Survival Surveyed

How often do we Ol' Timers yearn for the good ol' days when life was much less complex? My memory goes back some 80 years when I first celebrated Christmas. Even so, I don't remember it. My mother had passed away (cancer), and my dad's sister came to help out in mom's absence (she came for a couple of weeks and stayed for four years). What a heroine she was!
 
Now Christmas is just around the corner. And what a colorful celebration it is: worldwide and local. Schools are closed, decorations abound, travel is up and smiles dominate. Mommies are kissin' Santa Claus and reindeer are soaring high. St. Nick and the Baby Jesus are not particularly related and even Santa Lucia found her way from Italy to Scandinavia. Wise men are still searching for the promised Messiah while others less wise tend to exploit the occasion in subtle and not so subtle ways.

It is fascinating if not confusing how Christmas has survived with all the holiday extravaganza added to and subtracted from its original setting: a long journey from ancient Nazareth to an unknown village in order to enhance the revenue of an absentee landlord. Finding no vacancies in the overcrowded Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph settled for a stable where the baby Jesus was born. He was bundled in a warm blanket and placed tenderly in a manger.

Shepherds tending their flocks that night heard music overhead and some went looking for an explanation. Far away, some of a king's men interested in astronomy followed a star which led to the little known village where they paid their respects and returned home avoiding the local king who professed a misguided curiosity about a potential rival. To escape the wrath of this scheming tyrant, Mary and Joseph fled to neighboring Egypt with their newborn son.

Today, some hold this story in high esteem; others do not. Some make an effort to recreate the birth as realistically as possible while others embellish it, at times with a flourish. As the wise men offered kingly gifts, we too give gifts. We decorate our homes, put welcoming evergreens to hover over glittering parcels while we feast and sing as we celebrate the arrival of an ancient infant born for a reason yet at times obscured by our grandeur.

Christmas, a timeless festival not to be mourned but celebrated. And we do, don't we?