What Could Get Me Fired

Well, a week ago this very night, I was participating in a new event at work. It was a Tree Lighting Ceremony and a Live Nativity. The department of which I am apart, Campus Services, took the lead on making this event happen. I was volunteered to read scripture and give a short devotional. The reading of the Christmas Story from Luke 2 would coincide with the different characters arriving at the stable.

For the inaugural launch of this event, things went very well. I thought that there were a few things that could have been done better, but, then again, when something like this is going to be broadcast to every resident and staff person, I want to do a great job. So I set to the task of writing a devotional. I am really not huge on traditional messages, and would like to think that what I wrote for last Thursday, had impact on how people viewed and will view Christmas. Then again, maybe people will think I am full of shit. Either way, the brief devotional was pretty good and people commented to me how they liked it and how they thought I did a good job. Honestly, I know I did a great job. Was it a great message, prolly not.

But in many regards, it allowed me to keep my job. It went thru two drafts. The first, purely a stomach churning piece of work, even though it should not be considered work. And the last, a completely different thought. I’ll post the version that was used that night. But I am going to tag in what I had originally wrote. It is rough and not complete by any means. I had to stop writing it, because I felt that it ended up not going anywhere. It is also full of spite and bile. Completely unedited, not even spellchecked. So…without further ado:

Come as a Child or not at all

What you’ve seen here tonight is what many people deem as a classic show and telling of the Christmas story. It is often very much a rote thing in the Judeo-Christian tradition. How many time hve we seen a live nativity? How many time have we participated in a live nativity. How many time have we been to church and seen the annual Christmas program, and been told “jesus is the reason for the season”. How many of us have that cristmas card already tacked to our door or on the curio cabinet at home. This is nothing new at all to us. We have been doing this too long, too many years. We have become jaded in our view of Christmas. We often complain about how commercial it becomes. We see the advertisements in the Sunday paper start hawking holiday wares sooner and sooner. It used to be that you could flip on one of you independent tv stations and watch Frank Capra’s “It’s A Wonderful Life” just about every weekend starting in the middle of November (it only on once a year now that General Electric/NBC bought it). I suppose that we’ll just have to make due with White Christmas or Miracle on 34th Street.
Many people lve Christmas music. It helps them get in the mood for Christmas. So some radio stations change their formats temporarily to all Christmas music all the time. The traditional time for that has been Thanksgiving day or Black Friday till the day after Christmas or new year’s day. Now program directors are getting the bright idea to start playing holiday music as early as Halloween to get a bigger piece of that market share. I don’t think that it is any more commercial than it has been in years previous, I believe that advertisers are just more brazen about getting your money. And that leaves us jaded and depressed. Many people claim that the holidays get them down, that they feel a bit blue. Why is that? It cannot be just because of the commercialism of Christmas. Or the stress of being involved in yet another church contada/ live nativity/living crhistmas tree/food drive/soup kitchen/coats for kids/toys for tots/ring the bell for salvation army outreach type thing. What is it that gets us jaded and depressed? Poor family relations? No family relations?



And that is where it stopped. It turned into quite the rant. Not that I still don’t think those things, but it is really not the thing you want to utter in front of residents and your boss. So I wrote something else.

Thanks to the Skinny and HH for the birthday props. And to Mr. Lagoy who has been under the weather in the Rocky Mountains, I hope you feel better soon.

NP: Bruce Cockburn: You Pay Your Money and You Take Your Chances – Birmingham Shadows

- posted by TundraBoy @ 7:08 PM