This time of year is about a lot of different things to a lot of different people. What they all have in common is family, tradition, and hope. For me the word "Christmas" has been divorced from it's roots "Christ Mass" and yet isn't quite "Yule", but some blend of recognizing the deep connection we have as a species to each other and the hope, the still ethnocentric, northern hemisphere hope, of the warmth that comes after the coldest and darkest times.
It's a testament to my own deeply ingrained biases that I associate this time of year with snow, darkness, and hope, when literally half the world is in the heat of summer. As someone who has attempted to be "woke" or at least aware, I have to take a moment to acknowledge that the half of the world that is NOT living in the depth of winter is populated by brown skinned people, who are too often left out of everything when it comes to popular views of the planet, from the seasons, to the way maps are printed to accentuate North America and Europe. Event the idea that there is a "right side up" to a map, and that fair skinned people live at the "top" is unbelievably racist.
Yet even in these parts of the world, people are celebrating holidays that have to do with memory and tradition, even if it's colonial.
At times I think about the things that people cherish, both marginalized people and those of more privilege. I don't always understand why marginalized people assimilate some of the things they do, especially things like Christianity, or Fry Bread, or other things that are clearly associated with some sort of oppression. But I like to think, or I like to hope, that building new things out of the crap we're handed in our collective lives is a strength, perhaps even a spiritual act, and something that can give hope and a sense of connection.
In the darkness, we gather light.
I don't believe in Jesus any more than I believe in Santa Claus. But I do believe in this time of year, and joyfully take on the symbols of the season: trees, candles, family gatherings, and hope. Hope is especially important right now, because, whether we admit it or not, we are in a very dark, cold night, and not only here in the northern hemisphere.We are at a tipping point as a species. Scientists say we don't have as long as we thought we did: Environmental collapse, social collapse, pandemic.
But right now, we are all here, alone and together, huddled in temples and homes and around the yule log and candles and Christmas tree lights, all holding on to that hope of a joy yet to come.
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