Coasting Toward Christmas

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas – not a white Christmas, but festive nonetheless. All around the FOB, trees, tinsel, and lights are appearing. The chow hall is well decorated and every day the artificial tree in its entryway has inched toward being fully decorated, first with tinsel, then with ribbons and ornaments, and finally with lights.

The Christmas spirit is a bit sparse in my workspace, limited so far to three little stockings, a couple of Christmassy stuffed animals, and a very small tree. Other shops, however, are going all out. The Marines from the Communications detachment, who keep our phones, radios, and computers working, have outdone themselves with lights, tinsel, and ornaments. Over by maintenance control there is an inflatable Christmas tree with snowmen.

Christmas means different things to different people. I have always associated it with family and friends, traveling, and making music. In my youth it meant playing in a brass ensemble for Christmas Eve service at the Community Church, spending a leisurely day opening presents with my parents, skiing, shoveling snow, and ice skating. As a Naval Academy midshipman, it meant a chance to escape Annapolis for a couple of weeks, see friends and family, and take a break from the books.

As a parent, Christmas means struggling with what to tell my children about Santa. It means watching the joy on their wonderful faces when they open their presents, and seeing them play with their cousins. It means singing Christmas carols with my wife’s family. It means doing my best to resist the rampant commercialization of the holiday and avoid the cultural imperative to “shop ‘til you drop.” It means finding time alone on a bike to escape the oppressive busyness of the season.

I am ambivalent about Christmas largely because I am skeptical of Christian mythology. It seems that in today’s polarized political-religious climate, many people who claim to be Christians celebrate the birth, death, and resurrection stories without paying much heed to the teachings and ministry of Jesus. Personally, I am much more interested in his life as a nonviolent yet radical person, speaking truth to power and bearing witness to the suffering in his world, than in the mystical aspects attributed to his birth and death. I view the divinity attributed to Jesus as another manifestation of an ancient human archetype of the man-god redeemer. This model appears in many cultures and religious traditions, embodied in the likes of Zoroaster, Osiris/Horus, and Dionysus. The archetype represents human desires for a connection with the divine, life after death, and ultimate salvation.

I find spiritual meaning in this season by celebrating the Solstice – a time of personal rebirth and renewal, a time for letting go of old ways of being that are no longer useful, and a time for welcoming progress and growth into our lives. My favorite Solstice memory is from two years ago: watching the sun rise out of the Pacific from a beach in Kauai, while my two beautiful children played in the sand and honu (sea turtles) bobbed in the surf. It was simple yet extraordinary, and much more meaningful and memorable than trees or tinsel and presents.

Celebrate the season – whether it is the birth of Jesus, the miracle of Hanukkah, the return of the sun, or some other aspect of Winter – celebrate and be joyful with family and friends. After the holidays, continue to welcome the peace and love of the season into your life, all the year round.