It’s the silly season again. Silly? Yup, it’s that time when you think that you can overcome the current cultural push for excess driven by messages that tell you your purchases will help the economy, save the world from overheating and cure dandruff. Another year when Cognitive Dissonance becomes the theme song. And, another year when we have to weigh change against constancy, predictability, tradition. On to Christmas.
Of course there is the supply chain kerfuffle and the shortage of workers that begs the question about why there are still so many unemployed people … but what do I know?
I did see the footage of container ships wandering around the Pacific coast, waiting for a parking space and someone to unload them. I did read about the shortage of people who drive trucks that has led to a charming culture change in what has been the traditional truck driver image. Seems like many of our newest long haulers are Sikhs. This group of Punjabi immigrants and their descendants have taken to the roads to deliver the stuff of life for most of us. Heck, you might even say that they are saving Christmas for some.
So what does this mean during the silly season. Well, for me, it means another reevaluation of my intent and actions around Christmas. I, like so many, decry the way that a sacred holiday has been tainted by commercialism and material excess. But, here I am worrying about how to gift the men on my list? What to put under the tree for my spouse, my son, son-in-law … and now my grandsons, who, as they get older, get harder to gift. Pull and push continues.
The struggle is real. I am up to my ears in it and not, in any perceptible way, satisfied with my determinations.
Today, I began to wrap. But this year, as a way to quiet the dissonance, I’ve decided to approach this task with some environmental awareness. I am using what is at hand, not rushing out to purchase expensive paper that will only be thrown away.
What am I using? Old newspapers and magazines as well as the stash of brown paper bags that I’ve accumulated because I forgot to carry a shopping bag into the store.
Which brings me to a digression …a bittersweet memory of Chappell’s, a store where they wrapped your gifts for you. Not only did Chappell’s give you the boxes, but allowed you to chose which wrapping paper would go around the boxes. All for free. Today? You are lucky if there is a bag to hold what you’ve bought.
I am holding on by a thread … Where is my Christmas cheer?
But… Wait! Archaeology comes to the rescue again.
Today I read about a 3000–4000-year-old cuneiform tablet that announced the birth of a baby, complete with the baby’s footprint and the names of its parents. Wow. Hundreds of generations of people ago there were families living their lives, much more slowly than we live ours, but nevertheless, living family lives. There was no silly season as I describe it, but I bet that there were celebrations and gift giving in other formats. A baby announcement on a clay tablet …constancy and change.
The changes, good and bad, that have happened through these millennia brought us to ourselves today, with shortages of stuff and people who refuse work and philosophical issues about how to celebrate holidays, not to mention the “no gift wrapping”. None of this is probably unique, perhaps technologically different, but part of the human condition.
The fact that Sikh men have taken to driving the long-haul trucks gives me pause to remember that change continues and that our response to that change is what makes the difference. A big thank you to the new truck drivers, to homespun solutions to shortages, to people finding work that they love and creative less materialistic ways to express Christmas.
I will redefine this silly season to accommodate my philosophy, to carry on that which is important in my world view. We will celebrate Christmas as we have with decorated trees, modest gift giving, going to church and feasting. It’s called making it work in an ever changing and sometimes frustrating culture.
The silly part is thinking that I can realistically change anyone but myself. So, I am going down into the basement to search for string to tie up the gifts.
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