Furthur thoughts

My feelings about Christmas and gifts is the result of years of evolving thought that have suddenly come together in a rash of disgust and horror. But I think I need to make it clear that my feelings about gifts and Christmas are a result of personal conviction, not moral imperative. I know from experience that there are people who can enjoy Christtmas and gift-giving this time of year without the feelings I have expressed. In my first blog about Christmas I was making a gerneral commentary on our culture, and posing a question: Have we destroyed gift giving? In the second, however I was answering that question from a completely personal perspective: emphatically yes, I have destroyed gift giving in my self through my attitudes about Christmas.

There are at least three important factors in my personal musings about Christmas gift giving. First, I see gift giving, unwillingly, in a transactional way: I will give you a gift if you will give me a gift. Second, I see gift giving, again unwillingly in a competitive way: I want my gift to be the best one you receive. Third, I find in myself an insatiable greed and gluttony around this time of year as I wait in eager anticipation to see what new things I will get. Fourth, because of the way our culture is constructed I find myself disappointed because, no matter how many people there are to give me gifts, there's always something I didn't get.

This, I know is not how everyone sees Christmas. I realize that I am confessing to some rather unsettling psychological issues. But I also recognize that ther is, or there should be more to Christmas. It is a celebration of the Incarnation of God. This is one of the greatest mysteries and one of the most sublime truths. God became man. Somehow, I never notice it anymore. My parents certainly raised me to see Christmas this way. But somewhere along the way, as I came of age, I allowed the culture of our times to subvert it.

And that is why I made the request I made. I admit that it is a wrenching thing to ask for nothing for Christmas. But I think that I need a year off. I need to see again the beauty of the nativity. I need to find the joy of the season in celebrating tradition and spending time with family and friends.