Christmas Proclamation 2003
For Josh and Jodi… and Samuel
“Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them. Their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy and tremble too much for that. Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations to men; his labor would be depreciated in the market. He has no time to be anything but a machine. How can he remember well his ignorance—which his growth requires—who has so often to use his knowledge?… The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.”
Henry David Thoreau
It all started with Christmas lists. So many times I’ve been through this particular season. In fact this will be my twenty-fifth time, and don’t get me wrong, I mean who can forget how adorable the snoopy snow cone machine letter to Santa really was. That was a hit! It worked well, too. And I was one happy kid. So please don’t misunderstand my intentions. I mean to proclaim a change in course of my own life, and perhaps to encourage or provoke thought among others along the way. I think, I know, Jesus knew what would happen when he encouraged us to look at the plank in our own eye before moving on to talk about the speck in our neighbor’s. He knew there would never be time to move on to anyone else. Our whole lives, it seems, if spent properly, will consist of removing our own preconceived notions and prejudices not only that have been formed regarding other people, but perhaps even more importantly and more pressing, the misconceptions we have formed about our self. But I digress…
It started with Christmas lists and naturally to Santa himself. I was asked to go to Barnes and Noble and jot down those books that I’d like. No doubt all over this thriving economy countless kids have probably already mailed their lists to the North Pole. That being true, little by little, or possibly in bigger chunks than I realize, Christmas has indeed turned into the aluminum tree, commercial festival that C. Brown was so disgusted by. Oh, there are comforting slogans that we’ve developed; you know, ‘Jesus is the reason for the season.’ It rhymes and everything. That phrase fits nicely on the well lit church signs that have been commissioned to spread the canned gospel of the 21st century. But before I delve too far into satire and sarcasm, I shall get on with my point. This is not intended to be a critique on Santa or canned gospel for that matter. I’ll leave that for other people or perhaps another time. No, what I’m digging for is a reversal of course, or at least some change in direction that will not necessarily take us back to any golden age of Christmas, or of life. My son is not in the past. My relationship that has flourished with my brother and my sister, and my ever evolving family is not found in some glorious good ol’ day. I’m not quite sure what the future will hold either. My good buddy Thoreau talks about toeing the line between the past and the future. The Lord speaks to us about our cares in a similar tone. Why do we worry about clothes and food and shelter and even our being. We profess this great trust in him, we speak of his virtues, of his salvation, of his lordship, and then we spend all of our waking hours attempting to secure our futures and our children’s, children’s future… Apologies again for ranting.
Time. Isn’t it truly what we owe to each other? Jesus summed it up: Love the Father with all you’ve got and secondly like that love your neighbor as yourself. Perhaps it’s a far reach from thinking about lists of gift ideas, but it seems as if as a human people we’re growing separate. There are so many things to distract us from our duty to share our lives with others. Television offers nonstop shadows which we hide behind. The internet allows us to talk for hours without ever having to reveal who we really are. We mask our lack of effort or our fear of exposing our frailties to others. And so I proclaim my intention to begin to chip away at the barriers that I have erected over twenty-six years to protect myself from having to share my self with other selves. And though I do look forward to the Rose Bowl and Duke v. Carolina, and the Super Bowl—I’m not condemning entertainment or solitude for that matter—my neighbor is whom I intend to devote my time. From traveling northeast to experience the overwhelming joy of sharing my son’s first years with his grandmother, the gravity of difficult circumstances that will surely affect our lives as we grow older, the quiet strolls on the golf course with my fifty-four year old best friend and inspiration, the three grandsons in the whale pool in the front yard, and the indescribable smile and laughter of a beautiful new mother and wife, my proclamation is to know my neighbor. To know what his struggles are, what joys she has, what dreams…. And to strive to become one in mind and spirit and love as we move ever closer to the realm of our Lord in Heaven.
D. Thomas
Son of Liberty 