Sunday Musings - Christmas, 2022
For some Christian’s this is a religious holiday celebrating the birth of whom they consider the Son of God- The Christ. A number of those Christians will recite the conviction that this very same Christ “will come again to judge the quick and the dead”. There will be many staged reproductions of a scene in a manager with a pregnant unmarried woman, a dad named Joseph, the wise men who are alleged to have come to celebrate his birth and several animals.
For many others Christmas is a purely secular holiday with Santa, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, Father Christmas or some other mythical figure bringing gifts; especially the gift of magic.
For others it is a time to retrieve the pain of Christmas holidays; the pain experienced because of the visit of addiction or some other brain dysfunction which holds tight to the hurts and resentments sometimes passed on for generations. For still others it is a time to gather for family dinners with purses, brief case, phones and iPads filled with the emotionally crafted defenses of their political or religious opinions masquerading as “the truth” which must be crammed down the throats of reluctant family members and other ill informed guests.
There are those who will gather with family and friends/family of choice who may or may not have a religious connection to the holiday and who were not vetted based on religious, political, social beliefs, political beliefs, sexual orientation, race, nationality or other social constructs. They may gather just because they love to laugh, enjoy good food and drink, and find love more attractive than hate or discord. They somehow did not get the memo outlining the criteria to judge and exclude or, if they got the memo, it accidentally fell into the shredder before it was read. They will arrive in comfortable and sometimes fun costumes often bringing gifts of food and drink to share. They may play some games such as cards, checkers or trivia or they may just quietly take in and breathe out the breath of love; of being in a space where one is celebrated for just being themselves.
Ironically, those who are the least attached to religion will, upon close examination, often most reflect the teachings of Jesus; the teachings which welcome the one born in a manager - the homeless one, the one who did not attend the “right” school, the one who has only questions and no answers; the one who does not know he or she should keep an excel spread sheet detailing the sin points of all; the one who expresses no shame or regret opening the gates of the prisons; the one who joyfully welcomes/harbors the illegal fleeing economic, political or physical violence; the one who is sick and needs tending to; the parent who has buried a child or children because of the disease of addiction; the one whose mental illness traps them in an alternate reality; the one who is not shameful for appropriating necessities from those who clearly have more than they need; the one who in their brokenness harms others; the one whose contradictory beliefs jingle and jangle for all to witness; the one who holds joy and grief in the same open hand.
Christmas could be about new beginnings whatever one’s religious beliefs. Christmas could be about birth which ends in death to be followed by birth/new life. Christmas could be about showing up with loving, non-judgments, non-shameful defiance. Here I am. Use this imperfect, broken vessel of possibilities to mold a more just and loving world.
Happy Christmas.
Written December 25, 2022
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
For some Christian’s this is a religious holiday celebrating the birth of whom they consider the Son of God- The Christ. A number of those Christians will recite the conviction that this very same Christ “will come again to judge the quick and the dead”. There will be many staged reproductions of a scene in a manager with a pregnant unmarried woman, a dad named Joseph, the wise men who are alleged to have come to celebrate his birth and several animals.
For many others Christmas is a purely secular holiday with Santa, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, Father Christmas or some other mythical figure bringing gifts; especially the gift of magic.
For others it is a time to retrieve the pain of Christmas holidays; the pain experienced because of the visit of addiction or some other brain dysfunction which holds tight to the hurts and resentments sometimes passed on for generations. For still others it is a time to gather for family dinners with purses, brief case, phones and iPads filled with the emotionally crafted defenses of their political or religious opinions masquerading as “the truth” which must be crammed down the throats of reluctant family members and other ill informed guests.
There are those who will gather with family and friends/family of choice who may or may not have a religious connection to the holiday and who were not vetted based on religious, political, social beliefs, political beliefs, sexual orientation, race, nationality or other social constructs. They may gather just because they love to laugh, enjoy good food and drink, and find love more attractive than hate or discord. They somehow did not get the memo outlining the criteria to judge and exclude or, if they got the memo, it accidentally fell into the shredder before it was read. They will arrive in comfortable and sometimes fun costumes often bringing gifts of food and drink to share. They may play some games such as cards, checkers or trivia or they may just quietly take in and breathe out the breath of love; of being in a space where one is celebrated for just being themselves.
Ironically, those who are the least attached to religion will, upon close examination, often most reflect the teachings of Jesus; the teachings which welcome the one born in a manager - the homeless one, the one who did not attend the “right” school, the one who has only questions and no answers; the one who does not know he or she should keep an excel spread sheet detailing the sin points of all; the one who expresses no shame or regret opening the gates of the prisons; the one who joyfully welcomes/harbors the illegal fleeing economic, political or physical violence; the one who is sick and needs tending to; the parent who has buried a child or children because of the disease of addiction; the one whose mental illness traps them in an alternate reality; the one who is not shameful for appropriating necessities from those who clearly have more than they need; the one who in their brokenness harms others; the one whose contradictory beliefs jingle and jangle for all to witness; the one who holds joy and grief in the same open hand.
Christmas could be about new beginnings whatever one’s religious beliefs. Christmas could be about birth which ends in death to be followed by birth/new life. Christmas could be about showing up with loving, non-judgments, non-shameful defiance. Here I am. Use this imperfect, broken vessel of possibilities to mold a more just and loving world.
Happy Christmas.
Written December 25, 2022
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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