Christmas: the great fraud
What do you think of when someone says the word Christmas? Massive amounts of food, wine, presents? Time spent relaxing with the family? Undoubtedly, that is what comes to mind for many of us, myself included.
I've always been aware that it should mean rather more than that but somehow I've managed to blank that out, to push the thought in to a dark corner. Don't want to vex myself by examining my conscience too closely for fear of what I might find. An incident late on Christmas Day caused me to reconsider.
I was staying with my in-laws - decent people with whom I get on well - in Surrey. We had eaten a massive meal and then driven to Olney to see one of their daughters and three grandsons. On the journey back someone in a dark car all but ran us off the road. Right up our rear bumper, horn blaring, headlights flashing, then practicallybouncing off the side of the car as he overtook, middle finger raised in something other than a gesture of friendship. I tried to remember that it was the season of goodwill to all men.
And that was what made me think. True, the unidentified idiot accelerating in to the distance, was just full of anger and not really worthy of a great deal of thought but who was I to take the moral high ground?
I'd certainly eaten my share of the 6,000 calories that the average person consumes on Christmas. And I'd done so without giving a thought to the starving in Africa. I'd bought my baby daughter all sorts of presents at considerable expense, when given she is but nine months old, the only thing that interested her was the wrapping paper. I'd done so without thinking of the poor, the meek or the lowly. I'd listened to the children arguing over who opened their present first and then crying if they perceived they had not done as well as someone else and I'd just accepted that as the way it was.
No, I really do not have any call on the moral high ground.
I've always been aware that it should mean rather more than that but somehow I've managed to blank that out, to push the thought in to a dark corner. Don't want to vex myself by examining my conscience too closely for fear of what I might find. An incident late on Christmas Day caused me to reconsider.
I was staying with my in-laws - decent people with whom I get on well - in Surrey. We had eaten a massive meal and then driven to Olney to see one of their daughters and three grandsons. On the journey back someone in a dark car all but ran us off the road. Right up our rear bumper, horn blaring, headlights flashing, then practicallybouncing off the side of the car as he overtook, middle finger raised in something other than a gesture of friendship. I tried to remember that it was the season of goodwill to all men.
And that was what made me think. True, the unidentified idiot accelerating in to the distance, was just full of anger and not really worthy of a great deal of thought but who was I to take the moral high ground?
I'd certainly eaten my share of the 6,000 calories that the average person consumes on Christmas. And I'd done so without giving a thought to the starving in Africa. I'd bought my baby daughter all sorts of presents at considerable expense, when given she is but nine months old, the only thing that interested her was the wrapping paper. I'd done so without thinking of the poor, the meek or the lowly. I'd listened to the children arguing over who opened their present first and then crying if they perceived they had not done as well as someone else and I'd just accepted that as the way it was.
No, I really do not have any call on the moral high ground.
posted by Andy at 2:28 AM
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