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December 22, 2004
Heh
Okay, I used to read Lileks every day, but after a year or so wearied of it partly because I lost interest in The Wink or The Tic or whatever his daughter's nickname is, and partly because I found his fecundity - in words - just demoralizing. Had to stop and focus on what I can do rather than what I can't.
But today's Bleat, a response to a James Wolcott snipe at a previous Bleat, is a good entry into the Christmas Wars. (I have my own entry, in process, but I keep changing my mind on certain points. Maybe at some point in the Octave, I'll get it done...)
And could any of us get away with a phrase like this:
Note: in one of those classic little asides meant to endear him to the chic upper-left-side Mo-Dowd demographic whose uteruses have turned to something indistinguishable from papyri rescued from Herculanuem
Whoa.
Meanwhile, Michelle Malkin posts a column on something more serious than Christmas Wars - real persecution of Christians around the world. As she notes, here are groups that track it:
Voice of the Martyrs
International Christian Concern
Montagnard Foundation
WorldnetDaily
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Tracked on Dec 28, 2004 9:30:51 AM
Comments
I have to be honest and say that my heart really isn't in the fight to "keep Christ in Christmas." Maybe it's because my dominant feeling about Christmas tends to be wanting it to be over. This is actually an improvement from previous years where I tended to enter a catatonic state around Thanksgiving that didn't lift until after New Year's. My children have helped in that regard, and I enjoy their enjoyment of the season even if I have a hard time sharing it myself.
We've done our best to keep commercialism at bay and keep the focus on Jesus where it belongs. We enjoy the time with family even if the sheer number of "family events" can begin to overwhelm. But in the end, the struggle to preserve the "real meaning" of the season becomes so exhausting that I'm tempted not to bother.
I know, I know. Hardly the spirit of the season. But that's where I'm at. Sorry.
Posted by: Peter Nixon at Dec 22, 2004 1:37:12 PM
I like Easter better really. The Easter Bunny never really caught on, merchants' best efforts notwithstanding, and I usually manage to totally ignore the people who show up at Mass on Easter who are never seen there at any other time.
The "Christmas" stuff, especially when one has greedy little ones at home, just overwhelms. I can REALLY relate to the catatonic state!!!! It's a bit better this year because we did ALL our shopping online, but I confess to a feeling of relief every year when it's over finally.
Posted by: Leo at Dec 22, 2004 1:49:40 PM
Lileks intimidates me, too. He writes stream-of-conscious prose better than anyone else. But as a fan of a largely unknown SoCal bluegrass band called "Phantom Hollow" a few years ago, I realized I enjoyed hearing them play in little coffee shops and used clothing stores. Their playing complemented my enjoyment of Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, and other big-time musicians. And so it is with my writing, and your own.
BTW, Lileks' nickname for his daughter is "Gnat." That's not just a writer's device, but a short form of "Natalie."
Posted by: Patrick O'Hannigan at Dec 22, 2004 2:04:21 PM
Even better is this bit from the referenced Bleat:
"And if the term [Merry Christmas] has faded from the common language of advertising, then it reflects something in the culture. Or rather the overculture--that twitchy, cheery idiot blare produced by a stratum of coastal types who think the rest of America truly gives a shite whether Lindsay Lohan lost her Blackbird at a party last week, and who actually know who Anna Wintour looks like."
NOBODY writes like Lileks!
Posted by: Larry at Dec 22, 2004 2:04:57 PM
I guess it is just a coincidence that Lent was consumed with vicious attacks on the Gospels, on Christians and on Christianity itself and now Advent is consumed with an avoidance of Christ. Question: now that everything else is over, just what "holiday" is being noticed in the ubiquitous "Happy Holidays" greetings on local and national television? Doesn't it strike you as odd that during Hanukkah, we saw "Happy Hannukah" but now that it is over, we see "Happy Holidays"? They can't even acknowledge that there is only one "holiday" going on now.
As for us, we read Amy's How to Celebrate Christmas as a Catholic pamphlet, followed the suggestions and have had a prayerful sense of expectation throughout.
