Christmas This Year

Every year at Christmastime, our household goes a little crazy with holiday and seasonal preparations. We play Christmas music from Thanksgiving on, make presents, shop, bake cookies, eat cookies, put cookies away so we’ll stop eating cookies, make chocolates, see above, wrap presents, plan meals, shop some more. Truth is, it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure. It makes you a little corny to love Christmas, especially the way I do. But this year seems different. I believe we have a valid excuse to try to keep up good cheer. To do otherwise would be morbid, and morbid is not what you want to be during a global pandemic. But it’s not easy, especially with all the grim tidings we’ve been treated to lately.

Just for instance, this week alone we had multiple revelations not designed to bring cheer.

Take the Solar Winds hack that’s been going on since March but was just discovered this month, to wit, that most of the federal agencies of the US government, including the NSA and all five branches of the military, most of the Fortune 500 companies, and many more, were completely hacked and infected with malware and made to do the bidding of unknown hackers for the better part of a year. Wow. One is not inspired with confidence to discover the relative ease with which hackers gained backdoor computer access into the biggest, baddest organizations in the world. The mind boggles.

Other not-so-great news has emerged from Britain regarding a new strain of Covid-19 (Covid-20?) that has emerged in England where it’s been circulating since September. It is said to be 70% more infectious than the old Covid, although they don’t seem to know whether it’s more or less deadly than the virus we’ve been dealing with so far. Nations around the world are closing their doors to the UK, and there is now concern that “soft” goods such as produce — fruits and vegetables — will run out in the UK before they resolve shipping issues with France. Leaving aside Britain’s unenviable position here on the eve of their major winter holiday, what of this new strain of Covid and how long before it turns up in American cities? Will vaccines currently under development “work” with new-style Covid? These are vexing questions to even have to think about.

Finally (for this week), we learned that so-called stimulus checks are coming out to placate the masses so Congress doesn’t end up looking like Scrooge at Christmas. It’s hard to believe that our Congresspersons are unaware of how small an amount $600 actually is and how little one can pay for with $600. Basically, it’s food money or a boost on your monthly rent. Many Brattleboro renters would still have to come up with the other $600, or more.

Anyway, this is the news the week before Christmas, the week of Hanukhah, leading up to the Solstice today, the 21st of December. But this reminds me of something important about the Winter Solstice: it is a time of pause…. Time stops, the earth stops moving (or so it seems), all the world takes a break from ceaseless activity. This is a good thing to imagine although in my case at least, the ceaseless activity will have to continue a bit longer. But I digress.

Pausing to survey all this uninspiring news, I have begun to wonder if, in the end, any of this news stuff really matters, and if what really matters are the things that take place off-screen, in our living rooms and kitchens, in bedrooms where gifts are furtively wrapped, in the meals we prepare ourselves, the music we listen to, the candles we light, and all the other “useless” trappings of the holiday season. What if it were those things, the things we’ve almost given up believing in — peace, love, and joy — that really matter? And not the “madness” of Trump, the “diversity” of Biden, or even the latest Covid numbers.

I feel the answer has to be yes. It’s something you can feel in your heart. For a cynic like me, it takes effort sometimes to fan that tiny spark into a flame, but during this dark time — the bleak midwinter in more ways than one — I need to be able to feel the love. So although I am at times completely done in by things — some problem to be fixed or scary news story or whatever — I’m trying not to let it get me down. This year, emulating Scrooge’s nephew, I’m endeavoring to keep my Christmas spirit to the last and cultivate something worthwhile, merry, and bright, leaving aside the dark emanations of the talking heads and the suits they represent. They are not real. We are.

So bring on the holidays and let the carols ring out! Corny though they it all is, it’ll put your heart in the right place.

Happy holidays, everyone! Merry Christmas!