CHRISTMAS—-A TIME OF ESSENTIAL INNOCENCE

By Edwin Cooney

It’s true. There’s no use denying it. I’m a sucker for Christmas. I always have been and expect that I always will be.

It isn’t that I have any better handle on how to attain “peace on earth and goodwill toward men” than those who would assume a position of world leadership—Barack Obama included. It’s just that there’s something to be said, at least in my view, for innocence.

It started when I was very young, of course. I remember lying in bed one night in early December of 1953. I was an eight-year-old student at the New York State School for the Blind in Batavia, New York. From the room on the floor below mine came the sound of pipe organ music playing Christmas carols. There was “Joy to the World”, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” – which, along with “From the Eastern Mountains (a State School standard carol) and “O Holy Night”, are my five favorite Christmas carols.

“It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” has a special significance. Somehow, I saw myself on that night long ago with the Shepherds in the field at midnight seeing the star overhead, beckoning all of us towards Bethlehem. My eight-year-old mind imagined the shepherds and me beginning our journey to see the baby Jesus for ourselves, with generous supplies of tasty Christmas cookies, fruit juice, and hot chocolate. Exactly what happened when we got there or what life was like upon our return was, and still is, beyond my comprehension—but anticipation of a long exciting hike through forests under history’s brightest star brought forth in me fifty-five years ago a sense of euphoria, the power of which lingers with me today. That glorious energizing song linked, for me, an occasion of two thousand years ago, with my childlike anticipation of a happy adventure.

Christmas as a concept of a fresh start in life is, to say the very least, invigorating. The very idea that a Being exists who translates to us as “almighty God,” who is strong enough and will at some point in all of our futures begin maintaining us forever in spiritual safety and security, is invariably reassuring in the wake of earthly pain and uncertainty.

Then, of course, there is that other side of Christmas, the Christmas of sharing and receiving all of the material things one can perceive. In that world, cookies, juice, hot chocolate, eggnog, fruit cake and brandy are the realities that can launch us into flights of fantasy we thought we left behind as children. Inevitably, Jesus and Santa Claus meet and merge into one incredible entity or being. Ultimately, both are so extraordinary that they are compellingly real.

Like everyone else, I’ve experienced Christmases that were real bummers. Nineteen eighty-seven, the year my marriage broke up, was a definite downer and I can remember a couple of Christmases as a teen when I was somewhere at “Yuletide” where I didn’t want to be. It’s also true that Christmases are a bit of a struggle without a love partner with which to share them, but overall I still see Christmas as a time of nurturing.

Many, of course, complain about the “over commercialization” of Christmas, but it seems to me that such criticism is poorly placed. Why blame Christmas rather than advertisers for “over commercializing” Christmas. I never let George Steinbrenner ruin the Yankees for me and I never let a national administration of an opposing party (regardless of policy) ruin America for me. My love for my country, the Yankees, and my two sons isn’t predicated on perfection. So, why should I let a bunch of greedy advertisers destroy Christmas? Were I to do that, I’d be giving them far more power than they’ve ever deserved.

Let’s see now:

Every Valentine’s Day we celebrate romance, every Easter we celebrate rebirth, every Memorial Day we celebrate victory over slavery, every Fourth of July we celebrate independence and liberty, every Labor Day we celebrate working and workers, every Halloween we celebrate adventure through ghoulish fantasy (note: have you ever heard anyone complain about the over commercialization of Halloween?), every November 11th we celebrate our veterans and our freedom, every Thanksgiving we celebrate gratitude itself and every Christmas we celebrate Christ’s greatest gifts—loving, sharing and innocent joy. We celebrate these things because through our own commitment and dedication to the joy and satisfaction of these concepts and achievements, we live in a nurturing society.

Part of celebrating Christmas, or a similar holiday of another faith, is, after all, a celebration of our capacity to believe the incomprehensible. In order to believe the incomprehensible we must be free of regimentation and innocent enough to leap doctrinaire and even spiritual boundaries.

Dear Santa, if Christmas is for the innocent, an annual ticket to a place of innocence is precisely what I want sticking out of the top of my Christmas stocking!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY