Feature ArticleDecember 19, 2001
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Why should you care?by Inie PlateniusMany years ago, on an afternoon in mid December, I was walking down our very rural road with my neighbour, who in his new role as father to toddlers, was bemoaning the commercialization of Christmas. This fellow was a Christian, and devotion to his faith only deepened his sense of sadness and frustration at the onslaught of Barbie doll ads and Santa come-ons. It just makes me so upset, he said, to live in a time where the word present is the first word that people associate with Christmas. I absolutely agree, I nodded, pulling my scarf around my face. Its so hard to keep the commerce out of it. Forgive me, said my friend. (He really did say that.) I dont mean to be at all disrespectful, but why should you care? What he was getting at was that I am not Christian. Given that, why should I give a tiny fig if Christmas is heralded by choirs of angels or sponsored by Canadian Tire? That brought me up short. Why should I care, indeed? We walked a few yards farther through the afternoon dusk toward my house as I pondered his gentle question. Finally, I answered, Because this is a sacred time. And it is a sacred time. Sacred to Christians as the celebration of the birth of their Saviour. Sacred to Jews as the commemoration of a miracle; to the ancient pre-Christian Romans and the earlier Celts to the north, Egyptians to the south, to Zoroastrians, whose faith precedes both Christianity and Islam, and sacred to the original cultures of North America. It is the time to celebrate the awesome return of light to the darkness. Since the middle of June, darkness has slowly swallowed the day, becoming more and more powerful even speeding its pace, so that now in December it seems as if darkness will surely win control, and we will never see the sun again. But then, miraculously, the gathering dark is stayed! The days lengthen. The sun returns. How can this time not be sacred? It marks the awesome triumph of a hope over despair. The power of this time is so strong that we are driven to celebrate it. Whether we light the Menorah to remember the sacred miracle of oil in the temple, or light a Yule log to celebrate the return of the sun, or light a church to celebrate the birth of the Son, we are marking that sacred and awesome triumph of light over dark. Part of celebrating is in sharing our joy with others, and one way to do that is to give them gifts. That act can be as meaningful as prayer or as crass as desecration. When we give a gift in the spirit of joy and celebration, we move toward the light. When we give a gift because its expected by the receiver, by the giver, or by the corporation who tells us we have to give it we stay in the darkness. I wasnt ready, on that afternoon walk with my friend, to say all this about light and dark and giving and coercion. I had figured out only the first part that this is a sacred time. But over the years Ive read and pondered and questioned, till now I think I know something about gift giving and its relation to this season. My friend has moved away, to become a minister in a small town in the west. But every year at this time I think of him and of our walk in the gathering darkness and of the gift he gave to me by asking that question Why should you care?
