A Godless Christmas

At first glance it would appear that the phrase ‘a Godless Christmas’ is an obvious oxymoron. After all, Christmas is generally considered to be first and foremost the celebration of the birth of Christ, who is regarded variously as either the son of, the manifestation of, coterminous with, etc., etc, God. (The actual details of the familial relationship vary in certain ways depending largely upon the celebrants’ doctrinal inclinations.) However, I would like to point out that it is in fact possible to celebrate the spirit of the season regardless of one’s religiosity or lack thereof.

I hardly think the heathen Teutonic tribes-people were very much aware of the birth of someone in the Middle East when they gathered about a sacred evergreen in the midst of some forested glen, to hang offerings to their unknown deities and sylvan spirits from its boughs in celebration of a magical time.

And undoubtedly the pagan Latins were wholly without regard for any sort of Christian god when they danced and made merry upon the coming of the Saturnalia. They simply celebrated the hope for good fortune, and used the occasion to share with others the sweet things which goodness can bring into human life.

While it is true that I am an avowed atheist this assertion must be understood in the strictest sense. It simply means that I don’t believe in the existence of god. Any god.

It does not, however mean that I have no spiritual dimension to my life. Truly, I believe that existence is full of all manner of strange and unknowable things. The fact that these things are strange and unknowable makes them a wonder to me. I have no need to apply any sort of name to them. I think that’s because I’m satisfied with the wonder per se, and I feel no need to control it with a label. Most people feel a need to control, so they label the unknown in the sadly mistaken belief that by doing so they understand it.

When I was a child I actually believed that the little animated deer Bambi was a real creature. I truly believed that he and his friends lived and communed somewhere deep in the forest. Over time Bambi died, succumbing to the chilly environment of facts and physics which makes up the adult world. I never regarded this as a good thing.

Children should be allowed the time to inhabit a world filled with wonder, a world in which the ordinary is, well, no longer ordinary. Children should have the opportunity to experience magic in the world. Because in this way the world becomes something extraordinary for us as adults, as well.

The other day I watched a movie entitled The Polar Express. I watched it with a great deal of reservation, believing that it would be just another piece of the sort of commercial schlock which inundates us all during this time of year. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it’s an absolutely charming story about the need to believe in the magical in order to bring wonder into one’s life. I ended up thinking that young children would be absolutely enthralled by the story.

The entire holiday season is the opportunity to celebrate the goodness which can be found in life. It is a time to remind oneself and others of how sweet things can be when we live our lives with generosity and compassion toward each other. It is also a time to foster in the minds of the young, and to recapture in our own hearts a sense of the magic and wonder which permeates creation.

And for my part you really don’t need the birth of a divine being to celebrate these things, although it may make for a convenient occasion.

Happy Holidays!