Posted by: Kathy at Dec 22, 2004 2:06:58 PM
I guess I was very fortunate to have parents who measured Christmas by the liturgical year, not by what was going on in the outside world.
We always emphasized Advent, which has its own beauty and peace. Both my sister and I to this day love lighting the candles on our Advent wreaths, the light of which for us testified to the coming Light of the World. Trees, gifts, none of that entered the picture until the week before Christmas (old traditions of Europe that my parents followed) (I actually heard a priest once mention in his homily that decorations aren't really supposed to go up until Gaudete Sunday of Advent). On Christmas Eve we brought out the Nativity.
I also think Eastern Christians have done a better job than Western Christians on emphasizing that the Christmas season does not end with Christmas day but flows on into Epiphany, etc.
Meanwhile, secular friends and the commercial world are busy taking all the Christmas trappings nearly the day after the event.
Christmas can be a marvelously spiritual time, once one learns to drown out all the surrounding noise. And I recognize how much more difficult all this is when one is dealing with children, family, and many other factors sometimes beyond one's control in our hectic world.
Posted by: Christine at Dec 22, 2004 2:14:47 PM
It's really too bad that Malkin trashed her own credibility with that book about the Japanese Internment. She's usually sensible or even better (like today), but occasionally she's despicable and mendacious (like in the book).
Posted by: Joel at Dec 22, 2004 2:23:35 PM
Christine, I agree that an advent wreath can slow things down and focus attention on the meaning of it all.
Speaking of the Epiphany, did anyone see the show on the Magi last night? I hadn't known that St. Helena found what is believed to be their bones and that they are now in Cologne. An ancient wrapping shroud has been tested and authenticates their age and their imperial status. The 3 Kings are a part of Christmas I've always loved and which shouldn't be lost.
Posted by: Joyce at Dec 22, 2004 2:32:29 PM
The good part of all this is that when someone says "Merry Christmas" now, they likely understand they are referencing a person called the Christ whose birth some people take quite seriously.
As for Lileks' verbal fecundity, there's something inspiring about his output, and how it thickly documents (vaguely, as to how aware he is of it) a growing faith commitment as he raises his daughter.
Amy, you have nothing to be discouraged about; quality, quantity, apples, oranges, artichokes, etc.
Oh, and a Blessed Christmas, all!π
Posted by: Jeff at Dec 22, 2004 2:33:09 PM
Christmas really is very different things to different people. I can live with that.
--
From Contra Costa Times, Dec 20, 2004:
"Santa may be king this time of year in shop windows and on TV screens, but not in the classroom. Teachers in many schools are making sure that kids take a broader view of the holidays, even in schools that are less diverse and more suburban, such as Lafayette's Springhill Elementary.
Every year, Springhill second-graders rotate one day through three classrooms, each featuring a different December holiday. This year, they created Kwanzaa mats, tried latkes in honor of Hanukkah and made card holders shaped like Santa Claus; in previous years, they have studied the Mexican festival of Las Posadas, re-enacting Joseph and Mary's search for shelter, and the Swiss feast of Santa Lucia.
"We try to give it all equal billing, because Christmas kind of takes over this time of year," Churchill said. In her class, the students were bent studiously over their Kwanzaa mats, woven with red (which, Churchill explained, represents the ongoing struggle of African-Americans), green (symbolizing the land they came from) and black (for unity).
"I like learning about Kwanzaa, because I like other countries," said second-grader Lauren Hunt as she plaits a green strip next to a red one.
On a nearby table, Churchill showed the students a few other symbols of Kwanzaa: a unity cup, an ear of corn and a kinara, which holds seven candles to represent the seven nights and seven principles of Kwanzaa."
---
For businesses, of course, Christmas is the time to get into the black, with enough sales to offset the rest of the year. The real color of the season is green (as in dollars).
For families with children, whether Christian, Jewish or Muslim, it is a time of family and home-based religious traditions. Many Christians really emphasis the Nativity as a time all about parents and children and home.
And there are the religous culture warriors fighting the endless Christmas wars. I know evangelicals that say it so much of it (date in late December, Christmas trees, etc.) is all pagan syncretism; I know Catholics and Protestants concerned about keeping "Christ" in "Christmas," I know Episcopaleans that just want a good drink by a cozy fire and some decent music in the background.
