the Morning, here are the complete "Words":
"Goethe's final words: ‘More light.’
Ever since we crawled out of that primordial slime, that's been our unifying cry: ‘More light.’ Sunlight. Torchlight. Candlelight. Neon. Incandescent. Lights that banish the darkness from our caves, to illuminate our roads, the insides of our refrigerators. Big floods for the night games at Soldier's field. Little tiny flashlight for those books we read under the covers when we're supposed to be asleep.
Light is more than watts and footcandles. Light is metaphor. ‘Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.’ ‘Rage, rage against the dying of the light.’ ‘Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom. Lead Thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home - Lead Thou me on!’ ‘Arise, shine, for thy light has come.’
Light is knowledge.
Light is life.
Light is light."
~albabe (The Writer/Artist Formally Known As Al Gordon)