Christmas, a National Priority

Christmas, I just don’t get it anymore.  When I was young, presents, family and food were the cause for excitement.  Now, years later and many a Christmas past, frequently uneventful and disappointing, I am asking, “What is really the point?”  We, collectively as society, celebrate by buying, buying, buying with little thought for the hungry, the homeless, the needy, the broken-hearted.  We go about our day, some surrounded by family, some by friends and still some alone, thinking only once, perhaps, if at all, of those going without this year.  Is Christmastime an opportunity to apply what we think we’ve learned from the hardest economic event in 80 years, or will it be another 80 Christmases that go by, overlooking the most important lesson of life: to care for our neighbor?  To think of others, to re-prioritize and give to those who go through their days without, strikes me as the most necessary acknowledgment of the season.

Yesterday I strolled through Target, through the outdoor mall, past the indoor mall and was not so much surprised as I was saddened by the level of consumerism that survives in spite of the severity of the times.  I wonder what is being paid for with cash and what is being bought with credit.  I wonder if the reality of our actions is being suspended because of our tendency towards repeating the inevitable mistakes of late, destined to end up in the same boat year after year.  When will humility trump “gotta have” and grace replace greed?  When will we stop paying the suggested retail price that is nothing more than a 200-400+% mark-up to keep the rich getting richer and the debt-ed staying debt-ed?  What is image if it lacks substance?  How rich is a life if he who occupies it learns from life but chooses not to apply those lessons to his circumstances?  One year from now, five years from now, ten, twenty, fifty or a hundred years from now will consumerism look similar to what we know it as today or will consumerism evolve into generosity and awareness of others, creating a true sense of community?