Christmas is a weird time of the year. It's supposed to be about remembering Jesus Christ but it's become a massive commercial industry where the big retail chains seem to have replaced churches as places of worship.
It is supposed to be about love and joy and celebration but what is love and joy and celebration for those who spend Christmas alone or for those struggling to stay above the poverty line or for those who rely on charity or for the homeless?
It's supposed to be about family but what is family if all it does is force those who actually don't get along to come together and have to grin and bear it, which in doing so puts pressure on relationships and just highlights how dysfunctional we've all become. Why is this? Why is no one talking about it? Is it because of our human nature and if so can we change this and save the world from having to endure this treadmill of pain and suffering that we seem to be in denial of as we decorate the tree, wrap the presents, sing the carols and sip (or guzzle depending on how much you want to block the whole occasion out) the champagne.
It's weird because for such a festive time of the year that it's meant to be,
the frailty of human nature seems to become very apparent. For me it's actually a very stressful time of the year and I wonder what children in their innocence must think of it and whether they know what it's really meant to be about given it's become so polluted. And if they were to ask adults about it would they be just told it's because of human nature and that one day they'll understand. What about for those children of split families, who get shunted between their parents and probably get lavished with more gifts than others as their parents try and make up for the mess they've made of their lives. I suppose this is what starts the treadmill turning again for the next generation. All the guidance they have is from their parents who seem to have it altogether but scratch the surface and it's all just a house of cards.
For adults I suppose by the time the New Year celebrations roll around enough alcohol has been consumed to push the Christmas experience to the depths of our minds to be forgotten again for another year until it rolls around again all too quickly and we have to play the same charade as always, pretending we're happy when in truth we're not. Or maybe we forget the painfulness of it in hope that the New Year will swipe the slate clean and that we can truly have a fresh start at happiness. But forgetting things doesn't solve the problem. In my mind forgetting things is the equivalent to burying them where they can start to fester and grow in to something bigger than what they originally were, so rather than just unwrapping unwanted gifts the following Christmas, you end up unwrapping some deep seated, un-dealt with emotions that if not carefully managed can turn into an explosion.
What's been helping me this Christmas and as I look to the New Year, and I suppose I could say it's the best Christmas present I've ever received, was stumbling across the World Transformation Movement's website and discovering that as opposed to all the cynicism that's out there on the web, there's actually some solid discussion about our human nature. Maybe the treadmill of pain and suffering can now come to an end and there really will be something worth celebrating next
Christmas.