I'm happy with all that.
--
What about little old me? Well, these days I walk the earth without parents, without children, with little interest in more "stuff" (I'm not much of a consumer).
For me it is really about the mystery of Incarnation. Something both terrifying and full of joyful potential. Not so much about "Baby Jesus," but about Emmanu-el, Nobiscum-Deus, God-with-us. That still small voice of God's first sounds made as the God-man in time. The beginning of a life doing the Father's will.
Sorry, for me it's not about the stuff or the parties or the marketplace or the public displays or the advertising or how religious or not or "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays," or kids opening presents or trees or Hannukah or Kwanzaa.
No, for me, chanting Psalms in my cell, following the Church's liturgy for Advent and Christmas, it really is about Incarnation. From "Regem venturum Dominum, venite, adoremus" to "Prope est iam Dominus, venite, adoremus" to "Christus natus est nobis: venite, adoremus." Most profound. Silence of the deep, cold night is a good time to contemplate this mystery.
He is coming (Advent). He is near (Late Advent). He is born (Christmas). Followed, of course, by Epiphany, to the feast of His Baptism. For me, Christmas is really just one stop in this season of contemplation of Christ.
All the stuff in the marketplace is really just background noise to me (and I don't have television), but I do appreciate the happiness and family/household-centered joys it can bring to many others, and I sympathize with those engaged in battles for various religious expressions in cultural settings.
Posted by: Zhou De-Ming at Dec 22, 2004 2:35:21 PM
Thanks for this post, Amy, it's a fine rant.
And if I don't get a chance in a later post, Merry Christmas and God's blessings on your family.
Posted by: Eutychus Fell at Dec 22, 2004 3:15:11 PM
Leo:
"I usually manage to totally ignore the people who show up at Mass on Easter who are never seen there at any other time."
That is shameful. And that you seem to consider it an achievement makes it disgraceful. They bother to come once a year and you give them all the motivation they need to NEVER come back.
Posted by: Chris-2-4 at Dec 22, 2004 3:18:36 PM
In addition to the groups mentioned above, also check out: http://www.freedomhouse.org/religion/.
Posted by: Kevin Miller at Dec 22, 2004 3:34:05 PM
Chris-2-4, I hope you aren't coming to Mass to be noticed by the regulars. I'm sure that isn't your motivation. Everyone notices you and is happy to see you; we just are a bit flummoxed because we see so little of you and you might be in our usual spot! We do have our favorite pews and get to know our benchmates. I think that is what Leo might have meant.
Anyway, let's give a thought to our brothers and sisters in Christ, Palestinian Christians, who have suffered so much in the last several years. Let's pray for the brothers and other religious who live at our Holy Places there and who have also suffered. And let's pray that Israel will live up to the promises it made to the Holy Father ten years ago and will stop threatening to tax our religious hospitals and institutions. And let's pray for peace with justice so that we can visit those sites again soon.
Posted by: Ed at Dec 22, 2004 4:01:31 PM
Chris 2-4,
I can relate to Leo and his comment about ignoring the folks who just show up at Easter and Christmas. I actually don't ignore them, but many of them end up making me very angry.
Last Easter I helped our assembly ministers/ushers at the 11:00 a.m. mass on Easter morning. We had a record crowd, which was great. We had to bring up chairs and set them in the vestibule which, fortunately, can be opened up to the main part of the church. Most people sitting back there could see fairly well and could hear very well. But there were several people who came in at least 10 to 15 minutes late; complained because they couldn't see or complained because we told them they couldn't stand in the aisle or complained because we told them they couldn't sit on the baptismal font/pool. Many of those same complainers and stragglers spent the entire mass not paying attention. Instead they were talking to other family members; looking through their purses; looking at cell phones; looking at their watches...
Let me assure you that I was nice to all of these people. I welcomed them and asked them to come back. But, I most certainly understand the desire to ignore them.
Posted by: Meggan at Dec 22, 2004 4:02:30 PM
I like that Lileks' ends his rant with pointing out that he has a "real" child!
