At least for this generation onward, the advent of Decembers and Christmases will always be like no other. We all celebrate Christmas differently, whether it’s from year to year or decades apart. Sometimes our Christmases and Decembers become indelibly marked by either an empty seat at our Christmas table or a missing voice during our carols. However, as Neil Young would say, “Don’t let it bring you down.”
In fond remembrance of those whom I love who have gone ahead, I am trying not to let the dark side take me this Christmas. Nevertheless, dark clouds always have their way of coming back. As a boomer of the fifties, our childhood memories of Christmas pale in comparison to the 2020 pandemic version. The only other comparable measure I could think of is the generation of the so-called ‘silent ones’, my dad’s, who experienced fearful years of World War Two.
Sometime after his passing, a contemporary of his likened the Christmastime of the Covid years to those of their fearful years of World War Two. They were but children then, and imagining what those times were like through their eyes, I thought it was so unfair for the innocents to witness the season that way. Then, the two dark periods of war and Covid merged and morphed into one with our present-day, conjuring haunting images of Gazan children and their piercing blank stares.
As if that were not enough, now all three synced together with Simon & Garfunkel’s “Silent Night”, providing a most disturbing soundtrack that played like a vengeful spirit in the background. Giving up, I am suddenly surprised and still, though uneasy but contented. I have a feeling my loved ones would have wanted it this way. I initially intended to put all the sad times behind me, but it’s just not so.
Like gifts, the universe tells me to wrap it all up – the past, the near past, and the present. The good times slide smoothly with their unpleasant counterparts. Like the rest of all our memories, we flow as one with this river, and Decembers and Christmases or not, we have no choice in its goings.
