By Randall E. Smith, Iowa City
Christmas 2023 is upon us.
Christmas. An ancient sacred night, following the longest night of the year, the celestial solstice. Neolithic humankind long ago recognized this time of year as a sacred time. They lived, existed in the dark forests, the mountain ranges, the fiords what is now called Europe and beyond. They hewed out an existence from the the Highlands of Scotland to Stonehenge, from ancient Brittany to beyond the Urals, and across the vast steepes. Those humans, those people looked to the heavens, on the darkest of nights, and felt in their bones the timeless cycle of light and dark, that we in our modernity still celebrate. Yes, we humans are not celebrating the dark as it deepens, but the light that follows.
“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”
―Albert Einstein
In my heart I chose the former. Despite the general malaise, the fear inducing babble being spread by darker souls, that the sky is falling, there is only doom on the horizon, we do live in the best house in the neighborhood. Be that to you the blue dot from Voyager or this nation we call America, we do live in the best house in this neighborhood and there aren’t others quite like it. There isn’t another planet to flee to nor another nation free of the burdens of humanity’s worst inclinations. Here we are, in our imperfect home. My plea to you, to each of us this solstice, this Yuletide is to help make it better for all of us. To give a little love, to spread a little hope, to show a smidgeon more compassion, to do the unexpected kindness, to do good, to truly appreciate all that is.
I heard this Joseph Heller quote recently, and it resonated these days of the Anthropocene, its pervasive and existential dread that lingers just below the conscience, peripherally for many. In your face ethereal angst, as delicate as a morning sea mist, as bone crunching as a car wreck.
Another Christmas approaches.
At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informed his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, “Yes, but I have something he will never have … enough.” Enough.
“Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead,” said Scrooge. “But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!”
So I ask you dear reader, which universe will you choose as we forge ahead in the coming year? It’s ours to choose. Merry Christmas.
