Okay. Now.
Something has been done and it has colors and sometimes connections. Yes.
So.
It seems that we are locked, embattled if you will, in a struggle between what we stand for.
We have two myths we put forth, one only for children (because they certainly require irreverent entertainment to keep them from breaking our precious cookie jars) and the other for the inner-longing of "us" all. Right? Both tales state specific values of goodness and reverence. They both, however, run into the realms of paradox when faced with each other.
Is it not bizarre that we put so much effort into annually re-telling the two stories separate yet equal? Jesus is the reason for the season. But what about Santa?
Sure, one is real, we're told, while the other is fake. Whatever. It appears to me as a moral dilemma, not a technical one. The story of Jesus has to do with selflessness and transcendence while the tale of Santa Claus carries with it an ironic dogma: Be good and you'll get stuff. Also, believe.
And what strikes me particularly, is that I've come to recognize the innate shallowness of the Santa myth as the prevalent foundation of all institutionalized religion. The story of the baby Jesus being born and the circumstances surrounding the entire legend, are rife with metaphor and a profound sense of the miraculous that we can truly learn from and use to apply to our lives. Yet, Religion asks very little of us: Carry around this book, memorize it's' passages, worship this particular saint, deity, element etc. But whatever you do, don't THINK for yourself because that might be The Devil. This is closer to the Santa story.
Here's part of the end of the Gospel of Thomas:
"111) Jesus said, "The heavens and the earth will be rolled up in your presence. And the one who lives from the living one will not see death." Does not Jesus say, "Whoever finds himself is superior to the world?"
(112) Jesus said, "Woe to the flesh that depends on the soul; woe to the soul that depends on the flesh."
(113) His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?"
-The Gospel According to Thomas
This is indeed a powerful testament to what I think the story of Jesus is about.
I feel like I'm losing my original point. I only want to note that it's kind of weird that we have these two conflicting stories and we don't acknowledge what effect that has on us or why we do it. The quest for meaning got lost somewhere between the candy canes and the manger.
Yeah, I know it's the sentiment that counts.
Well, Merry Christmas anyway.
1 comment:
J
Happy Christmas and Merry New Year to you.
So, although I don't think all that much about Santa, I would say that rather than reverence, it looks like childlike respect and some awe are what is fostered when children are told that Santa knows their behavior, and that he can visit every home in the world in the span of one night. Santa himself used to be thought of as an exemplar of the goodness that later, children were supposed to maintain. Derived from Saint Nick, Santa had been a character of pureness and generosity, but then became used as a gift-wielding yet judging figure to enforce parents' rules of morality, at a time of year when reckoning occurs just before the New Year begins.
It's curious that you say that the shallowness of Santa is the foundatin of all institutionalized religion, because there's Confucianism, Calvanism, and Buddhism, to name a few that are institutionalized, which don't require either a belief that being good results in getting "stuff" or that independent thinking is of an evil ilk. Certainly, the whole Santa thing is shallow, but I wouldn't say it impels religious thought worldwide.
I like what you quoted about Jesus. A lot of people think, don't they, that they know what the person Jesus was really about, but then in mass numbers, so-called Christians uphold and see nothing like what he seems to have. There is little quoted of Jesus that points to the necessity of relying on him for salvation or anything else. But, the quote of the few I have read of his that stays most with me so far is,
"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."
The Jesus STORY derives from older stories of nearly the exact sequence of events and elements. I'm writing about that on my blog today. So to me, his is part of the continuation of humanity's one myth, a myth that is able to accomodate all the paradoxes of the endless submyths. The reasons to tell and pass on, and more importantly, live this myth are part of what it means to learn why we are living as we are in this realm.
I hope you are well, J. Here is a poem from me:
I woke up
in an ancient country
where life is a circle
and I am more than halfway
opening
a bastion of multiverses
you can see
the same ocean
when you are walking home
the dogstar circles me
so maybe it’s the same
time of year
I’m remembering
to forget
to remember the Tuesdays
and the planet-sized thumb
of perfect fever description
and the pim(i)ento “Thank you,”
but the only thing to know
walking under
the slow-wheeling sky
of a winter night
like it might
know my name
and a thousand ways
amaze me
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