I was walking to the library with my two youngest kids on a brisk evening in December when one of them noticed a bus nearby that said “Happy Holidays” below the route number on the destination indicator. “Why not Merry Christmas?” one kid wanted to know.
I described as many of the holidays I could think of that happen at this time of year, and realized we needed a little education around the topic. So while we were at the library I picked up a couple of books on Hanukkah to get us started.
My first post here was in December, back in 2017. It’s become a habit to come back to this space each Christmas season to reflect on how we’re observing the traditions of this time of year.
Forever ago, I wrote about having a uniform. It’s changed some over the years. One thing has stayed the same: A wool neckwarmer for fall, winter, and spring, so I don’t catch my death of cold.
The site where I buy these merino wool tubes releases new colors from time to time, usually a few a year, and if the colors match with my aesthetic, I’ll treat myself to one (and by treat, I mean buy a two or three in a spasm of stress spending).
Since I’ve been wearing them for so long, I have every color they make that I like. I found one of my favorites on clearance ages ago. It’s since been discontinued. I’ve worn it so much that it’s beginning to develop holes. For a Same Same person like me who for comfort will wear the same thing every day, eat the same thing, do the same thing, listen to the same thing, just to keep my world spinning at the right angle, the idea of one of my favorite articles of clothing falling apart and not having a replacement was … upsetting.
This week was terrible. This past six months have been difficult, but this week before Easter felt like the climax of all that, and not in a good way.
Part of the reason it was bad is because it was bad, and part of it is because instead of letting all the feelings and experiences flow through, I let them take residence in my body.
I’ve been struggling with my association with Christianity for a long time, but like many of us who grew up evangelical, the inflection point was the 2016 election cycle.
When Supreme Court Justices began to be appointed during that presidential term, they included someone credibly accused of sexual assault, and another person shoehorned in just before the next presidential election. That’s the very thing the Republicans had blocked the Democrats from doing prior to the previous election, except in the case of the Republican appointee, the timeline was so much shorter that the hypocrisy was eye watering.
This is all tied intimately to evangelical support of the Republican party, a party which regularly chooses to persecute the most vulnerable in our society. They look to force sexually nonconforming folks back into hiding. They would rather let immigrants die rather than give them safe passage into our country, which has plenty of resources for everyone, if we choose to share them. They oppose feeding food-insecure kids. They say All Lives Matter when their white lives matter more than Black lives in our society, if not in word, then in deed.
I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!
Matthew 25:40
I turned to the other party, only to have the carpet ripped out from under me this year as I’ve seen Uncle Joe become Genocide Joe before my eyes. A professed Catholic, no less.
