The Economy Of Holiday Hope - [8th Dana College Hermes Column]
The day of endless feasting and familial chatter is past. Afternoons of football games and masculine camaraderie are gone. Monstrous spending attacks waged on Wal-Marts and Best Buys have waned to a dull roar. After the dust has settled, we return here, to Dana, sharing one thing in common. Sometime in this break we have been asked ‘What are you thankful for?’ Our relatives ask this around the dinner table. Sermons on Sunday mornings have walked us through the theological implications of thankfulness and repository offerings. We probably witnessed a few people answering this question personally. We are now left to determine publicly or privately, what it is that we are thankful for.
Usually our answers are pretty ordinary and routine. Siblings, parents, and grandparents tell us the same things year after year; how they’re thankful to be an American, thankful for family, job security, their faith, their wife’s cooking, or how they’re thankful for another John Madden-filled afternoon in front of the boob tube. While I can appreciate the genuine gratitude shown for one’s personal relationships found through family, friends, and faith, after a while it usually gets old. I wonder why that is. It’s not that family, friends, and faith are valueless. What sickens me the most is how we Americans forget what we value. After 9/11 everyone bonded together. We held doors for one another and were genuinely concerned about those we stood in line with at the grocery store. It was shocking, to have these displays of concern and affection pour back into our social interactions. Conversely, I think it’s shocking and even disturbing, how we find ourselves not concentrating on what we are thankful for, until late November comes around. It doesn’t make sense to me. Do we not consider our fellow Americans as special until a multitude of senseless deaths occur? Do we not value family, friends, or faith at other times of the year? wtf is going on here, really?
After everything is said and done, our failure to care is ultimately to blame for this inconsistent self-disclosure. In a society driven by self achievement, we consistently fail to care for the other, for each other. We consume, spend, and trade our time, talents, and possessions with little regard for those on the receiving end of our societal transactions. We focus less on the people involved in our lives and more on things that give us immediate and unquestionable fulfillment. I think that’s demeaning. I think we’re saying with our thoughts, words, and our deeds that we do not consider anyone to be special but ourselves. I think that’s more than a little bogus. We all have friends and acquaintances; some bound to us in love; essential to our hearts and intrinsic to our self-identity. But for those who aren’t indispensable assets in our lives, how do we consider them? Are they worthless, without value?
I would argue that there is a value found in all people around us. We are all ‘endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights’, but there exists an unspoken message that we receive simply by being in the midst of one another. Knowing we are not along in our sufferings or our triumphs, we find an assurance that helps us rise to our feet, strive further, and assist those in need. In The Four Loves CS Lewis writes “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” To me, it matters not so much as what I am thankful for, but rather who I am thankful for. The passions, ideals, and beliefs held dear by those who have made positive contributions for others in the past, continue to make them now, and will make them in the future; it is these people and these manifestations of selfless grace that I am truly thankful for. It is their sacrifices that revitalize us, give us hope to carry on; a hope that inspires, and a hope that does not disappoint. So, as we give thanks and prepare for the coming hope of Christmas, let me ask you this. How do your offerings and your friendships fulfill the hopes of others? What are hopes are unfulfilled but yet could be? Open your hearts to each other. See Christ in your neighbor, look beyond their faults and see their need.
Discover something …. small and beautiful,
danallama@gmail.com
Usually our answers are pretty ordinary and routine. Siblings, parents, and grandparents tell us the same things year after year; how they’re thankful to be an American, thankful for family, job security, their faith, their wife’s cooking, or how they’re thankful for another John Madden-filled afternoon in front of the boob tube. While I can appreciate the genuine gratitude shown for one’s personal relationships found through family, friends, and faith, after a while it usually gets old. I wonder why that is. It’s not that family, friends, and faith are valueless. What sickens me the most is how we Americans forget what we value. After 9/11 everyone bonded together. We held doors for one another and were genuinely concerned about those we stood in line with at the grocery store. It was shocking, to have these displays of concern and affection pour back into our social interactions. Conversely, I think it’s shocking and even disturbing, how we find ourselves not concentrating on what we are thankful for, until late November comes around. It doesn’t make sense to me. Do we not consider our fellow Americans as special until a multitude of senseless deaths occur? Do we not value family, friends, or faith at other times of the year? wtf is going on here, really?
After everything is said and done, our failure to care is ultimately to blame for this inconsistent self-disclosure. In a society driven by self achievement, we consistently fail to care for the other, for each other. We consume, spend, and trade our time, talents, and possessions with little regard for those on the receiving end of our societal transactions. We focus less on the people involved in our lives and more on things that give us immediate and unquestionable fulfillment. I think that’s demeaning. I think we’re saying with our thoughts, words, and our deeds that we do not consider anyone to be special but ourselves. I think that’s more than a little bogus. We all have friends and acquaintances; some bound to us in love; essential to our hearts and intrinsic to our self-identity. But for those who aren’t indispensable assets in our lives, how do we consider them? Are they worthless, without value?
I would argue that there is a value found in all people around us. We are all ‘endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights’, but there exists an unspoken message that we receive simply by being in the midst of one another. Knowing we are not along in our sufferings or our triumphs, we find an assurance that helps us rise to our feet, strive further, and assist those in need. In The Four Loves CS Lewis writes “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” To me, it matters not so much as what I am thankful for, but rather who I am thankful for. The passions, ideals, and beliefs held dear by those who have made positive contributions for others in the past, continue to make them now, and will make them in the future; it is these people and these manifestations of selfless grace that I am truly thankful for. It is their sacrifices that revitalize us, give us hope to carry on; a hope that inspires, and a hope that does not disappoint. So, as we give thanks and prepare for the coming hope of Christmas, let me ask you this. How do your offerings and your friendships fulfill the hopes of others? What are hopes are unfulfilled but yet could be? Open your hearts to each other. See Christ in your neighbor, look beyond their faults and see their need.
Discover something …. small and beautiful,
danallama@gmail.com