--What the heck is an "ocicat"? I assume some variation of cat...I'll just google and presto the answer will come.
Indeed, a very Merry and Blessed Christmas to you and yours! We're goining to have a wonderful day with our real children too!
Posted by: Peggy at Dec 22, 2004 4:04:06 PM
Not wanting to throw too much seed in front of the chickens, resulting in gleeful pandemonium, but:
What about all those people, many not even Catholics, who show up for baptisms and turn the Mass, between the readings and the Eucharist, into a giant photo-op and video fest. The nerve of them, overperfumed, with large hats, bright lights, and funny accents, jumping from their pews into the aisles, walking all around snapping pictures and taking video, talking and calling out to the little child to "Look this way!" I've even seen some carry the naked baby from the font and lay them on the altar to dress them in their white robes as if we were about to celebrate Eucharist at a changing table! Oh, the indignity of it all! How dare they! Who are these people, and why do they insist on taking over our church for their family events?
Posted by: Zhou De-Ming at Dec 22, 2004 4:11:05 PM
It is So Totally Not My Business, but when you read Lileks every day, you realize that he needs more children. You know they're keeping themselves from having a brother or sister for Gnat, and if anyone ever needed a bigger family, it's them.
Posted by: Therese Z at Dec 22, 2004 5:00:29 PM
You know I originally got indignant about Merry Christmas being subsumed under the generic Happy Holidays while Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and the Winter Solstice were accorded their own special salutation. This feeling of resentment was stoked by the actions of the pitiful New York Public School System's suppression of Christian symbols while permitting/encouraging the display of Jewish and Muslim symbols; and the benighted Florida town that would not display a creche next to a Menorah until ordered to do so by a Federal court. And then something changed in my thinking and I asked myself how this had anything to do with the anniversary of the birth of Christ and how my wife and I were going to celebrate and worship. It seemed to put things in perspective. Resentment doesn't seem to fit well with the Birth of Christ.
Posted by: tom at Dec 22, 2004 5:17:36 PM
Lileks has a "tall, multi-level POPE HAT"?
I don't have a tall, multi-level pope hat.
Would someone give me one for Christmas? ;)
Posted by: David at Dec 22, 2004 5:35:57 PM
My feelings are closest to those of Peter. As a liturgist, I observe Advent, and the placement of a public creche or lack of it really bothers me not at all. On one hand, I feel glad that public displays of "polite, generic" Christmas are on the way out; religious Christians do them better and draw more meaning from them. On the other hand, I smile when the discussion permits a tree (from paganism) or Santa.
While I have a low opinion of Ms Malkin's writing and opinions, she is right to suggest that real persecution of Christians happens elsewhere, and that the retirement of Baby Jesus from the public square is not authentic persecution.
Posted by: Todd at Dec 22, 2004 5:47:54 PM
Why do we have to allow cameras in church at all? I think it should be an absolute rule; no photographs during mass, baptism, weddings. Pictures can be afterwards, on the church steps, at the reception. No one needs the actual ceremony videotaped or even still photographed. What is really happening doesn't show up on the camera anyway.
Susan F. Peterson
Posted by: Susan Peterson at Dec 22, 2004 6:44:04 PM
Zhou-de-Ming! You are priceless!
Posted by: R. Rood at Dec 22, 2004 7:24:59 PM
Leo, There just might be a valid reason why you only see certain people at Christmas and Easter. I'm sure that the people, assuming that I am noticed, probably think that I'm a Christmas only Catholic. I'm not, I'm just visiting family, and am the only Catholic of the bunch. (only religiously active one too).
Posted by: Anna at Dec 22, 2004 8:10:45 PM
Someone else wrote:
You know they're keeping themselves from having a brother or sister for Gnat, and if anyone ever needed a bigger family, it's them.
I'm sure this was meant well, but do we know? If he hasn't said so publicly, it doesn't seem to me like a matter for speculation. I don't think Lileks is all that young, for one, and even younger people can have fertility problems they don't feel the need to share with the world, for example.
Posted by: r o at Dec 22, 2004 8:43:01 PM
